Emigrant Tales of the Platte River Raids - by Janelle Molony (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

While the Civil War raged in the east, the Platte River Raids would begin an entirely new battle for the American West. In July of 1864, Northern Plains Indians in Idaho Territory (Wyoming) appeared to be on a warpath to cease all emigrant travel on the Bozeman, Oregon, and Overland Trails by any means. On a signal, hundreds of warriors launched a series of attacks and robberies on unsuspecting emigrants through the winding "Black Hills." Shots rang out and arrows whizzed as miners, doctors, farmers, families, and war widows rallied their covered wagons together. Some fought to defend their stock and protect their families. Others helped bury the bodies of those who did not survive.

Read the eyewitness testimonies of nearly 70 survivors, vetted by living descendants, mapped out, annotated, and presented in one accord for the first time in literary history.

Review Quotes

The 1864 Diary of Mrs. Sarah Jane Rousseau provides a valuable day-by-day account of what it was like to cross the continent overland in the middle of the nineteenth century. - Arizona Journal of History (Winter, 2023)