14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another Excellent Work From Historian Greene, September 7, 2003
This review is from: Morning Star Dawn: The Powder River Expedition and the Northern Cheyennes, 1876 (Campaigns and Commanders Series, Volume 2) (Hardcover)
Over the years, National Park Service Historian Jerome Greene has produced a growing collection of fine books covering various battles of the Great Sioux War--SLIM BUTTTES, YELLOWSTONE COMMAND (Miles' Montana campaign, including the Wolf Mountain and Lame Deer battles), and two books of participants testimony on various battles and skirmishes in the war.
MORNING STAR DAWN picks up where SLIM BUTTES, done in the early 1980s, leaves off. It follows the planning, logisitical preparation, execution and conclusion of the November 1876 Power River Expedition, under the command of General George Crook. The high point of the expedition was reached with the attack on the Red Fork of the Powder River, deep in the Big Horn mountains, when varioius cavalry components under the Fourth Cavalry's Ranald Mackenzie decimated a large Northern Cheyenne village. The battle happened exactly five months after Custer's defeat on the Little Big Horn and resulted in the utter destruction of the village. The Cheyenne were forced to flee the village, losing vital horses,clothing, weapons, and food, leaving the survivors little choice but to perish in the cruel winter cold or give themselves up at the agencies. The battle knocked the Cheyenne out of the remainder of the Sioux War and thus the army could focus its efforts exclusively on the Lakota under Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and other leaders.
The book is certainly well-written although not quite as good as the author's previous work, his classic NEZ PERCE SUMMER, 1877. Amidst all the details on the campaign, Greene provides a good retelling of the plight of all combatants, both White and Indian, faced with the burden of war in sub-zero Winter temparatures. The logistical problems of the campaign were greatly exacerbated by the weather, making it difficult to feed horses and mules with the requisite 35,000 pounds of grain a day in such a remote area. Facts such as these make one appreciate the importance of logistics in all wars. In terms of insight into Crook himself, I especially enjoyed the author's including the extracts from the writings of Colonel Richard Dodge and Dodge's low opinion of the close-mouthed Crook as both an organizer and leader of men. Despite Crook's foibles, his tenacity somehow got the job done, that and his having the highly-able Ranald Mackenzie carry out his attack.
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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An important contribution, May 7, 2004
By A Customer
This review is from: Morning Star Dawn: The Powder River Expedition and the Northern Cheyennes, 1876 (Campaigns and Commanders Series, Volume 2) (Hardcover)
Some historians plug gaps in existing scholarship; others built entire levees. Jerome Greene often does both and this book is an example. The Powder River Expedition, though a result of the failure of the Little Bighorn Campaign and often overshadowed by that famous disaster, was an important step in the military defeat and enforcement of the reservation system upon the free Indian nations of the Plains. Until Greene's book, the published resources on Powder River were limited to a chapter in J. W. Vaughan's 1966 _Indian Fights_, a small self-published book Fred Werner, and the fine but limited remarks in Wayne Kime's edition of Col. Richard Dodge's expedition journal. Greene's study does not read quite as well as his _Nez Perce Summer_ and _Yellowstone Command_ books but the book is authoritarive and if the Plains Indian wars are your interest you'll certainly want this book. Dr. Michael A. Hughes, Editor Emeritus, Journal of the Indian Wars
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