Indian Frontier (6 results)

PAP. Condition: New. New Book. Shipped from UK. Established seller since 2000.

PAP. Condition: New. New Book. Shipped from UK. Established seller since 2000.

No Binding. Condition: Very Good. An original map, printed in full colour, central fold. A map of Central Asia and the Indian Frontier showing the railways and the steamer routes connecting them.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. Contemporary half leather over marbled boards, with some neat professional restoration to spine, corners, and hinges. Some toning and foxing to text; old owner's armorial bookplate inside front cover. Otherwise clean, tight and unmarked. Very neat -- a sound and handsome copy. Size: 4to - over 9¾ - 12" tall. Book.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Half-year run bound in original marbled boards, rebacked in leather. Handling and some staining to fore-edge of text. Otherwise clean, tight and unmarked. Very neat -- a sound and handsome volume. Spectacular illustrations, including numerous fold-outs on the Diamond Jubilee; a good deal including illustrations of the Klondike. Size: Folio - over 12 - 15" tall. Book.

Condition: Very good minus. A letter from James Johnson at Fort Gibson to his wife, Grace, in New York, dated July 30 1852. Johnson had left home in search of work, trying "every means of getting a station"; he "would have got one in Cincinnati but I had no money to pay my board until the vacancy would occur", and was therefore "obliged to enlist I could not work and to beg I could not." He had apparently stopped writing to his wife due to shame, but she had discovered his enlistment anyway. He details his service: "As soon as I enlisted I was sent on to join the Regiment in Fort Leavenworth and from thence to Santa Fe en route for California. On the plains I could not write to you. After marching 700 miles on the Wild Prairie among the Indians we were turned back and sent to Jefferson Barracks, and from thence here a distance of 2000 miles. On settling down here [.] I had every opportunity of writing to you but I could not bring myself to do it". This itinerary places Johnson's service with the "Army of the Frontier", a term for US Army activity protecting Euro-American settlers and participating in the Indian Wars, which would drive Indigenous tribes off their land. Fort Gibson in particular, located within Indian Territory, played a significant role in the program of Indian removal, with tribes there under the Army's control including the Cherokee, Muscogee, and Seminole. The content of Grace Johnson's objection to her husband's service, and the cause of his shame over it, are not entirely clear from the letters, but they are felt intensely: Johnson laments that he could not save "myself from disgrace and suffering and the accusation of my own conscience", and remarks of "William John", apparently a deceased child, that "I feel content he is out of this sinful world lest any of his fathers sins should fall upon him". Though he does state that he "would not feel half as I do" if he were without a family, the guilt and shame seem to center as much around the military service as around the family abandonment. He closes his letter with a plea to Grace to help him leave the army: "Dear Grace you can get me out of the army any time you like if you take the proper steps by going to a lawyer and I will give you every assistance in my power for when I enlisted I enlisted as a married man and had 3 children". The letter reflects the sentiment that, though above begging, enlisting in the army was a shameful last resort for those who could not obtain civilian jobs. Of interest to historians of economic enlistment and public sentiment regarding the US Army in the midcentury. Single two-page letter measuring 9 ¾ x 7 ¾ inches, postmarked Fort Gibson. Damage to upper right corner intersecting with text; repairs with archival tape; with small portion of text continued on cover missing.