The Story
November, 1879, Dakota Territory. Corporal John Taylor, one of “Custer’s avengers,” is bored and lonely at Fort Grummond, a small, isolated outpost associated with a Lakota Sioux reservation. Any glimpse of Jeannie Scheid, the beautiful 17-year-old daughter of the Indian agent, Orville Scheid, exacerbates his frustration.
Scheid insists the Indian children learn English. Chief Stone Bear refuses. Scheid blunders and uses a single, ill-chosen word that terrifies the reservation’s people. The Sioux kill some troopers and agency employees, kidnap Scheid’s family, and launch a desperate attempt to flee to Canada. Major Nelson Prescott conducts an equally desperate mission to stop them.
Taylor’s life and that of B Troop explodes in violence and tragedy. Pursuit by the cavalry is relentless, but the resistance of the Sioux is persistent and resourceful. All in the teeth of a brutal winter that grinds down both pursuers and pursued.
A climactic confrontation erupts at the Missouri River, shy of the Canadian border. Taylor rescues Jeannie, and he learns a lot more about the young woman, the Sioux, the Army, and himself.
Ride along with Taylor and his set of four – Sean O’Dea, Linus Skinner, Hans Klausmeyer, and himself – and B Troop during this epic struggle.
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Fort Grummond in my novel B Troop is fictitious. I did much research on the frontier army and the Indian wars, but historic forts from that period still exist. Below are just four videos of many that I made of some of them: Fort Larned, KS; Fort Laramie, WY; Fort Abraham Lincoln, ND; and Fort Bowie, AZ.
Nothing like visiting these forts to give you sense of history.
