At the end of the day, as the soft refrain of the bugle resonates over the surrounding landscape I am drawn back to a bygone time. I wonder what life was like for the horse soldiers and the buffalo soldiers who served in forts and camps scattered across the west?
The movies have shaped our images of that time, and I think unfortunately so. I cannot today imagine what life was like in those isolated outposts, where men unfamiliar with the land struggled to make and shape this country. In the course of our western expansion we thought little about the nations we conquered and the people we displaced. Why should we, we had a manifest destiny. John L. O’Sullivan had told us we had one and by god we did. At the time the government was pushing for western expansion and political columnists like John L, wrote about the right to dominate and consolidate this country under one nation.
For the nation the west offered an opportunity for a new life, a promise to be fulfilled by those with the courage to seek it. The Army was called on to provide for the common defense. This link offers an interesting summary of those outposts. http://www.ida.net/users/lamar/historicfort.html
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