Summary
Chapter 8 covers the period between the end of the Civil War and the creation of an overseas American empire, pinpointing the variety of conflicts the U.S. military confronted in that era. The deadliest conflict in American history had ended in the spring of 1865, but even as hundreds of thousands of soldiers returned home, U.S. Army units began coping with post-war violence in the southern states and a new round of Indian wars in the west. By the late 1870’s, regular troops were no longer present in the southern states, and frontier conflicts with native peoples were entering their final phase. The last development begged the question of the army’s future peacetime role. Army officers strove to prepare for a conventional war against a major Western power, and improved professional standards and training to that end. Volunteer militias also adopted new roles and a new name, the National Guard, during this period. But the U.S. Navy saw the greatest changes in its composition and mission. The emergence of America as a great industrial power, combined with the growing popularity of imperialist ideas that called for a greater American role in global affairs, bolstered arguments for a larger, more modern and powerful fleet.
The Spanish-American War of 1898 tested both services. The navy won some dramatic victories that bolstered national pride and reaffirmed its new role. In contrast, the army had problems deploying a force to Cuba, though it prevailed once there. The end of the war against Spain led to a rebellion against U.S. control in the Philippines. Here too, the U.S. Army successfully defeated resistance in 1902. But its difficulties in these conflicts later led to a re-evaluation of U.S. military policies in the early twentieth century.
In this chapter, students will learn about the use of armed forces during Reconstruction and the southern insurrections. From Reconstruction this chapter will cover the wars with native peoples in the American West, highlighting the changing roles of the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, and volunteer militia. Last, this chapter covers the American military performance during the Spanish-American War (1898-99) and the Philippine-American War (1899-1902).
Glossary
Presidential Reconstruction- A moderate form of Reconstruction – the period after the Civil War when ex-Confederate states were permitted back into the Union – from 1865 to 1867, supported by President Abraham Lincoln and his successor, Andrew Johnson. Lincoln and Johnson were more concerned about speedily restoring the Union, regardless of protections for African Americans.
Military Reconstruction Acts- 1867 laws passed during Radical Reconstruction that essentially allowed for Federal military occupation of southern states, placing the ten unreconstructed states into five military districts with an army generals exercising authority over state governments in their districts.
Congressional Reconstruction- A radical form of Reconstruction following the Civil War from 1867 to 1870. Also known as Military Reconstruction, ex-Confederate states had to meet stricter criteria than Presidential Reconstruction for reentry into the Union, and the Military Reconstruction Acts allowed for the Federal occupation of southern states until each state met Congress’ requirements.
Freedmen’s Bureau- A Reconstruction-era organization set up by the U.S. government in 1865 to protect the rights of former slaves by providing them legal services, education, jobs, and landownership.
Memphis and New Orleans Race Riots- Riots in May and July 1866, respectively. While the violence in Memphis was a spontaneous release of social tensions due to a growing black population, the New Orleans riot was political, with the disruption of a convention who sought to expand black rights.
Ku Klux Klan- White supremacist group originally formed in 1866 as a social club for Confederate veterans. In response to Congressional Reconstruction in 1867 many members became terrorists by harnessing violence to achieve political goals. Lashing out against Republican leaders of both races and Reconstruction proponents in the south, KKK members attempted to frighten the black population into submission and drive away their white allies.
southern insurgencies- Reconstruction-era attempts by southern white conservative groups to use intimidation and terror to remove the Republican state governments formed during Congressional Reconstruction and replace them with Democratic ones.
redemption- Reconstruction-era attempts by white southern conservative groups to install conservative Democratic state governments and re-institute white supremacy, thus redeeming the south and ostensibly saving the southern states from the horrors of “Black” Republican rule.
Enforcement Acts- Reconstruction-era acts passed by Congress in 1870-1871 that outlawed the KKK and similar groups, made depriving people of their civil and political rights a federal offense, and allowed presidents to impose martial law in the event of an insurrection.
