Gideon Ledbetter, freed from slavery, finds himself with no land, no money, and no means to make a living. He is drawn into the army, which had painted a deceptively alluring picture of cavalry life. Soon, Gideon becomes locked in a battle with a Comanche warrior, and a portrait emerges of two men who are merely pawns in a tragic conflict.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [161]-168) and index. Chronicles the 1877 Buffalo Soldier Tragedy, in which a troop of buffalo soldiers and hunters set out into the Llano Estacado in pursuit of a band of raiding Kwahada Comanches, and were forced to resort to desperate measures to avoid dying of thirst. Adult

A memoir detailing the frontier childhood and young adulthood of the daughter of Charles Cooper, one of the officers in the Tenth U.S. Cavalry.