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Webmaster's Note: Historian
Douglas McChristian shares insights into the world of a western
historian and details about his book, "Fort Laramie: Military Bastion of the
High Plains". Jump here to read the
review of the book.
April 2012
Mr. McChristian's body of work is a required reference for many a historian.
Always within arm’s reach of my desk is “The U.S. Army in the West 1870-1880:
Uniforms, Weapons, and Equipment”. Also, “An Army of Marksmen” -- if you can locate a
copy at your favorite used bookstore -- is the definitive study of training in
the frontier army.
Bob Reece: You’ve published some of the best
material on the frontier army and the American West. “Fort Laramie: Military
Bastion of the High Plains” is just one of many and an incredible record of the
place. What motivated you to write about this iconic fort?
Douglas McChristian:
I appreciate your kind words. Doing the Fort Laramie history was a matter of
being in the right place at the right time. A couple of years after I began
working for the Intermountain Region as a research historian, one of the
projects to come up in the priorities was a Historic Resource Study (HRS) for Fort
Laramie. In view of the broad scope of that post’s history, a decision was made
to divide the study into three sections. In the end, a colleague who specialized
in the fur trade era was assigned the first, while I took the military and
post-military periods.
Sometime after the HRS was finished, Chuck Rankin at the University of Oklahoma
Press contacted me to ask if he might read my reports with a view to publishing
them. Although he liked them, he thought they were too long for a book and too
detailed, which they were, for a general readership. Chuck also asked if I would
combine the two reports into a book-length treatment. I told them I could do
all that, but wouldn’t have time until after I retired.
Were that not enough, Oklahoma also expressed an interest in publishing my Fort Bowie, Arizona: Combat Post of the Southwest, 1858-1894 study. However, my personal post-retirement priority was to complete Uniforms, Arms, And Equipment: The U.s. Army on the Western Frontier, 1880-1892 (Volume II)
a sequel to The U.S. Army in the West, 1870-1880: Uniforms, Weapons, and Equipment , which
I’d been working on for several years. I certainly didn’t have to worry about
what I would do after I retired. Fort Bowie came out in 2005 and by the time
Uniforms, Arms, and Equipment appeared in 2007, I was back at work on the Fort
Laramie project. Combining the two reports and pruning them down proved to be
more difficult than I had anticipated. Meantime, Oklahoma Press and the Arthur
H. Clark Co. joined forces and selected Fort Laramie as a title in Clark’s
Frontier Military Series. It finally saw print in 2009. That book was a long
time coming to fruition, but I’m extremely pleased with it.
B.R. What is your personal favorite event and person associated with the fort?
D.M.
Like a lot of folks, I’ve always been captivated by the Grattan fight. It’s
certainly one of the salient events associated with Fort Laramie. However, I
believe that Lieutenant Fleming’s skirmish with the Sioux near the North Platte
ferry in 1853 has been under-rated. In the past, it was given only a passing nod
without placing it in perspective. While the Grattan Fight may have been the
most immediate catalyst for the First Sioux War, the ferry incident was actually
the first armed conflict between the Sioux and the army in that vicinity. For
the Sioux, the confrontation sowed seeds of distrust that hadn’t existed
previously. On the army’s part, Fleming’s skirmish should have alerted higher
command to the potential for trouble at that isolated, undermanned garrison. But
that didn’t happen until a year later when Grattan really blew the lid off the
situation, and his actions very nearly resulted in the destruction of Fort
Laramie. And who was Grattan’s immediate superior? Lt. Hugh Fleming. I think
these incidents are properly viewed together in the context of deteriorating
government relations with the Sioux.
A personal favorite of mine concerns the “attack” on Fort Laramie in 1864.
Everyone, including me, had always accepted at face value Capt. Eugene Ware’s
account of this incident because we considered Ware to be a reliable witness. I
even related that story in a History Channel interview to illustrate that most
western forts didn’t have walls around them. Later, during my research on Fort
Laramie, I discovered to my chagrin that Ware’s version of the incident was an
embellished, second-hand distortion of what actually occurred. We got it right
in the book, but I cringed every time they re-ran that program on TV.
