The Diaries of John Gregory Bourke, Volume 1

John Gregory Bourke kept a monumental set of diaries as aide-de-camp to Brigadier General George Crook. Volume 1 begins during the 1872 Apache campaigns and dealings with Cochise. Bourke’s ethnographic notes on the Apaches continues with further observations on the Hopis in 1874. The next year he turned his pen on the Sioux and Cheyenne during the 1875 Black Hills Expedition, writing some of his most jingoistic comments in favor of Manifest Destiny. This volume culminates with the momentous events of the Great Sioux War and vivid descriptions of the Powder River fight and the Battle of the Rosebud. Charles M. Robinson III extensively annotates the volume and includes a biographical appendix on the Indians, civilians, and military personnel named. 

“This is an enormous contribution to our understanding of the American West.”—Robert Wooster, author of The Military and United States Indian Policy, 1865–1903 

“Bourke’s writings are keenly insightful, filled with color, and replete with a Who’s Who of the American West and Old Army.”—Paul L. Hedren, author of Fort Laramie and the Great Sioux War