An old friend-Frederick Remington

[Rick Throckmorton]

I recently have been reading a series of contemporary accounts of the campaign surrounding the Ghost Dance craze, the fight at Wounded Knee, Drexel Mission, et al., in the Peter Cozzens' volume in "EYEWITNESSES TO THE INDIAN WARS". It was a campaign to which I had never paid too much detailed attention. In reading them, it reminded me of several writings of Frederick Remington, who was a correspondent for an Eastern periodical of the period. I had owned two books with some of his works and began looking for them. I began searching for my Remington volumes and failed to find them on the property. I finally remembered loaning them out to a friend who failed to return them. Lesson learned. I found the one volume that I most wanted, "THE COLLECTED WRITINGS OF FREDERICK REMINGTON", on Ebay in new condition for an extremely minimal amount. I received it and started reading it. It is a series of short stories by Remington, of which several are his eye witness accounts of being in the field with various units during the Wounded Knee campaign. Mr. Remington is, in my opinion, an equal or better author/reporter than an artist. His descriptions of the soldiers, Indians (friendly and unfriendly), civilians, equipment, animals, and environment, gives one the sense of being there. One gets a pretty good sense of fighting a winter campaign in the Dakotas on horseback, something that is not for a person with a weak constitution.

Of course, not all of this collection of short stories is about that particular campaign. This particular book also reports first hand accounts of the campaign in Cuba in 1898, life on frontier military posts, fictional stories, frontier romances, the rebellion in northern Mexico. His writings are definitely in Victorian prose, but very interesting and entertaining.

I highly recommend Mr. Remington's writings, and this collection in particular, for both his eyewitness historical accounts, and simple stories.

Rick Throckmorton

[Pat Holscher]

I recently have been reading a series of contemporary accounts of the campaign surrounding the Ghost Dance craze, the fight at Wounded Knee, Drexel Mission, et al., in the Peter Cozzens' volume in "EYEWITNESSES TO THE INDIAN WARS". It was a campaign to which I had never paid too much detailed attention. In reading them, it reminded me of several writings of Frederick Remington, who was a correspondent for an Eastern periodical of the period. I had owned two books with some of his works and began looking for them. I began searching for my Remington volumes and failed to find them on the property. I finally remembered loaning them out to a friend who failed to return them. Lesson learned. I found the one volume that I most wanted, "THE COLLECTED WRITINGS OF FREDERICK REMINGTON", on Ebay in new condition for an extremely minimal amount. I received it and started reading it. It is a series of short stories by Remington, of which several are his eye witness accounts of being in the field with various units during the Wounded Knee campaign. Mr. Remington is, in my opinion, an equal or better author/reporter than an artist. His descriptions of the soldiers, Indians (friendly and unfriendly), civilians, equipment, animals, and environment, gives one the sense of being there. One gets a pretty good sense of fighting a winter campaign in the Dakotas on horseback, something that is not for a person with a weak constitution.

Of course, not all of this collection of short stories is about that particular campaign. This particular book also reports first hand accounts of the campaign in Cuba in 1898, life on frontier military posts, fictional stories, frontier romances, the rebellion in northern Mexico. His writings are definitely in Victorian prose, but very interesting and entertaining.

I highly recommend Mr. Remington's writings, and this collection in particular, for both his eyewitness historical accounts, and simple stories.

Rick Throckmorton

I have Remington's book as well (as well as Cozzen's) and you are correct. It's excellent.