In War-Path and Bivouac, published in 1890, John Finerty (1846–1908) recalled the summer he spent following George Crook’s infamous campaign against the Sioux in 1876. Historians have long surmised that Finerty’s correspondence covering the campaign for the Chicago Times reappeared in its entirety in Finerty’s celebrated book. But that turns out not to be the case, as readers will discover in this remarkable volume. In print at last, this collection of Finerty’s letters and telegrams to his hometown newspaper, written from the field during Crook’s campaign, conveys the full extent of the reporter’s experience and observations during this time of great excitement and upheaval in the West. An introduction and annotations by Paul L. Hedren, a lifelong historian of the period, provide ample biographical and historical background for Finerty’s account. Four times under fire, giving as well as he got, Finerty reported on the action with the immediacy of an unfolding wartime story. To his riveting dispatches on the Rosebud and Slim Buttes battles, this collection adds accounts of the lesser-known Sibley scout and the tortures of the campaign trail, penned by a keen-eyed newsman who rode at the front through virtually all of the action. Here, too, is an intimate look at the Black Hills gold rush and at principal towns like Deadwood and Custer City, captured in the earliest moments of their colorful history. Hedren’s introduction places Finerty not only on the scene in Wyoming, Montana, and Dakota during the Indian campaign, but also in the context of battlefield journalism at a critical time in its evolution. Publication of this volume confirms John Finerty’s outsize role in that historical moment.

In War-Path and Bivouac, published in 1890, John Finerty (1846-1908) recalled his summer following George Crook's infamous campaign against the Sioux in 1876. Historians have long surmised that Finerty's correspondence covering the campaign for the Chicago Times reappeared in its entirety in Finerty's celebrated book. But that turns out not to be the case, as readers will discover in this remarkable volume. In print at last, this collection of Finerty's letters and telegrams to his hometown newspaper, written from the field during Crook's campaign, conveys the full extent of the reporter's experience and observations during this time of great excitement and upheaval in the West. An introduction and annotations by Paul L. Hedren, a lifelong historian of the period, provide ample biographical and historical background for Finerty's account. Four times under fire, giving as well as he got, Finerty reported on the action with the immediacy of an unfolding wartime story. To his riveting dispatches on the Rosebud and Slim Buttes battles, this collection adds accounts of the lesser-known Sibley scout and the tortures of the campaign trail, penned by a keen-eyed newsman who rode at the front through virtually all of the action. Here, too, is an intimate look at the Black Hills gold rush and at principal towns like Deadwood and Custer City, captured in the earliest moments of their colorful history. Hedren's introduction places Finerty not only on the scene in Wyoming, Montana, and Dakota during the Indian campaign, but also in the context of battlefield journalism at a critical time in its evolution. Publication of this volume confirms John Finerty's outsize role in that historical moment.

In War-Path and Bivouac, published in 1890, John Finerty (1846–1908) recalled the summer he spent following George Crook’s infamous campaign against the Sioux in 1876. Historians have long surmised that Finerty’s correspondence covering the campaign for the Chicago Times reappeared in its entirety in Finerty’s celebrated book. But that turns out not to be the case, as readers will discover in this remarkable volume. In print at last, this collection of Finerty’s letters and telegrams to his hometown newspaper, written from the field during Crook’s campaign, conveys the full extent of the reporter’s experience and observations during this time of great excitement and upheaval in the West. An introduction and annotations by Paul L. Hedren, a lifelong historian of the period, provide ample biographical and historical background for Finerty’s account. Four times under fire, giving as well as he got, Finerty reported on the action with the immediacy of an unfolding wartime story. To his riveting dispatches on the Rosebud and Slim Buttes battles, this collection adds accounts of the lesser-known Sibley scout and the tortures of the campaign trail, penned by a keen-eyed newsman who rode at the front through virtually all of the action. Here, too, is an intimate look at the Black Hills gold rush and at principal towns like Deadwood and Custer City, captured in the earliest moments of their colorful history. Hedren’s introduction places Finerty not only on the scene in Wyoming, Montana, and Dakota during the Indian campaign, but also in the context of battlefield journalism at a critical time in its evolution. Publication of this volume confirms John Finerty’s outsize role in that historical moment.

War-Path and Bivouac Or the Conquest of the Sioux is a fascinating account of the Indian Wars in the West. John Finnerty describes his experiences in the Big Horn and Yellowstone expedition of 1876.

