Wyoming Western Trails Project - Annals of Wyoming - Civilization's Guardian: Army aid to emigrants on the Platte River Road, 1846-1869

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Civilization's Guardian: Army aid to emigrants on the Platte River Road, 1846-1869

Annals of Wyoming 69:1:2-16
By Michael L. Tate
INFO

The frontier army of the 19th century has been portrayed as a group of fighting cavalrymen. However, Tate's article explains the "overwhelming majority of time spent in mundane but more important duties," such as the issuance of commissary supplies to travelers, medical care, blacksmithing, carpentry services, providing a post for mail delivery, road improvements by army enlisted men, bridge construction and law and order. Details are discussed in the backdrop of Fort Kearny in Nebraska and Fort Laramie in Wyoming.

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