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Description of  Army Regulars on the Western Frontier, 1848-1861

Deployed to posts from the Missouri River to the Pacific in 1848, the United States Army undertook an old mission on frontiers new to the United States: occupying the western territories suppressing American Indian resistance keeping the peace among feuding Indians, Hispanics, and Anglos and consolidating United States sovereignty in the region. Overshadowing and complicating the frontier military mission were the politics of slavery and the growing rift between the North and South. As regular troops fanned out across the American West, the diverse inhabitants of the region intensified their competition for natural resources, political autonomy, and cultural survival. Their conflicts often erupted into violence that propelled the army into riot duty and bloody warfare. Examining the full continuum of martial force in the American West, Durwood Ball reveals how regular troops waged war on American Indians to enforce federal law. He also provides details on the army's military interventions against filibusters in Texas and California, Mormon rebels in Utah, and violent political partisans in Kansas. Unlike previous histories, this book argues that the politics of slavery profoundly influenced the western mission of the regular army--affecting the hearts and minds of officers and enlisted men both as the nation plummeted toward civil war.