Tales Of The Trail, Short Stories Of Western Life

This collection of thirteen previously published articles exhibits the acute perception of one of the most popular writers of the late 19th-early 20th centuries. “These "Tales of the Trail" are based upon actual facts which came under the personal observation of the author… and will form another interesting series of stories of that era of great adventures, when the country west of the Missouri was unknown except to the trappers, hunters, and army officers.” Henry Inman was an American soldier, frontiersman, and author. He served in the military during the Indian campaigns and the American Civil War, having earned distinction for gallantry on the battlefield. He was commissioned lieutenant general during the Indian wars. He settled in Kansas and worked as a journalist and author of short stories and books of the plains and western frontier.

By : Henry Inman (1837 - 1899)

00 - Preface 01 - General Forsythe At The Arrickaree 02 - El Solitario, The Hermit Priest Of Old Santa Fe 03 - Medicine Bluff 04 - A Race For Life: An Incident Of The Indian War Of 1864 05 - The Tragedy At Twin Mounds: An Incident Of The Indian War Of 1866-67 06 - Wal. Henderson 07 - Kit Carson's Pawnee Rock Story 08 - Sheridan's Roost 09 - The Passing Of The Buffalo 10 - Judge Lynch's Court At Whooping Hollow Part 1 11 - Judge Lynch's Court At Whooping Hollow Part 2 12 - The Wooing Of Ah-Key-Nes_Tou 13 - Kit Carson's 'First Indian' 14 - Did General Custer Commit Suicide?

These "Tales of the Trail" are based upon actual facts which came under the personal observation of the author, whose reputation as a writer of the frontier is national. His other works have met with phenomenal success, and these sketches, which have appeared from time to time in the current literature of the United States, are now compiled, and will form another interesting series of stories of that era of great adventures, when the country west of the Missouri was unknown except to the trappers, hunters, and army officers.

Some of the characters around which are woven the thrilling incidents of these "Tales" were men of world-wide reputation; they have long since joined the "choir invisible," but their names as pioneers in the genesis of great States which then formed the theater of their exploits will live as long as the United States exists as a great nation.

However improbable to the uninitiated the thrilling experiences of the individuals who were actors in the scenes depicted, may seem, they are a proof that "truth is stranger than fiction."

It is fortunate that Colonel Inman during his forty years on the extreme frontier was such a close observer, and noted from time to time these stories of the frontier which form such an interesting part of our Americana.