The prairie logbooks;: Dragoon campaigns to the Pawnee villages in 1844, and to the Rocky mountains in 1845,
by James Henry Carleton
Category: History

First published in a New York journal in two series, 1844-45 and 1845-46, Lieutenant J. Henry Carleton's Prairie Logbooks describe two different military expeditions into the barely explored territories of the West. The first expedition, involving fourteen officers, five companies of cavalry, fifteen supply wagons and teamsters, and two brass howitzers, went deep into Nebraska Territory to put down warfare between the Pawnees and the Sioux. The second, under the command of Stephen Watts Kearny, was sent to escort emigrants on the Oregon Trail as far as South Pass and to reconnoitre the Santa Fe Trail, the key land of commerce between Mexico and the United States. Carleton (well known for his later campaign against the Navajos and Mescalero Apaches) wished to "take his reader along on the campaign" and did so meticulously describing every important detail, and by sticking to the facts. Full of memorably portrayed characters--soldiers, Indians, wagoners, and mountain men--The Prairie Logbooks provide a clear chronicle of the work and adventure of a large military force traveling through the spectacular western landscape.