Colfax Massacre- One of the bloodiest events of the Reconstruction period, occurring in Louisiana in April 1873. Confusing election results led to African American men gathering in Colfax to protect Republican officials from a potential attack. Hundreds of alarmed whites confronted the group and a battle ensued with up to 100 black men dying.
White Leagues- Reconstruction-era groups of conservative whites who in 1874 openly threatened, bullied, and attacked local Republican officials and their supporters, often better armed than official militia.
White Liners- Conservative paramilitary organizations in the Reconstruction-era south.
Mississippi Plan- A Reconstruction-era program of intimidation by conservative paramilitaries in Mississippi, so-called “White Liners.” In 1875 White Liners used violence and threats against Republican meetings and speakers in an attempt to take back political control from the Republican government.
Red Shirts- A well-organized conservative white band in South Carolina during Reconstruction who employed intimidation and fraud to help secure a Democratic victory in the 1876 election.
Compromise of 1877- A deal made between the Democratic and Republican parties in order to resolve the disputed 1876 presidential election. Democrats allowed Republican Rutherford B. Hayes to assume the presidency in exchange for the withdrawal of Federal troops from the only southern states still to have Republican governments and army garrisons, thus ending Reconstruction.
1867 Medicine Lodge Treaty- An ultimately failed treaty that sought to confine natives on the southern plains to reservations, namely the Kiowa, Comanche, Kiowa Apache, Cheyenne, and Arapahoe peoples. Relinquishing claims to their lands, these Indian groups agreed to move to designated areas in Indian Territory north of the Red River and to remain peaceable toward white settlers.
1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie- Treaty between the United States government and Indian groups in the Wyoming Territory. It gave the native peoples the Great Sioux Reservation, all of present-day South Dakota west of the Missouri River, in exchange for continued peace with white settlers. While it calmed the northern plains for a few years, lack of agreement between signatories and continued white expansion incited Indian resistance, compromising the peace.
Bureau of Indian Affairs- The U.S. government organization that administers Indian reservations.
Grant’s Peace Policy- A U.S. government policy announced in 1869 that attempted to assimilate Native Americans in the west. The plan placed Indian groups on reservations where they would receive protection while humanitarian and religious groups would provide education and Christian instruction.
Sand Creek Massacre- The attack of a peaceful Indian village by Colorado militia on November 29, 1864, resulting in about 150-200 slaughtered men, women, and children.
Phil Sheridan- (1831-1888), A U.S. Army general with considerable experience in the Civil War, he helped lead U.S. Army operations during the Indian Wars on the Great Plains in the 1860s, where he organized brutal winter campaigns to chastise belligerent bands of Indians and force them back onto reservations.
George Crook- (1828-1890), A U.S. Army general during the Indian Wars of the Pacific Northwest in the 1860-1870s. Crook is known for his use of pack mules instead of horses to carry provisions over difficult terrain, utilizing Indian allies as trackers and to augment his regulars, and aggressively pursuing hostile Indian bands.
buffalo soldiers- African American soldiers in the U.S. Army led by white officers. Originally established as the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry Regiments and the Twenty Fourth and Twenty Fifth Infantry Regiments in 1866, their service was crucial during the western Indian wars, particularly on the southern plains and southwest.
Modoc War- A Pacific Northwest conflict beginning in 1872, triggered when a band of disgruntled Modoc Indians, unhappy with their reservation, attempted to return to their homelands on the California-Oregon border. A series of clashes between the Modoc, white settlers, and U.S. Army troops finally ended in June 1873.
Nez Perce War- A Pacific Northwest conflict beginning in 1877 stemming from the refusal of a band of Nez Perce Native Americans to move onto reservations. Federal cavalry pursuit of an obstinate band of Nez Perce for 3½ months resulted in a nearly 1,700 mile chase until Chef Joseph and 400 of his people surrendered with another 300 escaping into Canada, at a cost of 100 men, women, and children during the war.
