Heading: (Texas)
Author: McConnell, H.H.
Title: Five Years a Cavalryman; or, Sketches of Regular Army Life on the Texas Frontier, Twenty Odd Years Ago
Place Published: Jacksboro, TX
Publisher:J.S. Rogers & Co.
Date Published: 1889
Description:

319 pp. Printed on pink paper. 19x12.5 cm. (7½x5"), brown cloth, lettered in gilt. First Edition.

Important reminiscences of the Texas frontier in the years following the Civil War. Jenkins states that "This is the most lively and authentic account of cavalry life in West Texas after the Civil War. McConnell was a private in the 6th Cavalry who arrived in Galveston with the Reconstruction occupiers in November,1866. He served at Fort Belknap and Fort Richardson on the Texas frontier until 1871,then settled at Jacksboro. Throughout his service, he kept a journal from which he frequently quotes verbatim. During this period he also issued a post newspaper, 'The Flea,' from which he also quotes liberally. McConnell gives us the best surviving account of what it was like to be an ordinary cavalryman in occupied Texas as well as of life on the frontier outposts after the war. He does not at all glorify his officers or fellow soldiers; he reports on their heavy drinking, their general disorganization, their boredom, their thievery -- neither with moral judgments nor rationalization. McConnell's acute insights into human nature appear repeatedly..." Adams Six-guns 1393; Adams Herd 1380; Dobie p.52; Graff 2579; Howes M59; Jenkins 131; Rader 2280; Raines p.142.

Spine a bit rubbed and faded; bookplate of Ike Moore on front pastedown; else near fine.