Brief description:
From the dust jacket:
In this new book Colonel Red Reeder, author of the famous West Point stories, tells of the adventures of a young ofiicer at a frontier outpost in the Old Northwest just before the War of 1812.
Fresh from West Point, Lieutenant Andrew Raeburn knew that Army life on the frontier was going to be different, but he didn’t know just how different. He certainly wasn’t prepared for the pistol-shot reception his commanding officer gave him, and despite that officer’s reputation as a rough-and-ready Indian fighter Andrew had his doubts about liim. His doubts increased when Private Swanflick, through no doing of his own, was thrown in the hole and Snap Lewis was given the even more severe dose of “Barrel-head Iustice.”
Life at the little fort some fifty miles beyond the small settlement of Detroit was indeed different. It was rugged, challenging, and full of action. Rumors of Indians on the warpath came in more frequently, soldiers deserted, and the raw winter began to descend on the still unfinished fort.
In the midst of this strenuous life Andrew found some pleasant and humorous surprises, such as visits to the old trader, Buffalo Chips Blanc. There Andrew met the trader’s lovely Indian niece, Melissa Three Bears.
But disaster threatened him when, faced with a mutiny, Andrew struck a soldier and was arrested and court-martialed. Reaching its climax with the Indian attack on lonely little Fort Lookout, this story is authentic in every detail. It presents a brilliantly clear and very fast-moving picture of what life was really like for the defenders of the frontier in the old Michigan territory.
In this new book Colonel Red Reeder, author of the famous West Point stories, tells of the adventures of a young ofiicer at a frontier outpost in the Old Northwest just before the War of 1812.
Fresh from West Point, Lieutenant Andrew Raeburn knew that Army life on the frontier was going to be different, but he didn’t know just how different. He certainly wasn’t prepared for the pistol-shot reception his commanding officer gave him, and despite that officer’s reputation as a rough-and-ready Indian fighter Andrew had his doubts about liim. His doubts increased when Private Swanflick, through no doing of his own, was thrown in the hole and Snap Lewis was given the even more severe dose of “Barrel-head Iustice.”
Life at the little fort some fifty miles beyond the small settlement of Detroit was indeed different. It was rugged, challenging, and full of action. Rumors of Indians on the warpath came in more frequently, soldiers deserted, and the raw winter began to descend on the still unfinished fort.
In the midst of this strenuous life Andrew found some pleasant and humorous surprises, such as visits to the old trader, Buffalo Chips Blanc. There Andrew met the trader’s lovely Indian niece, Melissa Three Bears.
But disaster threatened him when, faced with a mutiny, Andrew struck a soldier and was arrested and court-martialed. Reaching its climax with the Indian attack on lonely little Fort Lookout, this story is authentic in every detail. It presents a brilliantly clear and very fast-moving picture of what life was really like for the defenders of the frontier in the old Michigan territory.
Publication
Duell, Sloan, Pearce, (1976) 1st,Hdbk,DJ,Signed,Good