Apache Wars- A series of continual hostilities between the Chiricahua Apaches in the Arizona Territory, white settlers, and U.S. soldiers after the Civil War. Native raids throughout the 1860s and 1870s led to increased U.S. Army operations against the Indians across the American southwest, including Mexico. The last stage of the wars began in 1881 and culminated with the September 1886 capture of Geronimo, ending native resistance to U.S. authority in the region.
Geronimo- (1829-1909), An Apache mystic who led warrior bands in the American southwest and Mexico during the Apache Wars. His surrender to American forces in September 1886 led to the end of the Apache Wars and native resistance to U.S. authority in the region.
Red Cloud’s War- A conflict between Native American groups, most notably Lakota and Cheyenne bands. Red Cloud, the most prominent of the hostile Lakota chiefs, led attacks against civilian routes to Montana gold mines and against U.S. Army soldiers in 1866 until the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie ended the conflict.
Fetterman Massacre- The killing of eighty U.S. Army soldiers on December 21, 1866 by 1,500 Native American warriors in northern Wyoming during Red Cloud’s War.
Battle of the Washita- An assault against a Cheyenne village by Lieutenant Colonel George Custer’s 7th U.S. Cavalry Regiment in present-day western Oklahoma. As part of Philip Sheridan’s campaign against the winter camps of belligerent bands, Custer attacked the camp of Black Kettle, killing the chief and nearly one hundred of his people while capturing about fifty women and children.
Red River War- An 1874 conflict in the American Great Plains resulting from Kiowa, Comanche, and Cheyenne warrior bands leaving Indian territory to ravage settlements and travelers in Texas and Kansas. Philip Sheridan led U.S. Army troops in numerous battles against belligerent natives until defeated bands drifted back to the reservations.
Great Sioux War- An 1876-1877 conflict on the northern plains between Lakota peoples led by Sitting Bull with his Cheyenne allies and U.S. military forces. Clashes over forced relocation led to the Battle of the Rosebud and Battle of the Little Bighorn.
Battle of the Rosebud- An attack by Lakota and Cheyenne warriors against George Crook’s U.S. Army troops during the Great Sioux War on June 17, 1876 in present-day southern Montana.
Battle of the Little Bighorn- An engagement during the Great Sioux War between U.S. Army cavalry and bands of Lakota and Cheyenne warriors in present-day southern Montana. Lasting from June 25-26, 1876, the battle is best known for George Armstrong Custer’s “last stand,” claiming the lives of Custer and all of his men.
Battle of Wounded Knee- The last engagement of the Indian Wars. Taking place on December 29, 1890 at Wounded Knee Creek, South Dakota, a botched attempt to disarm a group of Lakota warriors ended in fighting that killed 150 Lakota men, women, and children and twenty-five U.S. soldiers.
National Guard- The volunteer state militias of the United States. Though the American military had long been founded on the idea militias, it was not until the 1870s that state militias began to label them National Guard, and by 1898 these units constituted the reserves to the Regular Army but remained state-controlled. Throughout the late 1800s the National Guard dealt with labor unrest and prevented race-related violence.
Alfred Thayer Mahan- (1840-1914), Considered by many to be one of the most influential American strategists, the so-called “prophet of American navalism.” Mahan’s book published in 1890, The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660-1783, advocated that the United States control the sea through a large navy and overseas bases in order to dominate international sea lanes and foster a strong economy.
Spanish-American War- An April-August, 1898 war between the United States and Spain. Fought in two theaters, the Caribbean and Pacific, conflict resulted from an American desire to see Spanish withdrawal from Cuba, and that colony’s independence. Fighting did not last long in either Cuba or the Spanish holdings in the Philippines, though it revealed fractures in the U.S. military and its ability to mobilize. The end of hostilities marked the first pieces of an overseas American empire.
U.S.S. Maine- American battleship sunk on February 15, 1898 in Havana Harbor, an event that helped to precipitate the Spanish-American War.
