Jerry Keenan

From the Indian Wars reading list. A nicely done little book by an amateur historian. After the Fetterman Massacre (see The Fetterman Massacre), Fort Phil Kearny was reinforced, but the troops there spent a nervous, cold and hungry winter (now under Colonel Henry Wessels). No further major native attacks took place; however, with spring a wagon train made it to the fort, carrying food, other supplies, and 700 brand-new .50-70 Springfield-Allen breech loaders, plus 100000 rounds of ammunition. The troops went back to their routine, drills and KP and patrols and cutting hay and timber. Author Jerry Keegan explains the timber cutting procedure; a train of regulation Army wagons went out to the forested area, accompanied by an infantry detachment and civilian loggers. At a convenient spot, the boxes were lifted off the wagon leaving the running gear behind; the mule teams took the boxless wagons to the timber area where they were stacked with logs. The temporarily superfluous boxes were arranged in a rough circle to act as a corral for excess stock. The log wagons made repeated trips to and from the fort (about five miles each way) until an adequate timber supply accumulated; then the wagon boxes were replaced and the whole train returned (Author Keegan doesn’t say why they didn’t just leave the wagon boxes at the fort in the first place, but I assume the wagons hauled tents, food, etc. to the campsites and offloaded it before the boxes were removed). Some later discussions claimed the wagon boxes were specially prepared as a “portable fort”, with boiler iron linings and rifle loopholes, but all the actual participants denied this; the wagon boxes were never intended as fortifications and only haphazardly pressed into use as a convenient corral.

At any rate, that was the situation on the morning of August 2, 1867, when the Sioux showed up. Estimates of their number vary considerably, as the soldiers tended to overestimate; however it was clear that there were enough to provoke shock and awe. Several of the soldiers reported preparing their rifles for one final shot, by making a loop of cord that went over the trigger; step on the other end, put the barrel under your chin, and pull. This turned out to be unnecessary; the Sioux knew about breechloaders (some of them had picked up Spencer carbines from the Fetterman fight) but their tactics weren’t suited for an assault on any sort of prepared position, even an impromptu oval of wagon boxes. After several hours of fighting, a relief column from the fort showed up with a mountain howitzer, and the 29 survivors (out of the original two officers, 24 enlisted men, and six civilians) cheered. All were given a shot of whiskey on the orders of the post surgeon.

The after action reports noted that even with the breechloaders, if the Sioux had made an organized assault they could have easily carried the position, but instead individual warriors would charge up and get shot. None got close enough to engage in hand-to-hand combat; the three soldiers killed in the fight were all shot from a distance. The Wagon Box Fight (the Sioux called it the Hundred Hands Fight) was as much of an improvement to Army morale as the Fetterman Massacre was a blow to it.

The account of the fight is only about a third of the book; the remainder is devoted to historical and archaeological investigation. The State of Wyoming eventually put up a monument, but some of the survivors insisted it was in the wrong place; this had some local significance because while the official site was in Sheridan County, the alternate site was a few hundred feet to the south but across the county line in Johnson County. Keenan concludes that the official site is the correct one, based on participants descriptions (the crucial item is that the official site has good visibility in all directions while the alternate site is lower and does not). An archaeological investigation in the 1990s confirms this interpretation; metal detectors found numerous .50-70 cartridge cases and cartridges around the official site. The archaeologists went so far as to record the orientation of found bullets and arrowheads, to determine the direction of firing; a map is included but it’s not all that conclusive. The archaeological report also notes that forensic techniques – unique firing pin and ejector marks on cartridge cases – should make it possible to trace the movement of an individual rifle during the battle but don’t follow up on this.

A quick and pleasant read, given the subject matter. Adequate maps of the battle and excellent maps of the archaeological investigation; extensive references, down to microfilm copies of post orders from the National Archives.… (plus d'informations)

Jerry Keenan's book title, "The Terrible Indian Wars of the West" is a terrible title. It would lead one to believe that the author will be less than even-handed in dealing with the Indian wars between 1846 and 1890, rhapsodizing about Rousseau's "Noble Savage" being dealt with brutally by the rapacious white settlers. But Keenan gives licks where licks are due, regardless of skin color. The Indians perpetrated, and Keenan chronicles, atrocities against settlers and other native tribes which are hard to imagine except in reference to present day Islamic terrorism. But the white settlers, the government and the U.S. military attempted to conquer with equally horrendous outcomes, many killing men, women and children with extermination the goal. But that is history and Keenan gives us a lot of it.

That is why I took the time and energy to plow through Keenan's book. Under one cover one has, or at least with a bit of work, can find, reference to almost every encounter between Indians and settlers/military that took place west of the Mississippi in the referenced time span. But, oh! If only he or his publisher had found an editor! A proof reader! A retired English teacher with time on her/his hands! This has to be the worst edited book I have ever read. I took time to note the poor sentence structure, the redundancies, the elaborate misuse of the comma, the semi-colon, even the dash. And I found that there is not a single page that does not have at least one gross error that should have been corrected, and most pages had multiple such intrusions on good reading. This could be a very effective reference work if it were to be reissued after an exhaustive rewrite.

As with most western history writers, Mr. Keenan has a blind spot in his view of the western movement, and that blind spot is Mormonism. He refers twice to Mormons as "thugs". He deals with the Mountain Meadows Massacre as though he were writing in the year 1916, instead of 2016, when there are recent, significant and scholarly books published on the matter. On a couple of occasions he blithely blames Mormons for instigating Indian uprisings far from Church influence, which influence, at the time, was to be found only in the Mormon Corridor that stretches from central Arizona through Utah and eastern Idaho into southern Alberta, Canada. It is a shame that so many western historians choose either not to deal with the tremendous impact Mormon settlement had on settling the mountain west (James Michener comes to mind) or deal with it using outdated stereotypes, personal bias or just plain ignorance, as was Mr. Keenan's tendency. Mormon interactions with the natives of Arizona, Utah and Idaho is a subject that needs to be explored in a scholarly and unbiased manner, warts and all.

The organization of the book is problematic, based as it is on regional histories (California/Nevada, the Central Plains, the Desert Southwest, etc.). Individuals, events and timelines overlap and it often proves difficult to keep things straight. But that may be the only way to deal with the broad time frame and huge expanse of country that are the subject of this book. Perhaps it could have been handled better with better editing. And a glaring shortcoming: this narrative cries out for maps, maps, maps! And yet there is just one woefully inadequate map in the front of the book that is meant to carry the load. And it does not.

I see potential in this book that was not, but could be, realized.… (plus d'informations)

I received this book "The terrible Indian Wars of the West" written by Jerry Keenan through the Early Reviewers group.. I enjoyed the book and am appreciative of authors who have spent a great deal of time time in research for a book. After reading the book I feel that Mr. Keenan has spent a good deal of time in research for this book. There is a lot of detail brought forward in this writing. With that said he covers a 44 year period of American history that not only dealt with the Indian Wars but also the Civil War.
With this in mind he covered his subject in approximately 450 pages and I feel he did a very good job. I was pleased with his writing and the book. I always praise an author who by writing his book causes me to ask more questions and read more about a particular subject. The Terrible Indian Wars of the West is just such a book. I would recommend this book to others who are interested in this Historical time period.… (plus d'informations)