Customer Reviews

The Wagon Box Fight: An Episode of Red Cloud's War

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Keenan does an outstanding job of defining this epic fight during the Indian Wars. His ability to blend the story factually with accounts from participants and archology makes for fascinating reading and will be a book one keeps for further reference. One should have this book in hand when he/she visits the sight/monument.

While only a brief moment in the half century of Indian Wars--it proved the value of breech loading rifles to the US Army as a means to counter being outnumbered during battle. The same senario worked at Beecher Island and didn't work on the Little Big Horn when the Army's Indian opponents had acquired a higher ratio of repeating arms than in the past.

Highly recommended book!!!!

Now in a newly revised edition (copyright 2000) incorporating additional details discovered about the titular fight, Jerry Keenan's The Wagon Box Fight: An Episode Of Red Cloud's War is a complex historical analysis of a singularly crucial wartime battle. With black and white photographs, diagrams, exhaustive notes, a bibliography of primary sources and an index, The Wagon Box Fight spares no resource in its in-depth analysis. Very highly recommended for historical recreationists, 19th century military buffs, Native American studies, western historians, or anyone with a keen interest in the juncture of American history that formed the background for "Red Cloud's War".

Don't let the mildly comicbook cover, and the small size of this book fool you, this is a very well written, well detailed account of the Wagon Box fight and also touches enough on the Fetterman fight to relate it to the WBF of a year later. This book is a real eye opener, as to what a tiny bit of technology can do to turn the tide in full blown warfare, live and die situation! I highly recommend this book,I only wish I had the same content in a hardback copy of quality binding...the content is worth every penny of the cost. History in the pages!!