Battle of Manila Bay- A naval battle on the morning of May 1, 1898 during the Spanish-American War in the Philippines. U.S. Navy Commodore George Dewey’s Asiatic Squadron destroyed Spanish vessels commanded by Patricio Montojo, eliminating Spain’s naval power in the Pacific and making Dewey a hero in the United States.
Battle of Santiago (land & sea)- The culminating actions in the Caribbean Theater during the Spanish-American War. The land battle began on July 1, 1898 and the sea battle that destroyed the Spanish fleet in the Caribbean followed two days later, virtually securing American victory in the war and eventually leading to a negotiated settlement.
Treaty of Paris- The negotiated settlement of the Spanish-American War, signed on December 10, 1898.
Philippine-American War- A conflict between Filipino revolutionaries and the United States from June 1899 to July 1902. For the first year the war remained a conventional conflict, but in 1900 it transformed into guerrilla warfare and U.S. counterinsurgency operations that utilized punitive measures.
Emilio Aguinaldo- (1869-1964), A Filipino revolutionary who led a rebellion against Spain and worked with the United States in the Spanish-American War to defeat the Spanish. Aguinaldo led resistance forces during the Philippine-American War until his capture in March 1901.
Battle of Manila- The final large military engagement of the Spanish-American War in the Pacific Theater. Though U.S. forces worked with Filipino resistance fighters to assault the Spanish-held city of Manila, a secret arrangement between the Americans and Spain meant that the Spanish handed the city over to the Americans on August 13, 1898, not the Filipinos.
General Orders 100- Also known as the Lieber Code, originally issued to Union armies during the Civil War but also invoked during the Philippine-American War, the U.S. government directive dictated lawful treatment of prisoners and civilians during war.
Samar and Batangas- An eastern island of the Philippines and a province on Luzon, respectively, they were the sight of punitive campaigns launched by the Americans that used coercive measures Filipino resistance during the Philippine-American War.
Balangiga- The sight in the Philippines of a Filipino surprise attack in September 1901 by rebels and villagers on a company of U.S. soldiers, killing or wounding almost all of the seventy-eight Americans. The U.S. Army used harsh punitive measures in retaliation, chasing rebels, destroying crops, livestock, and homes.
Flashcards
Annotated Bibliography
Adams, Kevin. Class and Race in the Frontier Army: Military Life in the West, 1870-1890. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2009.
This book offers a social analysis of frontier army units and relations between enlisted men and officers, particularly the roles played by race and class prejudices. It is best read after a more general work on the frontier army, such as Coffman’s or Utley’s (listed below).
Coffman, Edward M. The Old Army: A Portrait of the American Army in Peacetime, 1784-1898. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986.
The best social history of the U.S. Army between the end of the Revolution to the Spanish-American War. The Old Army analyzes such topics as enlistment, training, relationships between officers and troops, discipline, life on frontier posts, and professionalism.
Cooper, Jerry M. The Rise of the National Guard: The Evolution of the American Militia, 1865-1920. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1997.
The Rise of the National Guard traces how state militia systems and volunteer militia units evolved into today’s National Guard, in which the federal government provides funding and sets standards. Cooper describes how states fostered this change by devoting more resources and administration to state units in the late nineteenth century, and the functions these forces served.
Cosmas, Graham A. An Army for Empire: The U.S. Army in the Spanish-American War. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1998.
An Army for Empire scrutinizes the organization and administration of the U.S. Army in the war. Its emphasis is on the War Department’s preparations and logistical problems in organizing, equipping and deploying Army units. Cosmas also gives some attention to illness, leadership and campaign experiences.
Dawson, Joseph G. Army Generals and Reconstruction: Louisiana, 1862-77. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1982.
Louisiana may have experienced the greatest strife and violence of any state during Reconstruction. Joseph Dawson examines how successive army commanders attempted to enforce Reconstruction policies and maintain order there, detailing key personalities, events, and political developments.
Linn, Brian M. The Philippine War, 1899-1902. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2000.
