Gregory J.W. Urwin narrates the history of American infantrymen from their colonial origins through the War of 1812, the Mexican War, Civil War, the Indian Wars, the Spanish-American War, and finally to their painful coming of age in 1918, as a world-class combat force on the fields of France in World War I.

Description of the development and evolution of Army uniforms, equipment, and small arms during a pivotal decade of experimentation and against the backdrop of a highly influential military operation - the Indian campaigns in the West.

VOLUME 1: American Military Shoulder Arms, Volume I: Colonial and Revolutionary War Arms focuses on the arms used from the early exploratory period throughout the colonial period and the American Revolution. Arranged chronologically, it contains definitive descriptions of the pre-flintlock and flintlock shoulder arms used in North America and detailed accounts of the development and progression of military regulation shoulder arms of the major colonial powers from the early eighteenth century through the Revolutionary War.

The 1864 Sand Creek Massacre is one of the most disturbing and controversial events in American history. While its historical significance is undisputed, the exact location of the massacre has been less clear. Because the site is sacred ground for Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians, the question of its location is more than academic; it is intensely personal and spiritual. In 1998 the National Park Service, under congressional direction, began a research program to verify the location of the Sand Creek site. The team consisted of tribal members, Park Service staff and volunteers, and local landowners. In Finding Sand Creek, the project’s leading historian, Jerome A. Greene, and its leading archeologist, Douglas D. Scott, tell the story of how this dedicated group of people used a variety of methods to pinpoint the site. Drawing on oral histories, written records, and archeological fieldwork, Greene and Scott present a wealth of evidence to verify their conclusions. Greene and Scott’s team study led to legislation in the year 2000 that established the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site.