Description
Book SynopsisOffers a reappraisal of the Punitive Expeditions of 1863 and 1864, the US Army's response to the Dakota War of 1862. Whereas previous accounts have approached the Punitive Expeditions as a military campaign of the Indian Wars, Beck argues that the expeditions were also an extension of the Civil War.
Trade ReviewFar from any traditional Civil War battlefield, the Union Army's 1863 and 1864 excursions into the Northern Great Plains were no mere sidelight. The army's overlooked and underappreciated expeditions of revenge against the Plains Indians set the stage for military conflicts that wrested Sioux Country from its Native inhabitants a decade later. In
Columns of Vengeance, Paul Beck, a longtime student of the era, has crafted an intimate narrative that gives voice to the soldiers who made these epic, tragic treks and the Plains Indians they fought."" - R. Eli Paul, author of
Blue Water Creek and the First Sioux War, 1854 - 1856""Peppered with fascinating accounts of battles, military life, and glimpses into the participants' innermost thoughts."" -
Kansas History
