Edited by Alan D.
Gaff and Donald H. Gaff
During the Civil War, Charles Curtis served in the 5th
United States Infantry on the New Mexico and Arizona frontier. He spent his
years from 1862 to 1865 on garrison duty, interacting with Native Americans,
both hostile and friendly. Years after his service and while president of
Norwich University, Curtis wrote an extensive memoir of his time in the
Southwest. This memoir was serialized and published in a New England newspaper
and so remained unknown, until now.
In addition to his keen observations of daily life as a soldier serving in the
American Southwest, Curtis’s reminiscences include extensive descriptions of
Arizona and New Mexico and detail his encounters with Indians, notable military
figures, eccentrics, and other characters from the Old West. Among these many
stories readers will find Curtis’s accounts of meeting Kit Carson, the
construction of Fort Whipple, and expeditions against the Navajo and Apache.
In Ordered West, editors Alan D. Gaff and Donald H. Gaff have pulled
together the pieces of Curtis’s story and assembled them into a single
narrative. Annotated with footnotes identifying people, places, and events, the
text is lavishly illustrated throughout with pictures of key figures and maps.
A detailed biographical overview of Curtis and how his story came to print is
also included.
About the Authors
ALAN D. GAFF is an independent scholar and President of
Historical Investigations. His previous books include Bayonets in the
Wilderness, Blood in the Argonne, and On Many a Bloody Field.
DONALD H. GAFF is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the
University of Northern Iowa, and co-editor with Alan D. Gaff of A Corporal’s
Story: Civil War Recollections of the Twelfth Massachusetts.
ISBN 978-1574416695, University of North Texas Press, ©
2017, Hardcover, 704 pages, Photographs & Illustrations, Maps, Footnotes,
Bibliography & Index. $39.95. To purchase a copy of this book
click HERE.
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