Brian Linn’s book is the best recent narrative history of the Philippine-American War. Linn focuses on the U.S. Army’s experiences, describing how fighting switched from conventional to unconventional operations, and challenges implementing civic action programs and combatting guerrillas. Philippine perspectives, and that of the U.S. Navy, do not receive as much attention, though Linn notes how Philippine leadership and resistance varied among different islands, and the role played by American naval forces.
McBride, William M. Technological Change and the United States Navy, 1865-1945. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2000.
William McBride’s book addresses the Navy’s service culture and its relationship to technological change. Looking at a number of examples, it illustrates the struggle within the service between those who have tried to maintain tradition and those who have pushed for constant technological evolution.
Ostler, Jeffrey. The Plains Sioux and U.S. Colonialism from Lewis and Clark to Wounded Knee. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
Rable, George C. But There Was No Peace: The Role of Violence in the Politics of Reconstruction. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1984.
George C. Rable’s book is the best place to start for understanding the political violence of white southerners during Reconstruction. The most comprehensive survey of the subject, But There Was No Peace examines important instances of riots, skirmishes, and massacres intended to derail Reconstruction policies and destroy support for local and state Republican officials.
Seager, Robert. Alfred Thayer Mahan: The Man and his Letters. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1977.
Arguably the best biographer of Mahan, Robert Seager chronicles the life of the naval theorist in great detail. Seager goes beyond Mahan’s writings (such as the famous The Influence of Sea Power upon History) to dissect his character, religious beliefs, social aspirations, family life, and racist ideologies. Seager finds that Mahan’s theories were the sum of many factors, both professional and personal.
Robert Seager’s work offers a biography of Alfred Thayer Mahan, particularly the course of his naval career, and also analyzes the writings of America’s most prominent writer on the topic of sea power.
Sefton, James E. The United States Army and Reconstruction, 1865-1877. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1967.
James Sefton’s book remains the only broad treatment of the U.S. Army’s role during Reconstruction. It examines the duties and missions of army units in the south following the Civil War, detailing the challenges officers faced in implementing federal Reconstruction policies.
Trask, David F. The War with Spain. New York: Macmillan, 1981.
The War with Spain remains the most detailed narrative of American operations in the Spanish-American War, though it does not address broader social or cultural issues. Trask discusses causes of the conflict, planning and mobilization issues, and peace negotiations, but the bulk of the work describes U.S. army and naval campaigns and resulting engagements.
Utley, Robert M. Frontier Regulars: The United States Army and the Indian, 1866–1891. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1973.
Frontier Regulars is a narrative history of the frontier army in the last phase of the Indian wars. Robert Utley does not focus on social or cultural issues, instead describing campaigns, battles, and giving some attention to immediate causes and consequences of articular conflicts, operational planning, and tactics. Narratives of the frontier army that address earlier periods are Paul Prucha’s The Sword of the Republic: The United States Army on the Frontier: 1783-1846 and Robert M. Utley’s Frontiersmen in Blue: The United States Army and the Indian, 1848-1865.
West, Elliot. The Last Indian War: The Nez Perce Story. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.
A fairly recent and thorough narrative that chronicles the Nez Perce War, including its origins and the native exodus of over 1,700 miles through the Pacific Northwest in an attempt to reach Canada.
Zuczek, Richard. State of Rebellion: Reconstruction in South Carolina. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1996.
Richard Zuczek examines Reconstruction in South Carolina, noting how conservative white south use of political campaigning, intimidation, terror and violence ultimately defeated local Republicans and the effort to safeguard African-American rights.
Expanded Bibliography
Abrahamson, James L. America Arms for a New Century: The Making of a Great Military Power. New York: Free Press, 1981.
Ambrose, Stephen E. Upton and the Army. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1993.
Barnett, Louise K. Touched by Fire: The Life, Death, and Mythic Afterlife of George Armstrong Custer. New York: Henry Holt, 1996.
Challener, Richard D. Admirals, Generals, and American Foreign Policy, 1898–1914. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1973.
