The Late 19th Century U.S. Army, 1865-1898: A Research Guide

The period between the Civil War and the end of the 19th century was a time of hard choices for the US Army and those who led it. The federal government thrust numerous responsibilities upon the military, including pacifying the Indians, patrolling the defeated Confederacy, suppressing striking labourers, and supervising national parks. This comprehensive bibliography focuses on this period of military history, cataloguing, surveying, and appraising the substantial body of contemporary and historical literature that traces the evolution of the US Army from 1898. As the largest single-volume reference work of its type, the book covers all major aspects of Army activities, and contains annotations on 80 percent of its entries. In this survey of government document and manuscript collections are included a variety of US government publications pertaining to the Army, many from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Subsequent chapters group sources under bibliographic topics, such as general secondary works, fiction and memoirs and contemporary accounts, as well as under subjects that refer to the Army’s activities. These include the Army and Reconstruction, the Indian-fighting Army, forts and post life, the late 19th century Army, and coastal defense. A series of appendices provides a period chronology, list commanding generals and secretaries of war, and chart army strength.