Interesting new or old books?!

I'm reading "So wild a dream" by Win Blevins. At this point I'm not real sure about it.
His research seems fairly complete but one thing really bothers me. To the point where I'm not sure I'll read any more by him.
Twice now, he has stated that when someone fired thier rifle it belched forth a large cloud of "Black Smoke". But to be fair with him he's not the first person I've heard say this. I always just assumed they hadn't really ever shot or seen a ML shot.
Maybe I'm partially color blind but I see the grains of Black Powder as "Black" and the smoke it generates as "White".
This may be a small point to some but to me the guns, horns and pouches etc. are more important than beads and other stuff.
Other than that it seems a fair tale of the "Shining times" I just keep getting hung up over that Black smoke.

I love Win's work, the last book I read by him was Charbeneau.
Currently, I'm reading Unredeemed Captive by Demos. I've had the book for years and am just now getting around to reading it in its entirety.

"Massacre at Fall's Creek" by Jessamyn West

A good read concerning the events leading up to the first time a white man was tried for murder over the killing of natives.

Darkhorse said:

...
Twice now, he has stated that when someone fired thier rifle it belched forth a large cloud of "Black Smoke". But to be fair with him he's not the first person I've heard say this. I always just assumed they hadn't really ever shot or seen a ML shot.
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I think he must have been taking some sort of poetic license here. I know Win Blevins knows what a black powder rifle looks like when it goes off. The only time I ever met him was at a Wyoming state shoot many years ago. I helped him set up his new baker tent and talked with him a bit over the three days of the shoot.

I have an autographed copy of "Give Your Heart to the Hawks and a first edition of "Carry the Wind" from that weekend.

"Carry the Wind was written by Terry Johnson and both books are great reads. I especially like the whole series of the Titus Bass epics. I wish some one would make a weekly serial for television off of those books and do it right. From start to finish the series is excellent.

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Anyone of you ever read one of the books by Dale Payne?
His new book:The Pioneers - Their Lives and Adventures
Dale Payne's 'The Pioneers' is based on the Lyman C. Draper Manuscripts but incorporates other historical documents as[url] well.In[/url] 'The Pioneers' he brings 16 individuals to life:Henry Skaggs, Edmund Jennings, Thomas Sharpe Spencer, Issac Crabtree, Hugh F. Bell, James Galloway, Bland Ballard, William Linn, Michael Cassiday, The Harmans, Col. Robert Patterson, James Ray, Joseph Bishop, Charles Poke, David Morgan, and William Haymond, Jr..
Never read one of his books.
:hatsoff:

A friend just sent me this report on a new book he read .. I intend to get it and read it as well ..

Guys ... I just finished reading Hampton Sides' excellent new book, "Blood and Thunder", and highly recommend it to anyone interested in Manifest Destiny, western expansion, southwestern history, Navajo history, Kit Carson, the Civil War in the west, the Mexican War, J.C. Fremont, and on and on.

It's an expansive narrative history that reads like a novel, in it's approach to history through biography. I couldn't put it down.
Don't miss this one, it's a keeper.

Davy

Skagan said:

Currently, I'm reading Unredeemed Captive by Demos. I've had the book for years and am just now getting around to reading it in its entirety.

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Skagan,I have long been fascinated with captivity accounts and the book"Unredeemed captive" about Eunice Williams by John Demos is one of my two favorites, the other being the account of Mary Jemison,"The White Woman of the Genesee".The story of Eunice Williams is truly poignant and shows us another side to the image of captive white women so often presented by[url] Hollywood.In[/url] February I will be at Deerfield,Mass. for the reenactment of the pull back of the French and Indians after their highly successful raid on February 29,1704.We did this event in 2004,the 300th aniversary and I am looking foward to repeating the raid next February.We fought in the snow in 2004 and hopefully we will do so this time as well.
Tom Patton

I hope we will have some snow this year
In 1704 the raiders walked over the fence
with snowshoes , in 2004 , with the snowshoes on our back
we mostly tried to avoid water pudles .
There could be some truth it this global warming thing ....... :hmm:

Right now I'm reading "PASSAGE TO NATCHEZ" by Cameron Judd, and I just finished "THE GLORY RIVER" also by Cameron Judd. Both pretty much deal with early 19th Cen. around KY, MS, areas. I almost fell like I'm in the middle of the action with his writing. I have read "THE OVERMOUNTAIN MEN","THE BORDER MEN", and "THE CANEBRAKE MEN" also written by him. These 3 deal with Tennessee and Kentucky over about 40 or so years, from 1750's to 1800.

