Called "a highly readable memoir" by a major western historian and cited by historians for over a century. When General Henry B. Carrington was sent west to build and staff Fort Phil Kearney, his wife Margaret and their sons were along. Under the command of Civil War hero, General William T. Sherman, Margaret followed Sherman's encouragement to wives to document their experiences of territory and Native American life. During their journey and their stay in Indian territory, Margaret writes of events big and small, including the Fetterman Massacre. Her husband was nearly brought up on charges but Sherman intervened and called for an investigation, which cleared Carrington. These accounts by officer's wives, while taking a point of view that today we understand as outdated, nevertheless contribute a valuable resource to the history of westward expansion and pioneer women of the United States. For the first time, this long out-of-print volume is available as an affordable, well-formatted book for e-readers and smartphones. Be sure to LOOK INSIDE by clicking the cover above or download a sample. This edition is annotated with updated information.

On July 17, 1866, two soldiers and six wagoners were killed by Sioux Indians. In the next two weeks, fourteen more men died in Sioux attacks. The attacks continued through the summer and fall. On December 21, disaster struck. Recklessly pursuing Indians across a wooded ridge, Brevet Lieutenant Colonel William Fetterman and his company fell into an ambush. It was the worst military blunder of the Indian Wars before the Battle of the Little Big Horn ten years later. Margaret Irvin Carrington, like many officers’ wives, kept a journal of her stay in the outposts of the West. She recorded her impressions of the scenery and the inhabitants of Absaraka, in present-day Wyoming, Montana, and the western Dakotas. As the wife of the commander of Fort Phil Kearny, Colonel Henry B. Carrington, she experienced the sequence of events and the heightening of tensions that led to that bloody December day. She could not have known that her journal would come to such a shocking climax, with her husband's career at stake.