Clendenen, Clarence Clemens. Blood on the Border: The United States Army and the Mexican Irregulars. New York: Macmillan, 1969.
Cooling, B. Franklin. Gray Steel and Blue Water Navy: The Formative Years of America's Military-Industrial Complex, 1881–1917. Hamden, CT: Archon Books/The Shoestring Press, 1979.
Cooper, Jerry M. The Army and Civil Disorder: Federal Military Intervention in Labor Disputes, 1877–1900. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1980.
Dunlay, Thomas W. Wolves for the Blue Soldiers: Indian Scouts and Auxiliaries with the United States Army, 1860–90. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1982.
Ellis, Richard N. General Pope and U.S. Indian Policy. Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press, 1970.
Fletcher, Marvin. The Black Soldier and Officer in the United States Army, 1891–1917. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1974.
Fowler, William M. Under Two Flags: The American Navy in the Civil War. New York: Norton, 1990.
Gates, John Morgan. Schoolbooks and Krags: The United States Army in the Philippines, 1898–1902. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1973.
Hagan, Kenneth J. American Gunboat Diplomacy and the Old Navy, 1877–1889. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1973.
Hatch, Thom. Black Kettle: The Cheyenne Chief Who Sought Peace but Found War. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2004.
Hoganson, Kristin L. Fighting for American Manhood: How Gender Politics Provoked the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998.
Hoig, Stan.The Battle of the Washita: The Sheridan-Custer Indian Campaign of 1867–69. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1976.
Haley, James L. The Buffalo War: The History of the Red River Uprising of 1874. New York: Doubleday, 1976.
Hutton, Paul Andrew. Phil Sheridan and His Army. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1985.
Karsten, Peter. The Naval Aristocracy: The Golden Age of Annapolis and the Emergence of Modern American Navalism. New York: Free Press, 1972.
Lane, Jack C. Armed Progressive: General Leonard Wood. San Rafael, CA: Presidio Press, 1978.
Leonard, Thomas C. Above the Battle: War-Making in America from Appomattox to Versailles. New York: Oxford University Press, 1978.
Linn,Brian McAllister. The U.S. Army and Counterinsurgency in the Philippine War, 1899–1902. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1989.
May, Glenn Anthony. Battle for Batangas: A Philippine Province at War. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991.
McDermott, John D. A Guide to the Indian Wars of the West. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1998.
Miller, Stuart Creighton. “Benevolent Assimilation”: The American Conquest of the Philippines, 1899–1903. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982.
Millett, Allan Reed. The General: Robert L. Bullard and Officership in the United States Army, 1881–1925. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1975.
Monnett, John H. Where a Hundred Soldiers Were Killed: The Struggle for the Powder River Country in 1866 and the Making of the Fetterman Myth. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2008.
Nelson, Kurt R. Fighting for Paradise: A Military History of the Pacific Northwest. Yardley, PA: Westholme, 2007.
Nenninger, Timothy K. The Leavenworth Schools and the Old Army: Education, Professionalism, and the Officer Corps of the United States Army, 1881–1918. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1978.
O’Connell, Robert L. Sacred Vessels: The Cult of the Battleship and the Rise of the U.S. Navy. Boulder : Westview Press, 1991
Ostler, Jeffrey. The Plains Sioux and U.S. Colonialism from Lewis and Clark to Wounded Knee. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
Richter, William L. The Army in Texas during Reconstruction, 1865–1870. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1987.
Rickey, Don. Forty Miles a Day on Beans and Hay: The Enlisted Soldier Fighting the Indian Wars. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1963.
Roberts, David. Once They Moved Like the Wind: Cochise, Geronimo and the Apache Wars. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993.
Schultz, Duane P. Month of the Freezing Moon: The Sand Creek Massacre, November 1864. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1990.
Over the Earth I Come: The Great Sioux Uprising of 1862. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992.
Silbey, David J. A War of Frontier and Empire: The Philippine-American War, 1899–1902. New York: Hill & Wang, 2007.