John Hunton is one of my favorite characters in the Fort Laramie story. Hunton,
an ex-Confederate soldier, arrived at the post in 1867 and found employment with
the sutler. He remained at or in the vicinity of Fort Laramie for the rest of
his life and was responsible for saving some of the buildings extant today.
And there’s that fixture at the post, Ordnance Sergeant Leodegar Schnyder. What
a crusty old curmudgeon. Schnyder came to Fort Laramie as a Sixth Infantryman in
1849 and stayed there until 1886. Can you imagine? He witnessed the entire
pageant of Fort Laramie’s military occupancy, everything except its abandonment.
He was present during all the significant events, yet he didn’t record a single
word for posterity! Small wonder that historians curse him. What stories he and
Hunton could have told us. Can you imagine sitting down with those two? They
could have answered so many of our questions.
B.R. What was the title of the show on the History Channel so we can be sure to look
for it in reruns?
D.M. The subject was forts, but I don’t recall the exact title. I
haven’t seen it for a long time.
B.R. Looking back, do you recall a moment in your life when you discovered your
love for the study of history?
D.M. It wasn’t like being struck by a lightning bolt. I think I had a natural
inclination toward history. My mother was a teacher and my maternal grandmother
was the county librarian. Consequently I spent a lot of time just poking around
the stacks. I remember reading juvenile mysteries and adventures, until I
eventually stumbled onto the World War II section. There I discovered titles
like Brave Men , Guadalcanal Diary (Modern Library War) , The Battle is the Payoff, and a multi-volume
pictorial history. I think I nearly wore out that set.
I also spent a lot of my time at the library during hot Kansas summers, at least
when my older brother didn’t press me into helping with his lawn mowing
business. I recall discovering a real treasure-trove in Miller’s The Photographic History of the Civil War in Ten Volumes , largely neglected high atop a shelf, which required my
grandmother to use a ladder. That got me started on the Civil War. I immersed
myself in those volumes for many enjoyable hours, though I think my grandmother
became a little annoyed with having to climb that ladder so often. Later, during
my junior high years, I did a lot reading about the Civil War.
My dad influenced me too, though I think unintentionally. He enjoyed reading for
pleasure, particularly things of a western historical nature. I grew up in the
small town of LaCrosse, about midway between historic Fort Hays and Fort Larned.
Of course, the forts hadn’t yet been set aside as parks in those days. They were
just there and he took me to see them. A family vacation in 1956, when I was
nine, was especially memorable. We traveled to the state of Washington to visit
relatives and along the way I remember stopping at Scotts Bluff, Fort Laramie,
Fort Casper, and Custer Battlefield, among other places. I was really intrigued
by the Battle of the Little Bighorn and I treasured the historical handbook my
parents bought at the visitor center. In fact, I still have that worn copy here
on my shelf.
B.R. When did you know you wanted to make a career from history?
D.M. It was during another family vacation in the summer of 1964. I was about to
enter my senior year in high school and was beginning to consider what I would
do after graduation. My interests lay in the field of history, but my exposure
to the profession was quite limited. The only historians I knew were high school
teachers. I was certain of one thing-- I didn’t want to spend my life teaching
in a classroom. On that trip we again visited Fort Laramie and Custer
Battlefield. I took notice of the park rangers and my wheels began to turn. I
clearly remember thinking, “Now that would be the job to have, working where
history happened.”
After listening to a talk at Fort Laramie, I mustered the courage to approach
the ranger. That ranger, he and I now believe, was none other than Jack
McDermott, who was supervisory historian there at that time. He kindly briefed
me about the types of jobs in the ranger series, the educational requirements,
and how to apply. That contact, incidentally, made a lasting impression on me.
Whenever young folks asked me the same question throughout my career with the
National Park Service, I took them seriously, as he had done for me. I always
hoped that one of those seeds might take root.
B.R. That’s incredibly gracious of you Doug.
D.M. Thank you. Getting back to my story, I returned to school with a sense of
direction. One day during study hall, I happened to find a two-volume
encyclopedia on careers. (Small schools didn’t have career counselors.) Upon
turning to the National Park Service, I was presented with a photo of a ranger
in Class A uniform standing beside a Civil War cannon talking with some
visitors. I said to myself, “That’s it. That what I want to be.”
