Soldier to Advocate
Subtitle: C.E.S. Wood's 1877 legacy : a soldier's unpublished diary, drawings, poetry, and letters of Alaska and the Nez Perce conflict
By: by George Venn.
Contributors: Wood, Charles Erskine Scott, 1852-1944.
Publisher: Worldcraft of Oregon
Published: 2006
Place of publication: La Grande, OR
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 97
ISBN-13: 9781877655487
Subjects: Wood, Charles Erskine Scott, -- 1852-1944.; Nez Percé Indians -- Government relations -- Sources.; Nez Percé Indians -- Wars, 1877 -- Personal narratives.; Alaska -- History -- 1867-1959 -- Sources.
Genres: Sources.; Personal narratives.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
Table of contents: title: "*"In Soldier to Advocate George Venn integrates more than ninety sources from archives, museums, photo collections, and contemporary authorities across America.; title: "*"In Part I the story begins with a passionate 1874 West Point romance and a personal confl ict: new Second Lieutenant Charles Erskine Scott Wood (1852-1944) wants to be a lover and a writer, not a bachelor and a soldier. Nevertheless, after graduation, the Army sends the single and talented Wood to the west coast, and eventually to Vancouver Barracks near Portland, Oregon. There, in April, 1877, his commander and friend General Oliver Otis Howard grants his literary friend the privilege of exploring the Northwest Coast.; title: "*"In Part II lies the centerpiece of this large format book: Wood’s 1877 diary from his adventures in Alaska and his early weeks in Idaho and the Nez Perce War. Transcribed, complete (for the first time), and richly annotated, this text is enhanced by eighteen of Wood’s recently discovered 1877 drawings. Pen and ink sketches of Nez Perces, soldiers, and battles, Wood leaked his drawings to the New York press — the only eyewitness images of the Nez Perce confl ict. To give readers more vivid context throughout, Venn includes forty additional 19th century images, including photos of Chief Joseph and Wood’s families.; title: "*"To show Wood’s transformation from soldier to Nez Perce advocate, Part III traces Wood’s lifetime of confl icted prose and poetry both defending Chief Joseph and defending, then finally opposing Gen. Howard. Using published and unpublished texts from 1877 to 1939, this chapter includes five of Wood’s war poems, a Nez Perce myth he collected and transcribed, and newly transcribed letters by Chief Joseph, Wood, and Gen. Howard.; title: "*"Bolstered throughout by nearly two hundred notes, Part IV concludes the story in the 1990’s with eleven unpublished original photos. Accompanied by a rich narrative, these photos document three events in the Wood family’s legacy of friendship and respect for the Nez Perces: a  Nez Perce-C. E. S. Wood exhibition, their gift of a stallion to Chief Joseph’s descendents,  and both families’ participation in the Red Heart Memorial Ceremony at Fort Vancouver.; title: "*"In Soldier to Advocate Wood shows us all, to paraphrase James Joyce, that history is the nightmare from which we should always try to awake.