An Antietam Veteran's Montana Journey: The Lost Memoir of James Howard Lowell

by Katharine Seaton Squires (Editor), Ken Robison (Foreword by), Castle McLaughlin PhD (Foreword by)

Overview

In this recently unearthed memoir, Civil War veteran James Howard Lowell offers a firsthand account of his brutal journey west on a wagon train attacked by Indian Dog Soldiers. The Boston Yank staggers snow blind through a Laramie Plains blizzard to reach Salt Lake City, where he meets Brigham Young. In Montana, he joins an old forty-niner to work a mining claim, practices "tomahawk jurisprudence" in Fort Benton and builds a mackinaw to head downriver through Deadman Rapids to trade with the Crow and Gros Ventre tribes. Lowell's great-great-granddaughter edits this tale populated with colorful characters, narrow escapes and important historical events, such as the Baker Massacre. It features Lowell's letters to his sweetheart and Civil War correspondence.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781467139670
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	07/09/2018
Series:	Civil War Series
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.70(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Katharine Seaton Squires's primary career was in the news business, first as an on-air reporter and then as a writer-producer for CBS News, CBS Sports, NBC Sports and CNBC. She worked on three Olympic Games as a writer and producer. She holds a BA in art and English from Rutgers University, Douglass College, and an MA from the University of Missouri Graduate School in journalism. Squires's rescue of Lowell's memoir from her mother's dresser drawer in 2012 set into motion a wide-ranging study of the American Civil War and post-Civil War history.

Table of Contents

Foreword Castle McLaughlin., PhD 15

Foreword Ken Robison 19

Editor's Note 21

Preface 23

Acknowledgements 25

Introduction 27

I The Memoir

Dull Day Jottings 1872 37

A First Few Words 37

A Change of Base 38

The Plains Across: Kansas to Colorado, 1865 40

Denver: Clerking at the Planter's House Hotel 48

Salt Lake City Bound, 1866 51

The Mormon City: Lowell Meets Brigham Young 56

North to Montana: Wintering in Deer Lodge, W.A.C. Ryan 62

Opening and Operating a Placer 65

Diggings with William Horace Clagett 69

Hunting and Mining with Coggswell the Forty-Niner 73

Helena: A Chance Encounter with Morrow P. Lowry 77

Confederate Gulch, Diamond City, 1867 78

Thompson's Gulch: The Antelope Hunt 81

Indian summer in Montana 86

A New Deal 87

Gold Creek Mines: A Boston Yankee in Confederate Guise 88

Two Seasons in Thompson's Gulch 90

A Diversion 92

A Queer Vacation, Solitary Winter 1868-69 93

Fort Benton and Environs, 1869, Alexander Culbertson 98

Tomahawk Jurisprudence and Vigilante Justice 102

Benton 1869-71, The Kanackers 114

Stern-Wheeled Boats 116

The Baker Massacre 120

Indian Medicine 125

The Old Fort Benton 127

Indian Trading and Adventure: Senator Thomas C. Bower, Courtenay's Wood Yard 132

Gordon's Stronghold 137

Ca-but 138

A Feast and a Trade: Revenge, Murder, and Siege at Camp Cooke 142

Dawson County 158

Return Stateside with the Ashley Family 160

Epilogue. Lowell Returns to the States 165

II Correspondence

Introduction to the Correspondence 171

Letters to Kate Mary Roberts 173

Exchange with Yellowstone Explorer Charles W. Cook 185

Charles Sumner Ashley 1899 Letter to Lowell 193

The Civil War Correspondence 196

Lowell's Regiment 197

Post-Antietam Letter to Brother 204

Letter to Father 205

Letter to Son 205

Massachusetts Thirteenth Circulars 211

Circular 23 211

Circular 27 213

Circular 33 216

Circular 34 216

Appendix

Lowell's Descendants and the Provenance of the Journal 219

Ancestry 222

Obituaries: James Howard Lowell and Katherine Mary (Roberts) Lowell 225

Letter from Walter Swan to Samuel Derrick Webster 228

Notes 229

Selected Bibliography 243

Index 249

About the Editor 253