I have to add that when I entered college the following year, I was assigned to
Dr. Leo Oliva as my advisor and mentor. That was fortunate. Dr. Oliva happened
to specialize in frontier military history. His first book, Soldiers On the
Santa Fe Trail, was published a couple of years later, so we had a common
interest. He was a great inspiration and encouragement for me to pursue my goal.
B.R. When I first met you, you were employed at Little Bighorn where you would
serve as chief historian and acting superintendent. Where did you start your
career with the NPS?
D.M. I started at Fort Larned National Historic Site, about thirty miles from my
hometown. It was authorized as a unit of the Park System in 1966. By the
following year the site had its first superintendent. My parents had read an
interview with him in a statewide newspaper and suggested that I contact him
about summer employment. So I made an appointment. He explained that they
weren’t ready to begin on-site interpretation and didn’t yet have funding for
seasonal rangers. However, the good news was that he hoped to be able to hire
one the next year to establish an NPS presence at the fort. He encouraged me to
contact him again the following winter and sent me home with an application
form. The short of it is that I had the minor distinction of being hired in 1968
as the first seasonal ranger-historian at Fort Larned. After I graduated from
college the following year, I continued working there until 1972, when I was
offered the position as park historian at Fort Davis NHS in Texas.
B.R. When did you make the move to Fort Laramie and what did you do while there?
D.M. I’m assuming you mean the position I held there in the late ‘90s, but that
wasn’t my first stint at Fort Laramie. I served there previously as supervisory
historian from 1975-78. During that assignment I was occupied with the usual
operational duties--interpretive program management, division administration,
working with the cooperating association, and so forth.
My second assignment at Fort Laramie came in 1995, but not as a member of the
park staff. The position was that of research historian for the Intermountain
Regional Office in Denver. Since the Service was in process of reorganizing and
down-sizing central offices at that time, I proposed that my duty station be at
a field area not too distant from Denver—say, Fort Laramie. Management bought
into the idea, so that’s how I happened to go there again. Needless to say, I
was tickled to return to one of my favorite places.
My job entailed producing studies requested by parks within the Intermountain
Region and assigned by the history program manager in Denver. The projects were
many and varied, including historic resource studies, administrative histories,
and special studies. Sometimes I was detailed to do work for other government
organizations that had funding for historical studies, but not the staff to
produce them. So, I wound up doing projects for the Army and the Air Force at
various times. Those provided me with valuable experience in researching
subjects—the Cold War for instance--that I never would have pursued otherwise.
B.R. What was the highlight for you during your career with the NPS?
D.M. That’s not as easy to answer as you might think. Highlights come in various
forms. For instance, I look back upon the summer programs at Fort Laramie during
1976 and 1977 with a great deal of personal satisfaction. We had a remarkably
capable, enthusiastic bunch of people, including the maintenance personnel, on
the staff at that time. The seasonal interpreters were really top-notch. It was
a team effort and we had a lot of fun in the process. Two of those individuals
went on to pursue careers in the NPS and another spent his career with the
Wyoming Historic Sites Division.
B.R. Our paths came close to crossing back then. My first visit to the Plains
was in August of 1978. On my way to the Black Hills, I stopped at Fort Laramie
where I had my first experience with living history.
D.M. In terms of tangible accomplishments, one that ranks right up there would be the
restoration and refurnishing of a Tenth Cavalry barracks at Fort Davis. That had
been a lingering and seemingly unattainable goal of the park’s master plan since
the 1960s. It was an ambitious, costly project and was competing for the
available money in the historic preservation program. The preservation of
original resources took priority, which it should. During my tenure there as
superintendent, 1980-1986, we established the restoration as a goal and formed
the Friends of Fort Davis. Working with that group, we raised money through
grant applications and fund-raising events, and obtained donated in-kind
services. Again, we had a dedicated staff that brought their own special talents
to the effort. We accomplished our goal in about four years. That barracks
continues to provide a permanent focus on the Buffalo Soldiers and their service
on the frontier.
B.R. Now that you’ve retired from the NPS, what are you doing with the extra time
you have?
