A social history of life in the frontier army based largely on an examination of the army novels of Captain Charles King. Having read all King's western fiction, both in book and magazine form, the author recognized that many segments were autobiographical in origin and was satisfied that large portions of the novels grew out of King's own experiences. From these passages in his fiction there emerged a multidimensional image of the people and the places of the Old Army and a sense of the atmosphere of those times not to be found in any other factual or official account...