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.

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 These accounts by officer's wives, while taking a point of view that today we understand as outdated, nevertheless contribute a valuable resource to the history of westward expansion and pioneer women of the United States.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.

AB-SA-RA-KA is Margaret Carrington's first-person account of westward expansion alongside her husband, Col. Henry B. Carrington. In 1866 Col. Carrington was ordered to build and defend forts along the Bozeman Trail. Margaret's detailed journals give us an eyewitness description of the fateful incidents that finally erupted in the Fetterman Massacre of 1866. The Black Hills gold rush combined with military infighting and arrogance served as the spark that set off the explosive and bloody defense of their lands by the Indian tribes. This edition of AB-SA-RA-KA is revised and expanded. It includes maps and drawings and has an Introduction by Col. Henry B. Carrington, written after his wife's death.

Fort William Henry and Fort Phil Kearny were both military outposts of the North American frontier. Both lasted but briefly--about two years from construction until their walls went up in flames. And both saw what were termed "massacres" by Indians outside their walls. This book reexamines the traumatic events at both forts. The Fort William Henry Massacre was condemned by both the British and the French as barbaric. Yet these European powers proved capable of similar crimes. The Fort Phil Kearny defeat, traditionally attributed to Captain William Fetterman's having disobeyed orders, has been scrutinized in recent years. Did the women present at that time write a distorted version of events? It would appear that his second-in-command, the rash Lieutenant George Grummond, led the charge over Lodge Trail Ridge. Or did he?