Do you remember the lyrics from a verse in the song, "Old Chisholm Trail," "Bacon and beans most every day, we'll soon be eatin' that prairie hay,...
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Civil War
The 1841 “Mississippi” Rifle
This handsomely rugged 1840s muzzleloader was prized by frontiersmen and military riflemen alike and helped phase out the smoothbore musket. ...
Go West, Young Man! The Holliday connection, from Georgia to Texas.
Phillip Brassell was a doctor in Fayette County, Georgia in the years after the Civil War. And he was sick--tuberculosis, made worse by the climate....
Leather Cartridge Belts and Corrosion
A question came in the other day from a True West Magazine reader. “I've noticed that my leaving a cartridge in a leather gunbelt for an extended...
The Baron, the Cow-boys and the Trail Boss
I’ve read more than one article (including items from your books) about James Addison Reavis, the so-called “Baron of Arizona.” Which side did he...
Red Badge of Courage
The young men of a divided nation answered the call of war 160 years ago, and their youthful visages before going to battle still haunt us today. At...
Military Sockets
During the Civil War cavalry troopers carried their carbines in what were called sockets. These were leather rings only about three or four inches...
Red, White, and Black: The US Army in the West 1866-1891
After four years of fighting, the Civil War ended. The victorious Union Army soon disbanded, leaving behind a small force of regulars to such...
General George Crook Crook was successful in bringing all of the Chiricahua Apache back to the reservation except for the wily Geronimo
George Crook graduated from West Point in 1852 was assigned to the 4th Infantry, serving in California and Oregon. When the Civil War began in 1861,...
Swung Into Eternity A minister’s anti-slavery views proved fatal.
Anthony Bewley was a fire and brimstone Methodist pastor outside Fort Worth, Texas just before the Civil War. He was an abolitionist, which made him...
When Did The Civil War Really Begin? “He who controls the mouth of the Mississippi River controls the West.”
In 1784, Spain, looking from her outposts in Louisiana and Florida, watched America’s growing western frontier with a menacing eye and made a...
The Artists Who Inspired a National Park
Photographer William Henry Jackson and artist Thomas Moran joined the 1871 Hayden Survey to Yellowstone and changed the world with their artwork.