THE CAVALRYMAN

by Harold Sinclair ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 25, 1958

...is a continued story. In Harold Sinclair's The Horse Soldiers, (1956) superior historical fiction, his Civil War hero, Colonel Jack Marlowe, led Union forces through Mississippi, interrupting Confederate supply lines. This novel is patterned on the Northwest Expedition against the Sioux in the western Dakota Territory during the Civil War summer of 1864. Marlowe, now a brigadier-general, has been relieved of his Southern command and sent into a situation and an area about which he knows nothing. His mission: to attack with a cavalry force of 2000 the Sioux federation of tribes assembled at Killdeer Mountain and at the same time to escort a wagon train through and beyond the Indian territory. The obstacles are enormous -- undisciplined troops, including an unreliable company of ""Galvinized Yankees,"" insufficient food and water, the slow-moving wagon train and the hindrance of a personal involvement with settlers Ruth Hayes and her young brother, Jody. The accomplishment of Marlowe's task --the routing of the Sioux, the deliverance of the settlers, the meeting of supply boats at the Yellowstone River -- is also the termination of an unreal romance. The repeated bloody battle encounters, the fraying of personal relations, the arid trek through the Bad Lands, the devastation of materials and men are etched on broad lines but with persuasiveness and a high credibility.

Pub Date: June 25, 1958

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harper

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1958

Categories: FICTION