Simpson, Brooks D. Let Us Have Peace: Ulysses S. Grant and the Politics of War and Reconstruction, 1861–1868. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1991.
Smith, Sherry Lynn. The View from Officers’ Row: Army Perceptions of Western Indians. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1990.
Utley, Robert Marshall. Frontiersmen in Blue: The United States Army and the Indian, 1848–1865. New York, Macmillan, 1967.
Cavalier in Buckskin: George Armstrong Custer and the Western Military Frontier. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1988.
Welch, James. Killing Custer: The Battle of the Little Bighorn and the Fate of the Plains Indians. New York: W. W. Norton, 1994.
Welch, Richard E. Response to Imperialism: The United States and the Philippine-American War, 1899–1902. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1979.
West, Elliot. The Last Indian War: The Nez Perce Story. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.
Wooster, Robert. Nelson A. Miles and the Twilight of the Frontier Army. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1993.
Wooster, Robert Allen. The Military and United States Indian Policy, 1865–1903. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988.
Young, Kenneth Ray. The General’s General: The Life and Times of Arthur MacArthur. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1994.
Zuczek, Richard. State of Rebellion: Reconstruction in South Carolina. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1996.
Annotated Weblinks
Site: National Archives, Photographs of the American West: 1861-1912
URL: http://www.archives.gov/research/american-west/#soldier
Description: This National Archives photograph collection depicts the experiences of U.S. soldiers in the American West.
Site: KansasMemory.org, History of the 19th Kansas Cavalry – Indian War of 1868-69
URL: http://www.kansasmemory.org/item/210758
Description: Learn about General Philip Sheridan’s Winter Campaign of 1868-69 against the Cheyenne, Kiowa, and Comanche by reading these scanned images of the diary-turned-unit history of the 19th Kansas, written by the commander of Company F, George B. Jenness.
Site: Little Bighorn Battlefield, National Monument Montana, National Park Service
URL: https://www.nps.gov/libi/learn/historyculture/battle-story.htm
Description: This site gives a brief overview of the battle in 1876, as well as highlights some of the key leaders in that battles, include George A. Custer, Sitting Bull, and others.
Site: Naval History & Heritage Command, Spanish-American War
URL: https://www.history.navy.mil/our-collections/photography/wars-and-events/spanish-american-war.html
Description: One of the better pages on the U.S. Navy and the Spanish-American War, this Naval History & Heritage Command website provides visitors detailed historical narrative with plenty of photographs.
Site: Library of Congress, A Guide to the Spanish-American War
URL: http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/spanishwar/
Description: If looking for primary sources on the Spanish-American War, be sure to follow this link. There you will find manuscripts, maps, photographs, prints, and films.
Site: Duke University, George Percival Scriven: An American in Bohol, The Philippines, 1899-1901
URL: http://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/scriptorium/scriven/
Description: Follow this link to read the diary of George Percival Scriven, who served on General Welsley Merritt’s staff during the American occupation of the Philippines.
Site: The Library of Congress, The Spanish-American War in Motion Pictures
URL: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/sawhtml/sawhome.html
Description: The Library of Congress’s The Spanish-American War in Motion Pictures is a collection that features 68 motion pictures of both the Spanish-American War and the Philippine Revolution.
Site: Peter S. Michie, The Life and Letters of Emory Upton, Colonel of the Fourth Regiment of Artillery and Brevet Major-General, U.S. Army (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1885).
URL: https://archive.org/details/lifelettersofemo00mich/page/n7/mode/2up?view=theater
Description: Written shortly after Emory Upton’s death in 1881, this book includes materials on Upton’s Civil War service and, more importantly for Chapter 8, his critical observations and experiences in the U.S. Army in the post-Civil War era.
Site: Alfred Thayer Mahan Papers, Naval War College Archives
URL: https://www.usnwcarchives.org/repositories/2/resources/50
Description: This archival collection includes scanned lectures, research notes, photographs, and reports written by and about the famed naval theorist Alfred Thayer Mahan.