“Douglas C. McChristian has struck the mother lode with the publication of Frontier Cavalry Trooper: The Letters of Private Eddie Matthews, 1869–1874. . . . With editor McChristian’s expert help, readers learn much about the tedium of frontier military service, punctuated by brief bursts of excitement in pursuit of deserters, criminals, or hostile Indians. . . . Correspondence from enlisted men serving in the frontier army is rare; letters of this breadth and depth provide unique insight into the everyday life of the common soldier in the post-Civil War Southwest.”—Journal of Arizona History
“Frontier Cavalry Trooper, a newfound treasure, is the best day-to-day account of an enlisted man in the American frontier army. In the hands of editor Douglas C. McChristian, it becomes an instant Western classic.”—R. Eli Paul, author of Blue Water Creek and the First Sioux War, 1854–1856
