Old West Photo Friday: Home Life on the Frontier

Life for American settlers on the frontier was tough. They arrived with a few precious possessions they had managed to haul from their homes back east or in Europe and had to make the rest themselves.
Homes would often be makeshift affairs. The main priority was getting a crop in so they wouldn't go hungry the next year. The top photo shows a home in what's probably Oklahoma. It appears to be made out of turf blocks as was common for homes in the territory. Turf was free and easy to build with and had the advantages of being fireproof and a good insulator. This family has built their home against a hill to shelter it from Oklahoma's fierce winds.
The bottom photo shows the home of the Winslow family in the 1870s at Mount Ayr Township, Osborne County, Kansas. It's built of logs with mud daubed between them to keep out drafts. It appears to have a turf roof as you can see some grass growing on it. At least there's no cow!
The cabin is small for so many people, but life was lived mostly outdoors. It must have gotten claustrophobic during winter storms, however, and would give rise to "cabin fever". In Alaska and other northern areas, people could be trapped in these tiny cabins for weeks and sometimes went insane.

American Civil War Guerrilla Tactics out now!

My latest book, American Civil War Guerrilla Tactics, is now available from Osprey Publishing. I recently got my author's copies and they look great. Osprey is a very professional outfit and everyone on the team--the artist, the layout people, editors and copyeditors--all do their job very well and really care about what they do. It's no wonder I signed up to do another book with them!

This book covers the other Civil War, the one fought by desperate bands of guerrillas and partisan rangers, both Union and Confederate, against the standing armies of the other side. I delve into the tactics and weaponry of these unconventional fighters and what effect they had on the war. The bushwhackers and Jayhawkers of the Border Wars get a lot of coverage, of course!

This is my first book concentrating specifically on the Civil War, but it won't be my last, so help me get established in the subject by buying lots of copies! Reviews would be nice too. :-)

"Missouri: An Illustrated History" Out Now!!!

My latest book, "Missouri: An Illustrated History" is coming out from Hippocrene Books. It's a full history of the state from the prehistoric mammoth hunters to the modern day. I just received the author's copies and it's available for preorder on Amazon and will soon be available on Barnes and Noble. It should be coming to a bookstore near you by September. Well, at least if you live in Missouri.

This book was a long time coming, and is almost two years late. Changes of staff at the publisher, and their printer going out of business, delayed things for a long time. In fact, I signed up for and wrote two other books while waiting for this one to get published! A word of warning to aspiring authors: the struggle doesn't end after you hand in the manuscript.

I'm very happy with the final result, though. The cover is attractive, the layout is clean, and the photos are well reproduced. I even have a final part of an advance coming my way. I'd almost forgotten about that!

The Perfect Quote for My Next Book

Now that my book proposal on General Price's 1864 campaign is making the rounds with agents, I'm working on yet another Civil War book proposal. This one is on the First Kansas Colored Volunteers, the first black regiment in American history to see combat. They fought in Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, and the Indian Territory against bushwhackers, Confederate Indians, and the Confederate army.

Today I found the perfect quote to put at the front of the book. William Faulkner once wrote "The past is never dead, it is not even past."

The war on the frontier was vicious, with scalped prisoners, burnt towns, and a starving populace, but the First Kansas Colored Volunteers bore the added burden of unequal pay, public hostility, and assumptions they were incompetent and lazy. Repeated victories on the battlefield reduced these prejudices but never abolished them.

I don't think I'll find a more appropriate quote.