Philip St. George Cooke
Files
Department
History & Political Science
Document Type
Book Chapter
Abstract
BOOK ABSTRACT:
From the War of 1812 to the end of the nineteenth century, U.S. Army officers were instrumental in shaping the American West. They helped explore uncharted places and survey and engineer its far-flung transportation arteries. Many also served in the ferocious campaigns that drove American Indians onto reservations. Soldiers West views the turbulent history of the West from the perspective of fifteen senior army officers—including Philip H. Sheridan, George Armstrong Custer, and Nelson A. Miles—who were assigned to bring order to the region.
This revised edition of Paul Andrew Hutton’s popular work adds five new biographies, and essays from the first edition have been updated to incorporate recent scholarship. New portraits of Stephen W. Kearny, Philip St. George Cooke, and James H. Carleton expand the volume’s coverage of the army on the antebellum frontier. Other new pieces focus on the controversial John M. Chivington, who commanded the Colorado volunteers at the Sand Creek Massacre in 1863, and Oliver O. Howard, who participated in federal and private initiatives to reform Indian policy in the West. An introduction by Durwood Ball discusses the vigorous growth of frontier military history since the original publication of Soldiers West.
First Page
93
Last Page
121
Publication Date
2009
Publisher
University of Oklahoma Press
City
Norman
ISBN
9780806139975
Recommended Citation
Pearson, Jeffrey V. “Philip St. George Cooke,” in Soldiers West: Biographies from the Military Frontier, by Paul Andrew Hutton and Durwood Ball, editors. Second Edition. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2009, pp. 93-121.