The Horse Soldier 1776–1943. Volume III by Randy Steffen (review)

64 Western American Literature There are many to watch. Novelist Thomas Sanchez. Short story writers Richard Dokey and William Rintoul. Poets George Keithley, Bill Hotchkiss, and Lawson Inada. But the diverse talents and voices of these valley writers serve an even more valuable purpose. “They remind us,” the editors say, “that there are still tales and verses about distinct groups of people inhabiting specific parts of the country, who we are not likely to see on network television, where other tale-tellers conspire with the fast-food chains to absorb all our differ­ ences into one homogeneous, coast-to-coast mythology.” What we have here instead are storytellers and poets of the soil who lead us back to what we have forgotten, to the lives and myths which exist in a world apart from those served up for mindless consumption by the mesmerizing Tube. The illuminations offered by Heartland’s writers go far beyond the games, sitcoms, and commercials which have become our prevailing cultural shibboleths. By the paradox of art, the well-defined literature of the Central Valley gives us a glimpse into the mysterious hinterland of ourselves, a vision of our own interior nature. Here is a country worth discovery. Here is region­ alism that is more than local color. Here is the heartland in which each of us dwells. HOWARD LACHTMAN, Stockton, California The Horse Soldier 1776-1943. Volume III. By Randy Steffen. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1977. 268 pages, $25.00.) This is an illustrator’s view of the cavalry. The author’s purpose is to provide a detailed picture of the cavalry over its entire 167 year history. Volume III covers the years 1881-1916, the period of transition from the blue uniforms of the nineteenth century to the drab uniforms of this century. It is difficult to overestimate the variety and depth of detail that a writer or an illustrator may from time to time need or that a student of cavalry may find edifying. The Horse Soldier is an example of a source book that provides this kind of fine-grained detail. Steffen has incorporated entire sets of specifications for the manufacture of uniforms and equipment and regulations governing their use. He also gives a running account of orders and regulations that altered, often subtly, the wearing of uniforms and the arrangement and use of equipment as well as those regulations Reviews 65 that promulgated new styles of uniforms and adopted new types of arms and equipment. The author’s illustrations mesh very well with the text and with the overall purpose of the book. The style is well suited to this type of exposi­ tion. The drawings have been meticulously executed and often make per­ fectly clear what some of those delightfully arcane nineteenth century regu­ lations and specifications had otherwise made obscure. They often make clear how various items worked as well as how they looked. Such things as the arrangement of equipment on the trooper or the saddle, the relative size of these items, and their methods of attachment need to be illustrated. The consistency of style of these illustrations also promotes comparisons among the different periods and provides a view of the evolution of uni­ forms, arms and equipment. The effectiveness of the illustrations, however, might have been enhanced by more use of color, especially in depictions of uniforms. The arrangement of illustrations and text has been well done, the lay­ out is appealing, and index and table of contents are adequate. The second new paragraph on page 261 is garbled but is one of few printer’s errors in what is otherwise an impressive volume. JOHN TAYLOR, Fort Collins, Colorado Swimming Man Burning. By Terrence Kilpatrick. (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1977. 230 pages, $8.50.) Terrence Kilpatrick’s Swimming Man Burning — “A Rip-Roaring Novel of the American West,” the subtitle tells us — is set in the 1870s and centers around four Plains Indians (a Kiowa, a Comanche, an Arapaho, and a Sioux) who embark on a decidedly bizarre mission. Following a year’s schooling in the whites’ language and manners, the Indians set out for the East Coast, intent on seeing the Great White Father...