Brief description:
Lieutenant John Reardon, US. Army cavalry officer, graduated from West Point “honor man, ranking first in everything. . . . There hadn’t been a cadet who would not have exchanged places with Reardon and the future they’d predicted for him. That had been in ’64. . . .”
Four years later, straggling back to the post after another disastrous encounter with the Apaches, the survivors of Lieutenant Rcardon’s column either hated or feared him, each for his own reason. Only Steve Vance, the fourteen-year-old bugler, and the scout Jerry Kitchen, retained their confidence in Reardon. Riding with them as an observer was First Lieutenant St. John, who had been sent out to take over Reardon’s command.
As for Reardon, each step carried him closer to the post and to dishonor. In his four years in this desolate land he had fought with every device he had known — and many he had learned from his Apache enemy, Deesohay —but all had failed. In addition to military disgrace John Reardon faced the loss of Angela Owen, the girl he loved, who could not forgive him because he had not ridden out at once against the Indians who had murdered her parents.
The column bivouacked at the Owen ranch for the night, and when Kitchen reported “signs,” Reardon knew that Deesohay was near by. At dawn they engaged the Apaches in what seemed a decisive victory until they sighted Deesohay’s main force - every tribe in the vicinity. As B Company galloped back to the Owen ranch to prepare a siege, Reardon knew that military defeat and disgrace were nothing compared with what would happen if they surrendered to the Indians. . . .
Valley of the Shadow is more than an exciting tale of soldiers and Indians — it is an arresting character study, the chronicle of a man of integrity, whose conscience dictated his duty in the face of enormous odds. It is the vivid story of the men who made America grow — heroes and “heels” who rode side by side into history.
Four years later, straggling back to the post after another disastrous encounter with the Apaches, the survivors of Lieutenant Rcardon’s column either hated or feared him, each for his own reason. Only Steve Vance, the fourteen-year-old bugler, and the scout Jerry Kitchen, retained their confidence in Reardon. Riding with them as an observer was First Lieutenant St. John, who had been sent out to take over Reardon’s command.
As for Reardon, each step carried him closer to the post and to dishonor. In his four years in this desolate land he had fought with every device he had known — and many he had learned from his Apache enemy, Deesohay —but all had failed. In addition to military disgrace John Reardon faced the loss of Angela Owen, the girl he loved, who could not forgive him because he had not ridden out at once against the Indians who had murdered her parents.
The column bivouacked at the Owen ranch for the night, and when Kitchen reported “signs,” Reardon knew that Deesohay was near by. At dawn they engaged the Apaches in what seemed a decisive victory until they sighted Deesohay’s main force - every tribe in the vicinity. As B Company galloped back to the Owen ranch to prepare a siege, Reardon knew that military defeat and disgrace were nothing compared with what would happen if they surrendered to the Indians. . . .
Valley of the Shadow is more than an exciting tale of soldiers and Indians — it is an arresting character study, the chronicle of a man of integrity, whose conscience dictated his duty in the face of enormous odds. It is the vivid story of the men who made America grow — heroes and “heels” who rode side by side into history.
Publication
Doubleday & Co.