Scouting on Two Continents

Frederick Burnham Russell was one of the greatest military scouts to have ever lived.

Born on a Dakota Sioux reservation he was taught the ways of the Native Americans from as soon as he could walk.

At the tender age of fourteen, having had little formal education, he was supporting himself and learning from some of the last cowboys and frontiersmen of the Old West.

These lessons would pay dividend in his later life, first as a tracker for the United States Army in the Apache Wars and later as a scout for the British Army in the Matebele Wars in Southern Africa.

Frederick Burnham Russell was a remarkable figure who revolutionized the art of scouting in both the British and United States armies.

Indeed his influence would lead his friend, Robert Baden-Powell, to begin the international Scouting Movement.

In Scouting on Two Continents Burnham records the details of his brilliant life in fascinating detail and provides insight into the life of an unique adventurer in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

“Burnham in real life is more interesting than any of my heroes of romance.” Rider Haggard

“Burnham is a most delightful companion ... amusing, interesting, and most instructive. Having seen service against the Red Indians he brings quite a new experience to bear on the Scouting work here. And while he talks away there’s not a thing escapes his quick roving eye, whether it is on the horizon or at his feet.” Robert Baden-Powell

Frederick Burnham Russell has been described as the “Father of Scouting.” He fought in the Pleasant Valley War, Apache Wars, the First and Second Matabele Wars as well as the Second Boer War. His book Scouting on Two Continents was first published in 1926. He passed away in 1947.