D.M. I devote much of my time to research projects, large and small, and writing for
publication. It’s something I enjoy doing, though it often seems a lot like
work. I usually have a book project underway, but I maintain a “to do” list of
article topics as they come to mind. It’s nice to be able to establish my own
priorities and not have deadlines, except when publishers set them. Then too, I
read, review manuscripts for publishers from time to time, and do book reviews
for some of the journals. Beyond that, Frances and I go antiquing, do some
traveling, host friends from the north during winter months, go target shooting,
and work around our place here in Tucson.
B.R. Regarding your books, how do you decide on the subject to write about?
D.M. It has to be a subject that interests me and arouses my curiosity. Then I
consider what other publications on the same subject may be out there and
whether there is a need to be filled.
Most of my books have stemmed from my longtime interest in the Indian Wars, the
regular army of that era, and its material culture. My first, a monograph titled
Army of Marksmen , began with my acquisition of an 1885 army marksmanship
manual. That prompted me to question how and when army marksmanship training
originated. Eventually I wrote it up for publication by our friend Mike Koury.
B.R. I found a copy last year! Another great work you’ve done.
D.M. It’s certainly no secret that I’ve been a collector and student of army uniforms
and equipment of the Indian Wars. Many years ago, I commented to my
historian-friend Gordon Chappell that I wished someone would write a
comprehensive book on the subject. He challenged me with a simple question, “Why
don’t you do it?” That started me thinking, and eventually led to U.S. Army in
the West and subsequently to Uniforms, Arms, and Equipment.
I was fortunate in being given the opportunities to write Fort Laramie and Fort
Bowie as NPS history studies. Those came my way because I was familiar with the
subject area and resources. As I’ve explained, I later re-worked them into books
for general audiences.
B.R. Once you make that decision, what processes do you follow while researching
a subject to publication?
D.M. It has a lot to do with how much I already know about a subject when I start.
Some projects require a lot of background reading for basic grounding in the
subject, others not so much. One also has to determine what resources are out
there, which involves consulting bibliographies, published guides and indexes,
library and archival catalogs, and on-line resources. The Internet has become a
great research asset for surveying archival resources. We used to have to do
that by letter, phone, and personal visits. That’s still necessary to some
extent, but going on-line can certainly narrow the field. Then I determine which
collections I need to actually visit; then I work up a travel schedule. Once I
begin gathering material, I organize it according to the nature of the subject.
I’m a traditionalist, I guess, in that I compile notes. It’s laborious, but it’s
the way I was trained and I find it essential to comparing, evaluating,
interpreting, and eventually writing up the material.
B.R. What advice would you share with young aspiring historians?
D.M. 1. Be willing and able to invest much of yourself and your time. In my opinion,
essential qualities include initiative, dedication, and self-discipline. One has
to be able to maintain a focus for long periods of time.
2. Don’t expect to get rich, and don’t give up your day job. The reward for
historians is largely the satisfaction one takes in producing and making a
contribution to the field.
B.R. Excellent advice, Doug; especially your second answer. Are you working on a
new book or project? If so, what is it and is there one interesting discovery so
far that you can share with us?
D.M. The project on the front burner right now is a book tentatively titled,
“Frontier Cavalry Trooper: The Letters of Private Eddie Matthews, 1869-1874.”
This was a significant discovery I made in the course of my research on another
study. The letters present an unrivaled account of army life as seen through the
eyes of an enlisted man on the Arizona/New Mexico frontier. Publication is
projected for spring 2013 by the University of New Mexico Press.
B.R. I most definitely look forward to that. Finally, if resources and time were
not an issue, what is the dream story in history to write about?
D.M. My forthcoming book of the Matthews letters comes pretty close to that. With my
intense interest in the frontier regulars, I’ve always hoped to find a good,
first-hand account that would warrant publication. Now I’m finally going to
realize that. However, one historian’s dream project is not necessarily
another’s. Each of us has to work in areas we find personally fulfilling.
B.R. I very much appreciate you taking the time to talk with us today,
Doug. I want to also personally thank you for the work that you do. You have
made great contributions in our understanding of life in the frontier army and
how it equipped its soldiers.
D.M. You're welcome Bob.
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