Took me years to get it but I finally acquired and read John F. C. Fuller's The British Light Infantry in the Eighteenth Century. Fuller is better known for his pre-WW II works on tanks and was one of the leading tank theorists before WW II. While he rehashes many of the older books, it's an excellent read and well worth getting through your inter-library loan.

There are some slight inaccuracies in it that modern scholarship will disprove, but members of this board can easily figure it out. For instance, he mentions the American riflemen at the Battle of Bunker's Hill. The New Englander was predominantly equipped with smoothbore muskets and fowlers. Rifles were a novelty item to them and if there were any at that battle, they were certainly in the minority.

My father recently gave me a copy of one he read as a teenager: Great Shooting Stories, by Stuart Ludlum (Doubleday & Co., 1947). Everything from The Revolutionary Rifle to Westerns, Target, Hunting, Military, and Harry Pope. Excellent IMHO.

I found a reprint of The Prarie Traveler by Captain Randolph B.Marcy.It was a handbook for travelers that was published in 1859.It is a great source for info about what they had and what they were were supposed to do while crossing the prairie.The reprint is published by Applewood Books.

i got both of mark bakers books for christmas, scot sibleys powderhorn book this week,a book on figerweaving basics, and will be getting tc alberts pouch book in the mail anyday now.

My new book on Tipis-Tepees-Teepees just came out in print. It goes into the history of the cloth tipi and how it should look with lots of first person information describling how tipis really look in the 1830s' to 1860s'. This might be of great help for those on the site who want that look.

I just finished "White Devil" very good book. Although not a muzzleloading book I highly recomend "The Old Man and The Boy" by Robert Ruark a lot of hunting and fishing stories, a lot of laughs, a tear or two, and some good common horse sense.

undertaker said:

Anyone of you ever read one of the books by Dale Payne?
His new book:The Pioneers - Their Lives and Adventures
Dale Payne's 'The Pioneers' is based on the Lyman C. Draper Manuscripts but incorporates other historical documents as[url] well.In[/url] 'The Pioneers' he brings 16 individuals to life:Henry Skaggs, Edmund Jennings, Thomas Sharpe Spencer, Issac Crabtree, Hugh F. Bell, James Galloway, Bland Ballard, William Linn, Michael Cassiday, The Harmans, Col. Robert Patterson, James Ray, Joseph Bishop, Charles Poke, David Morgan, and William Haymond, Jr..
Never read one of his books.
:hatsoff:

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Yes, I bought all of them. Must reading for anyone interested in the early days of Kentucky-Ohio R areas. They are compilations of the Draper manuscripts and other sources.

Also, I highly recommend "One Vast Winter Count" by Colin Calloway. It is the history of the American Indian west of the Alleghenies from (?) the beginning until Lewis & Clark. Calloway is one of our better historian writers (prof at Dartmouth) and I have now read three or four of his books [the American Indian in the Revolution, 1763 The Scratch of a Pen, and another I cannot dredge up right now].

I just picked up: Lewis & Clark -- Tailor Made, Trail Worn: Army Life, Clothing, & Weapons of the Corps of Discovery. Robert J. Moore Jr. and Michael Haynes.

It seems to contradict some information in Undaunted Curage, by Ambrose. Unfortunately, I don't know which is fact. Anyway, here is one review:
[url] http://www.ausa.org/webpub/DeptArmyMagazine.nsf/byid/CCRN-6CCS9P[/url]

Although not black powder per se .. the Peter Capstick books are good uns .. Death in the Long Grass, Death in the Silent Places etc. about African dangerous game hunting .. many stories there about the old ivory hunters. :hatsoff:

Davy

If you're from Indiana, you should read A Home in the Woods, Pioneer Life in Indiana. It's a quick, fun read.