My Army Life And The Fort Phil

First published in 1910, Frances C. Carrington?s My Army Life and the Fort Phil Kearney Massacre recounted the author?s adventures as an army wife on the Great Plains, but also sought to set the record straight on her second husband?s involvement in the Fetterman fight. Frances traveled with her first husband, Lt. George Washington Grummond, to Fort Phil Kearney in Wyoming in 1866 where he was killed in the Fetterman incident just a few months later. She eventually married the post commander, Col. Henry B. Carrington, after the death of his first wife, Margaret, who had befriended and cared for Frances during her brief, tragic episode at the frontier post. Frances?s narrative recalls the wonder and worries of a naive young bride during the fateful days of 1866. From her voyage to Wyoming to her encounters with unfamiliar peoples and strange landscapes, Frances?s vivid prose examines not only the everyday workings of a frontier army post but also the political and social intrigue behind one of the most controversial military defeats in Western history.

First published in 1910, Frances C. Carrington's My Army Life and the Fort Phil Kearney Massacre recounted the author's adventures as an army wife on the Great Plains, but also sought to set the record straight on her second husband's involvement in the Fetterman fight. Frances traveled with her first husband, Lt. George Washington Grummond, to Fort Phil Kearney in Wyoming in 1866 where he was killed in the Fetterman incident just a few months later. She eventually married the post commander, Col. Henry B. Carrington, after the death of his first wife, Margaret, who had befriended and cared for Frances during her brief, tragic episode at the frontier post. Frances's narrative recalls the wonder and worries of a naive young bride during the fateful days of 1866. From her voyage to Wyoming to her encounters with unfamiliar peoples and strange landscapes, Frances's vivid prose examines not only the everyday workings of a frontier army post but also the political and social intrigue behind one of the most controversial military defeats in Western history.

We don't often think about what happened during the early years of frontier life when a military man was "stationed" to move west and protect the newly constructed westward passages. This fascinating book puts us in the shoes of not one of the soldiers, but the wife he would leave behind at the Fort Phil Kearny massacre. Frances Carrington was three months pregnant when she headed west with her husband, Lt. George Washington Grummond. Two months after they arrived, she was a widow. Her story is riveting, full of heartbreak and triumph, told from the unique perspective of an underrepresented voice of her time.

Excerpt from My Army Life and the Fort Phil: Kearney Massacre With an Account of the Celebration, of Wyoming Opened About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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"[Carrington's] descriptions of Western army life are illuminating, earthy and remarkable with keen observations. . . . An intriguing and informative read." -- True West Magazine The West was not just settled by men with rifles and revolvers alone. Indeed, as the army divisions moved west to protect the westward trails, they frequently brought their wives and families with them. Frances C. Carrington had been married to Lt. George Washington Grummond for little more than a year when she was stationed with her husband in Fort Phil Kearny. She was three months pregnant when she arrived and within another two months she would be a widow. Fort Phil Kearny had been built to protect the Bozeman Trail, but from the moment it was constructed the soldiers and settlers had been harassed by Chief Red Cloud and his coalition of Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians. Captain William J. Fetterman led a resistance to these attacks, but the Native Americans organized an ambush and killed all eight-one men. This was the worst defeat the U. S. Army suffered during the Indian Wars at that time, and Frances C. Carrington lost her husband on that day. Alone and with little protection she and the other survivors in Fort Kearny did not give up but instead continued to survive in the perilous conditions until reinforcements arrived. My Army Life and the Fort Phil Kearney Massacre is a fascinating work that tells the story of frontier life, not from the perspective of a soldier or frontiersman, but instead from the perspective of a woman who saw and experienced some of the most brutal events of the American West. "Carrington's book is a riveting portrait of life at a frontier post in dangerous territory, as well as a snapshot of Victorian mores and the lingering influence of the Civil War. . . . It is a necessary addition to other material on Fort Phil Kearny, the Fetterman Massacre, and the Bozeman Trail." -- Roundup Magazine After the loss of her first husband Frances went on to marry Colonel Henry B. Carrington. She wrote My Army Life and the Fort Phil Kearney Massacre forty years after the fort was abandoned and it was first published in 1910. Carrington passed away in 1911.

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