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Hero of Beecher Island: The Life and Military Career of George A. Forsyth

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Although George A. Forsyth participated in 88 engagements as a soldier in the Civil War and later was in many fights with the Indians on the Plains, it was for one encounter with the Cheyenne and Sioux that he is remembered: the Battle of Beecher Island, where he and a small force held off 750 besieging Indians on a small island in the Arickaree Fork of the Republican River in present-day Colorado for six days before help arrived. David Dixon relates this famous battle in full detail, but he also tells us the rest of Forsyth's life, which is pretty full and interesting.

Forsyth was born in 1837 in Pennsylvania and entered the army in the spring of 1861. He rose in rank from private to brigadier general in various cavalry units in the Civil War before being made chief of staff for Gen. Philip Sheridan.

After the war Forsyth was put in charge of an operation against the Cheyenne. It was in September 1868 that he had his famous fight on Beecher Island (named after Lt. Frederick Beecher who was killed there by the Indians). Forsyth was wounded three times. One strategic outcome of the action on Beecher Island was that Sheridan from this time on would utilize only large-scale campaigns against the Indians (Forsyth had been in charge of a small ranger-like force).

Once again on Sheridan's staff, Forsyth was on the 1874 Custer expedition to the Black Hills, during which he kept a diary that was later published. In 1875-76 he was sent by Washington on an inspection tour of various armies in Europe and Asia. In the 1880s he was in the southwest campaigning against the Apaches and commanded Ft. Huachuca, AZ. It was here that Forsyth was court-martialed on money mismanagement charges, found guilty, and formally reprimanded. In 1890 he retired from the army. He authored two books which were published in 1900 and died in Rockport, MA, in 1915.

Dixon is an excellent writer, scholarly but not dry and overly academic. He is obviously impressed with Forsyth's accomplishments, but not to the point of hero-worship. He relates his subject's story in detail, but keeps it interesting. The chapter on the Beecher Island fight unfolds dramatically in Dixon's hands. Those who are interested in army life in the Old West will find much to like about his biography of the "hero of Beecher Island."

The "hero" in the title of David Dixon's Hero of Beecher Island is George A. Forsyth, an Army officer and Renaissance man who, Zelig-like, seemed to be involved with every matter of import in turn of the century America. Friend of Custer and Bill Cody, enabler of railroad expansion, renowned Indian fighter, shaper of US Army Policy, explorer of Yellowstone, world traveler, enforcer of Reconstruction, and popular author, Dixon paints a picture of a Da Vinci with a Sharps rifle.
There is much information contained within the book about the changing face of the US Army in which Forsyth served and later commanded. Dixon carefully details Forsyth's military experience. We begin to get a sense of what changes were going on in the Army during Forsyth's life. The evolution of the calvary under Forsyth's mentor Phil Sheridan is documented in chapter three "You Have Got A Bully Fight on Hand" (52). Dixon continues delving into this military biographia in chapter four, "I'll Shoot Down Any Man" (61). Although this chapter is mostly about the tense struggle of Beecher Island, the centerpiece of the book, it's what leads Forsyth to Beecher Island that stands as most interesting. Dixon brings out the idea that the railroad and the military were hand in glove in the old West, providing a late twentieth century reader to reflect on similarities between this paradigm of the Old West and the military-industrial complex of the Cold War era. Dixon infers a similar parallel at the beginning of chapter six, "The Armies of Asia and Europe" with the quote that the U.S. Army was, ". . . comparatively unknown, least appreciated, persistently misunderstood, and, for political effect, frequently misrepresented and occasionally even recklessly maligned in our national legislative hall" (122). The parallels to today's military are unmistakable.
In "I'll Shoot Down Any Man," Dixon relates the battle of Beecher Island well, describing Forstyth as an incredibly brave, capable, and stoic commander; the glue that kept his Army irregulars together under withering Indian attack. It's a story as old as the Greeks, but Dixon handles its retelling with a light touch, drawing the reader into the tension filled atmosphere.
Related in chapter eight,"To the Scandal of the Service" (168), Forsyth's fall from grace, brought about by shady business deals, is jarring. Forsyth's character needed to be more fully rounded out before the introduction of his court martial. Up to this chapter, there had been no mention of possible improperties. Indeed, Forsyth had seemed squeaky clean, a devoted father, husband and officer. Worse, there's no discussion of how prevalent economic speculation was in the time period. Questions arise. Was it primarily a military crime? Was it a civilian problem as well? How was it seen in the "elite social classes"(169) that Army officers traveled in as second-class citizens? Dixon attempts to make the claim that Forsyth's head wound, sustained in the Beecher Island battle, had caused an insanity that made him mismanage his money. It seems odd, however, that the only way that this "madness" manifested itself was through bad business sense. Although Dixon writes, ". . . there is little doubt that Forsyth was. . . seriously afflicted with some mental disorder. . ." (186), from the evidence presented, the only mental disorder applicable seems to be greed and poor business sense.
Readers of Beecher Island are expected to have a good knowledge of turn of the century world history before picking up the book. Educated readers will be rewarded. Dixon tells a lucid story that is gripping at points and presented in a traditionally tragic style. Forsyth is portrayed as a great hero whose hubris eventually brings him low. However, a non-historian audience is bound to have problems. The book lacks contextualization of what was going on elsewhere in the world while Forsyth was shaping American culture. There's no sense of connectedness outside the biography, no asides that explain how Forsyth's opinion of the calvary compare to that of the calvary's place in the First World War. There's no sense of contradiction that a man helping to work for racial equality for Blacks in Reconstruction-era Louisiana could also help devise the Army's genocidal Indian policy. Dixon tosses around phrases like "The Burnt-Over District" (99) without defining them for the casual reader. He also has a tendency to not completely explain issues. In the chapter entitled, "The Armies of Asia and Europe," he mentions that Forsyth said that the Japanese army was 20 years ahead of anything in America but fails to explain why Forsyth thought so. (128) And finally, there's not enough convincing evidence to allow madness to explain the shoddy business speculation that brings Forsyth to end his life in shame. True, the book is a biography not a sociological study, but a man who was such a turn stone in such a far-reaching, influential part of American culture like the Old West, needs to be explored further for the non-professional historian.
Dixon accomplishes what he sets out to do in the title: explicating the life and military career of an important man. Perhaps with a different title, signifying a different focus, the book would have appealed to a wider audience. All of Forsyth's exploits are summed up in the words of an unidentified member of Forsyth's Yellowstone expedition. After Forsyth foolhardily attempted to ford a raging river and had to be pulled from it, someone said, "The colonel must have had a charmed life" (140). It is this charmed life, mated with Dixon's attention to detail and capable writing that could produce a Forsyth book that would appeal to both historian and casual reader alike.