One of the premier classic books on the American Indian Wars. John Frederick Finerty was a famous journalist for the Chicago "Times" who went into the field to report on the U.S. government's efforts to force Native Americans onto reservations.In 1876, Finerty was with General George Crook's forces at the Battle of the Rosebud. Part of Crook's aim was to connect with George Armstrong Custer's 7th Cavalry at the Little Bighorn. It never happened and Custer was killed along with five companies of his regiment by Crazy Horse, Gall, Sitting Bull, Rain-in-the-Face and other leaders.A teenage refugee from the Irish revolutionary movement, Finerty immigrated to the U.S. in 1864 and signed up to fight in the Civil War. By 1870 he was writing for newspapers, eventually making a national name for himself. He repeatedly went to the West to cover the Indian Wars and wrote with great intelligence, humor, and compassion about what he saw.Always self-deprecating and sardonic, he nevertheless had this to say to would-be Western journalists:"Let no easy-going journalist suppose that an Indian campaign is a picnic. If he goes out on such business he must go prepared to ride his forty or fifty miles a day, go sometimes on half rations, sleep on the ground with small covering, roast, sweat, freeze, and make the acquaintance of such vermin or reptiles as may flourish in the vicinity of his couch; and, finally, be ready to fight Sitting Bull or Satan when the trouble begins, for God and the United States hate non-combatants."His conclusions about the Indian War included this:"White greed is not by any means satisfied, even though the fairest portion of the Sioux reservations have been given up to settlement...we of the Caucasian race must confess, however reluctantly, that even the red Indian has some rights on the soil which bore him that the whites are bound to respect."You'll have a hard time putting this one down. Expanded and heavily annotated with information about events and people.

"A very spirited narrative of Indian warfare." - The Atlantic, 1892 "One of the best of all the books written upon the Indian troubles." -Magazine of Western History, 1890 "One of the most interesting and best written stories." -Life and Adventures of Frank Grouard, Chief of Scouts (1891) "Some of the fiercest and bloodiest fighting ever done on our frontier, graphically told, narrated by one of the active participants." -N. Y. Independent, 1891. Christened "The Fighting Correspondent," by famous scout Frank Grouard, John Finerty, serving as field correspondent of the Chicago Times, would on more than one occasion narrowly escape massacre in the four Indian wars he covered, including the campaign against Sitting Bull in 1876, and the famous Sibley scouting expedition in the Big Horn mountains. As Finerty details in his 1890 book "Warpath and Bivouac," he endeared himself alike to the officers and men of Crook's command, and shared all their dangers and deprivations. The journalistic profession has just cause for pride over the conspicuous bravery that characterized this "fighting correspondent." According to Scout Frank Grouard, Finerty importuned him to be permitted to accompany him on every scouting expedition that was organized, but not until the starting of the Sibley party did the correspondent have his wishes gratified. When Finerty asked to accompany the Sibley party, General Crooke warned him that he "might get into more trouble than, perhaps, I anticipated." Lieutenant Bourke the asked him "what kind of an epitaph I would like him to write for me." It turned out these warnings should have been heeded, as Finerty would find out: "Groups of mounted savages appeared on the bluffs north and east of us. Most of them were in full war costume.... My horse stumbled from the shock of the bullet, but recovered its feet almost immediately, and bore me in safety to the edge of the timber, under the rapid Indian fire. I could hear their bullets rattling against the pine tree trunks like hail-stones on the roof of a barn. "We could distinctly hear their savage, encouraging yells to each other, and Gruard said that Sioux and Cheyennes were allied in the attacking force, all of whom appeared to be in great glee at the prospect of a scalping entertainment...." In describing his arranged meeting with Sitting Bull, Finerty noted that "I have followed Sitting Bull around long enough, and now I shall behold, 'the lion in his den,' in earnest.... "Soon afterward, an Indian mounted on a cream-colored pony, and holding in his hand an eagle's wing, which did duty for a fan, spurred in back of the chiefs and stared stolidly, for a minute or so, at me. His hair, parted in the ordinary Sioux fashion, was without a plume. His broad face, with a prominent hooked nose and wide jaws, was destitute of paint. His fierce, half bloodshot eyes gleamed from under brows which displayed large perceptive organs, and, as he sat there on his horse, regarding me with a look which seemed blended of curiosity and insolence..." About the author: John Frederick Finerty (1846 -1908) was a U.S. Representative from Illinois. Born in Ireland, Finerty immigrated to the United States in 1864. He enlisted in the Union Army during the Civil War serving in the New York State Militia. He was a war correspondent for the Chicago Times in the Sioux War of 1876, in the Northern Indian (Sioux) War of 1879, in the Ute campaign of 1879, and afterward in the Apache campaign of 1881. He was a correspondent in Washington, D.C. during 1879-1881. He established the Citizen, a weekly newspaper, in Chicago in 1882.

War-Path and Bivouac Or the Conquest of the Sioux is a fascinating account of the Indian Wars in the West. John Finnerty describes his experiences in the Big Horn and Yellowstone expedition of 1876.