Buffalo Soldiers, Braves, and the Brass: The Story of Fort Robinson, Nebraska

This was required reading for a graduate course in the history of American military affairs. The activities of the frontier army were indeed vast, and the types of people that lived on the frontier forts were just as diverse. This essay will now shift its focus to the diverse range of people that lived on the nineteenth-century frontier, and it will analyze some of the literature that focuses on the lives of these people. Frank Schubert's Buffalo Soldiers, Braves, and the Brass: The Story of Fort Robinson, Nebraska offers a unique glimpse into the social configuration of the American West. Schubert uses Fort Robinson as an example of an average fort community, and he argues there were three separate components within this community. According to Schubert, the fort community included "officers with their wives and children, married enlisted men and their families, and the single men in the barracks." His work explores the lives of each group, giving the reader an understanding of the experiences of all classes of frontier soldiers. Schubert also points out that Fort Robinson was unique because it was home to many enlisted African-American men; therefore, "race relations formed a significant part of the post's history." He maintains that African-American enlisted men and their families faced struggles on the frontier their white counterparts did not, namely discrimination. Schubert's work is useful because it introduces the reader to the experiences of different kinds of people on the nineteenth-century frontier. Schubert explores the experiences of women during westward expansion, and discusses some of the issues that specifically touched the lives of frontier women. For example, he maintains that women formed "small, tightly knit societies" on the frontier, and he explains they used "feminine tasks....-cooking, sewing, visiting, and talking-to pass most of the hours, weeks, and even years." He also spends some time discussing childbirth, courting, and childrearing, all of which were relevant to women's lives on the frontier. He surveys the lives of women ranging from officers' wives to laundresses, which presents an all encompassing view of nineteenth-century frontier women. Recommended reading for anyone interested in military history, and American history.