Terry C. Johnston (1947–2001)

I was taking a look to see if there was any information about this book on LibraryThing and i was almost shocked to find almost nothing. It caught me offguard that such a spectacular read and a gritty, hard hitting, not your usual Western would have something said about it. So, I'll say a bit and see if anyone out there runs into this and, perhaps, an interest gets sparked. This is the author's third book in his "plainsman" series where he strings together all of the major events in the post show more Civil War American West as a growing America confronts the indiginous peoples in the disastrous Indian Wars. He has a main character that seems to find his way into all of these major confrontations, Seamus Donegan, an Irish cavalry veteran. Hard drinking, hard fighting and loyal to a fault, he finds himself in all the wrong places as the war chiefs attempt to expel the soldiers from their land. This is the general theme of the series. This book deal with a particular, actual historical event called the Battle of Beecher Island. This little known savage encounter has been hinted at in movies and glossed over, made sterile and polished up for the TV generation that grew up on Westerns where nobody got dirty or bloody, nothing smelled bad and everything was all better in a half hour. This fight was at a dry rock and sand island in a mostly dry river in between banks and rocky hills of the Western Kansas/Eastern Colorado dry country. 50 scouts and former soldiers were surrounded and assaulted by hundreds of Chyenne and Arapahoe warriors. What follows is an intense example of storytelling at it's finest. The author puts you right there, on the island, as all of the horses are shot, as men are killed, as the danger increases, as the enemy charges. And it doesn't stop! This goes on for days! No food, foul water, horse and mule carcasses festering in the sun just feet away from you and you cannot move because the Cheyenne have sharpshooters waiting in the hills. There is no shade, no medicine for the wounded. This goes on for days! The great battle is led by the famed war chief Roman Nose, an actual historical figure who was killed at this battle. What drama, what a story! This is not your Saturday afternoon Western. Roy Rogers or Gene Autry got nothing on this. The author does meticulous research for his books and it shows in the finished work. This book hit almost as hard as my first viewing of "Saving Private Ryan". Of course, it's fictional and his all purpose character that keeps popping up in this series does tend to have uncanny abilities, but there is a sense of realism that is lacking in so many other books. This is a get your hands dirty kind of book and the author makes you live with his characters. That's a serious good read to me. Well worth the time to pick up if you have a western in mind. It will surprise you. show less

at the beginning i was a bit put off by the way the characters' dialogue is heavily accented, but once i got used to that the story really grew on me. a grand tale.

My favorite book of this series. Very moving. This book is towards the end of the series that the author was unable to complete because of his sudden and untimely death. It tells the story of how the Sioux and Cheynne were not defeated by the soldiers as much as they were by nature, starvation, and the constant pursute by the soldiers. Then there false hope for a better life on the reservations was the final defeat that still scares these wonderful people today.

I was so disappointed in this book, the last of a 3 part series. I got the sense that Mr.Johnston ran out of story line so he just ended up rambling. Plus the story line was so dark and full of despair. Add to that the graphic violence and the graphic descriptions of vulgar and violent sexual acts I was so happy to get to the end of this book.