A used copy. Stock photo shown. The gun like the axe and the plow, was an essential tool in the exploration and settlement of the trans-Mississippi West. It provided food for the cooking pot as well as protection against two -or four-legged marauders. As the century progressed, firearms also provided various forms of recreation for both men and women, primarily target and competition shooting.
Of course the employment of the gun, whether for good or evil, depended upon the user. The men and women who lived the nineteenth-century western experience sometimes described in detail the role firearms played in their lives. Such accounts included a trapper in the 1830's, a woman crossing the plains by wagon in the 1850's, a drover ("cowboy" in modern terminology) enduring the dangers of a long cattle drive, a professional hunter engaged in the slaughter of the once seemingly endless herds of bison, or a soldier campaigning against American Indians.
Each account adds to our knowledge of firearms and our awareness of the struggle faced by those who were a part of the western experience. Gunsmoke and Saddle Leather describes the gun's impact on the lives of those in the West - men and women, whites and American Indians - using their own words to tell that story wherever possible. Hardcover 9-1/4 by 12-12" format, 522 pages, black and white photos.
The Table of Contents includes the following:
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1 Trappers, Traders, and Other Travelers
Chapter 2 The Army Moves West, 1803-1865
Chapter 3 Across the Plains by Foot, Handcart, and Wagon
Chapter 4 Goldseekers: Rushes to California and Elsewhere
Chapter 5 Guns and Travelers from Abroad
Chapter 6 Sharps: The "Old Reliable"
Chapter 7 Colts and Their Competitors
Chapter 8 The 1860's: A Decade of Advancing Technology
Chapter 9 Trailing Cattle
Chapter 10 Small but Deadly: Derringers and Other Pocket Protectors
Chapter 11 The Slaughter of the Bison
Chapter 12 Shotguns, Versatile and Deadly
Chapter 13 Pistols and Petticoats: Women as Shootists
Chapter 14From "Trapdoor" to Krag: The Post-Civil War Army
Chapter 15 Hunters' Choices: The '73 Winchester and Others
Chapter 16Artillery in the Frontier: Civilian and Military
Chapter 17 Guns of the Native Americans
Appendix AOpportunities to View Antique Firearms
Appendix BChronology
Notes
Bibliography
Index
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