Battles of the Red River War: Archeological Perspectives on the Indian Campaign of 1874 (review)

Abstract

398Southwestern Historical QuarterlyJanuary diaries also include a wealth of insight on antebellum army life in the Lone Star State and the relationships between officers posted here. This is a lavishly produced, handsome publication worth every penny of its hardcover cost. Mark McGarry did an excellentjob on the book's design and layout . The coverjacket design is attractive and sophisticated. TomJonas's maps provide important context and orientation for the reader and rank among the finest this reviewer has seen. The sixteen pages ofwell-reproduced color and black-andwhite images include twenty-three plates from the original expedition report. The plates, which depict period landscapes, plants, and Native Americans, represent some of the earliest use of chromolithography. In sum, Wallace and Hevly's work, painstakingly edited and annotated, is certain to become a classic and oft-consulted reference tool for those interested in the history, ethnohistory, and natural history of nineteenth-century Western America and Texas. And that is a sizable audience. Fort Worth, TexasGlen Sample Ely Battles oftL· Red River War: Ardteological Perspectives on tL· Indian Campaign of 18J4. By J. Brett Cruse. (College Station: Texas AfeM University Press, 2008. Pp. 272. Color illustrations, maps, figures, tables, appendices, notes, bibliography, index. ISBN 9781603440271, $29.95 cloth.) Over a three-month period in 1 874 the U.S. Army and remnant Southern Plains Indian groups—Southern Cheyenne, Arapaho, Kiowa, and Comanche—fought running battles across the headwaters of the Red River in the Texas Panhandle. The quickly concluded war had profound impact; it forced the last holdout tribes into Indian Territory reservations, ending decades of deadly conflict and generations ofnative life on the buffalo plains. While its basic history is fairly well known, the Red River War has not been studied as carefully as it deserves. This book is a very successful step in that direction. Cruse, a veteran archeologist with the Texas Historical Commission, set out to locate the major battlefields of the Red River War and document and interpret surviving physical evidence, weighing it against documentary accounts to flesh out precisely where and how the war unfolded. While the in-the-ground evidence usually supported written accounts, it also yielded contradictions and inconsistencies that shed new light on the engagements. For most of the batdes, previously known documents and maps provided only general locations. After using these and newly discovered sources to narrow probable search areas, Cruse obtained landowner permission to examine all or portions of six of the war's seven decisive batdes. The investigations involved systematic searches across rugged terrain in search of the most lasting and readily detectable evidence—cartridges, bullets, and other battle-related metal scraps. Using metal detectors and global positioning satellite (GPS) technology, search teams swept across likely topographic features unearthing and precisely plotting "hits." Back in the lab more than 3,700 battle-related artifacts were processed using standard methods followed by a critical additional step: firearms identification 2010Book Reviews3gg analysis by Douglas Scott, an archeologist with the National Park Service. Using crime-lab techniques developed during his ground-breaking archeological study of the Batde of Litde Bighorn, Scott was able to identify firearm types and individual weapons. Cartridge and bullet type and size allowed the Red River War researchers to distinguish between military and Indian weaponry. Individual weapons were recognized by unique firing pin impressions, cartridge extractor marks, and rifling grooves. Cruse used the find spots of identified weaponry to identify firing positions across the landscape and unravel the sequence of events. While the U.S. Army fought with standard-issue weapons such as the 1 873 Springfield carbine, the firearm analysis demonstrated that the Indians used a large assortment of weapons, most of them outdated, inferior arms including muzzle loaders and bows and arrows. The archeological data suggest that claims of large numbers ofwell-armed Indian combatants by army officers were often exaggerated: no more than 50 percent of the Indians had firearms and significandy fewer Indians took part in many of the batdes. One ofthe major contributions ofthe study is the archival research by historian Martha Freeman, who delved deeply into the National Archives and unearthed many new war-related documents including eyewitness accounts, maps, and correspondence . Collectively, these...