In 1897, five years after he won the Medal of Honor, General Nelson A. Miles published his memoirs, often cited and now made widely available in this two-volume Bison Book edition. While relating his own colorful adventures, General Miles also ranges over time and space, taking into account fur traders, trail blazers, gold seekers, and missionaries. The first volume described his service in the Civil War and his campaigns against the Indians on the northern plains. Volume 2 follows General Miles to Washington Territory, where he com-mands the Department of Columbia, and finally to the Southwest, where he succeeds General George Crook in directing the fight against the Apaches. The pursuit of Geronimo is one of the many subjects illustrated here by Frederic Remington. In his introduction to the second volume Robert Wooster notes the importance of this memoir as a document on the Indian wars, extremely revealing of the character of a difficult but competent general.

Horses and mules served during the Civil War in greater number and suffered more casualties than the men of the Union and Confederate armies combined. Using firsthand accounts, this history addresses the many uses of equines during the war, the methods by which they were obtained, their costs, their suffering on the battlefields and roads, their consumption by soldiers, and such topics as racing and mounted music. The book is supplemented by accounts of the "Lightning Mule Brigade," the "Charge of the Mule Brigade," five appendices and 37 illustrations. More than 700 Civil War equines are identified and described with incidental information and identification of their masters.

The real story behind some of history's famous characters.