Yellowstone Command: Colonel Nelson A. Miles and the Great Sioux War, 1876-1877

by Jerome A. Greene

Overview

Shortly after Custer’s defeat in the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Colonel Nelson A. Miles and his Fifth Infantry launched several significant campaigns to destroy the Lakota–Northern Cheyenne coalition in the Yellowstone River basin. Miles’s expeditions involved relentless pursuit and attack throughout the winter months, culminating in the Lame Deer Fight of May 1877, the last major engagement of the Great Sioux War.

Yellowstone Command is the first detailed account of the harrowing 1876–1877 campaigns. Drawing from Indian testimonies and many previously untapped sources, Jerome A. Greene reconstructs the ambitious battles of Colonel Miles and his foot soldiers. This paperback edition of Yellowstone Command features a new preface by the author.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780806137551
Publisher:	University of Oklahoma Press
Publication date:	03/13/2006
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.79(d)
Lexile:	1450L (what's this?)

About the Author

Jerome A. Greene is retired as Research Historian for the National Park Service. He is the author of numerous books, including Stricken Field: The Little Bighorn since 1876, Battles and Skirmishes of the Great Sioux War, 1876–1877: The Military View; Lakota and Cheyenne: Indian Views of the Great Sioux War, 1876–1877; and Morning Star Dawn: The Powder River Expedition and the Northern Cheyennes, 1876, all published by the University of Oklahoma Press.

Editorial Reviews

In this excellently researched and well-crafted work, National Park Service historian Greene has created a volume to stand on the shelf with the books of Robert M. Utley and with his own Slim Buttes, 1876: An Episode of the Great Sioux War ( LJ 1/15/82). Greene's account is the first full military history of the 1876-77 winter campaign in which Miles moved against the Sioux and Cheyenne after Custer's defeat. The author conveys his ``consuming fascination for the tactical details'' to readers by describing Miles's methodical yet inspired field command as it was displayed in such battles as Wolf Mountains and the Lame Deer Fight. For accounts of Miles's difficult personality and discord with associates, look to biographies such as Brian C. Pohanka's Nelson A. Miles (Arthur L. Clark, 1986); for his military achievement in the Sioux Wars, Yellowstone Command is highly recommended for both general and special collections.-- Margaret W. Norton, Fenwick H.S., Oak Park, Ill.

Library Journal

"Greene's volume succeeds on two levels. First, the author evaluates the Yellowstone campaign within the context of the Great Sioux War. . . . Second, Greene's book reads like a tale of adventure, bringing the cold winds and deep snows of the winter campaign to your armchair."—South Dakota History

South Dakota History

"Fills a yawning gap in the literature of the Sioux War. [Greene's] well-crafted narrative teems with fresh and illuminating anecdotes. . . . [This] is a groundbreaking work that stands as a model for all future accounts of western Indian campaigns."—Western Historical Quarterly

Western Historical Quarterly

"Perhaps some prefer myth to reality, but those who wish to know what it was really like on campaign in the West in the 1870s would scarcely do better than to read this riveting account."—Washington Times

Washington Times

"A masterly study of the campaign [against the Indians] in the twelve months following Custer's defeat. . .to a large degree a pioneering work that relates in detail the military effort to subdue the Sioux and Cheyennes. It is based on exceptional research. . . . Greene has succeeded admirably in providing a wealth of information about a forgotten period of frontier military history."—Journal of American History

Journal of American History