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1 comments about The Life of Daniel Boone.

1. This book was way to general. We wanted more information on Daniel Boone. It might be good for young children to get them interested in him and want to learn more.

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2 comments about Soldier-Artist of the Great Reconnaissance: John C. Tidball and the 35th Parallel Pacific Railroad Survey.

1. This is the story of an expedition that began in July 1853, in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and ended seven months later in Los Angeles (population then 3,000) on the coast of California. The distance traveled (per the distance measuring device on a carretella) was 1,845.27 miles.
   
   The goal was to investigate the feasibility of a railroad to the Pacific coast along the 35th parallel. There was a similar expedition along the 32nd parallel, and two further north. Then Secretary of War Jefferson Davis was predisposed to the southernmost route as would be duly reflected in the report submitted to Congress.
   
   The commander of the 35th parallel expedition was Lieutenant Amiel Weeks Whipple (my great, great grandfather). Another key participant (he joined en route with a contingent of support troops) was Lieutenant John Tidball (a distant relative of the author).
   
   The book skillfully places the expedition in its historical context, including many details of the experiences of key participants before and after the expedition. It also paints a vivid picture of events along the way - including illness, hunger, rough and largely unknown terrain (Tidball et al. made some stunning sketches), and at times friendly, at other times tense interactions with the Indian tribes encountered - based on personal journals and notes (of Tidball and Whipple, among others) as well as the official report.
   
   Most of the men made it through, but the mules had a higher attrition rate and one wagon after another had to be abandoned until only one carretella was left.
   
   This and the other expeditions did not establish where the first railroad to the Pacific should be built (in the event, it would be considerably north of the 35th parallel). However, they did contribute a great deal to knowledge of vast unexplored areas of the United States, much as the Lewis and Clark expedition had done 50 years earlier, including not only the terrain, but also the flora, the fauna, and the native inhabitants.
   
   Our family has a number of volumes of the official report to Congress on the 35th parallel expedition, musty and over-sized volumes that I truthfully never felt the inclination to peruse. This book served as an excellent substitute, and I would recommend it to others with an interest in the expedition and/or the history of the southwest.



2. Founded on the high tide of the Enlightenment during the last quarter of the 18th Century by armed revolution, the United States was, by the middle of the 19th Century, riding the great waveof the industrial revolution of which there is perhaps no better exemplification than steam locomotion.
   
   Although a transcontinental railroad was first proposed in 1844, the United States did not then have clear title to lands west of the Rockies nor any title at all to the lands it subsequently acquired by annexation of Texas, the Mexican cession, and the Gadsden Purchase. But by 1853
   the situation had changed dramatically and serious interest in building a transcontinental line had developed as had sharp disagreement in Congress and elsewhere about its location.
   
   In terms of climate and terrain there was much to recommend the southern or 32nd parallel route running from Shreveport to San Diego advocated by Southern interests, including Jefferson Davis, then Secretary of War. Undertaking to finesse the fact that Congress would not agree to a particular route, it was decided to survey all feasible routes and let science make the decision.
   
   Four parties were sent into the field in 1853 to reconnoiter the routes that had dominated congressional debate: a northern route from St. Paul to Seattle, a central route from Kansas City
   through the central West to California, a route along the 35th parallel from Fort Smith, Arkansas to Los Angeles, and the southern route along the 32nd parallel from Shreveport, Louisiana across Texas to San Diego.
   
   "Soldier-Artist of the Great Reconnaissance" is the story of the survey along the 35th parallel as told by Eugene Tidball's distant relative, John C. Tidball, in his memoirs, diary, and marginal notes in his copy of the official report of the survey, augmented by the official and private journals
   of Lt. Amiel Weeks Whipple, the leader of the expedition, the journals of certain other members, and the official report of the survey. John Tidball had then recently been promoted to First Lieutenant, married in the East, and stationed sans bride at Fort Defiance in New Mexico Territory.
   
   The 35th parallel expedition pushed off from Fort Smith in July 1853. It comprised 110 men,including four commissioned officers, a dozen civilian scientists, enlisted escorts, herders, teamsters, drivers, packers, cooks, and orderlies, but not including Tidball who was then with his company at Fort Defiance, the most isolated post of the United States Army.
   
   The progress of the expedition was relatively swift and uneventful over the flatlands from Fort Smith to Albuquerque, where it arrived on October 5. In Albuquerque Whipple heard unsettling stories about the territory ahead and requested an additional escort of 25 calvary. He was notified
   that he could not have dragoons but could have mule-mounted infantrymen instead. The expedition moved on to Zuni which proved to be in the grip of an epidemic of smallpox. When it
   left Zuni on November 29 several of its members were infected. The contagion afflicted members of the party for a time but appears to have run its course without serious consequences and is not mentioned in the official report of the expedition.
   
   Lt. Tidball left Fort Defiance on December 3 with 25 infantrymen mounted on mules and a packer and caught up with the expedition on December 12 on the Little Colorado River east of San Francisco Mountain. The remainder of the trek from the Little Colorado to Los Angeles was considerably more arduous than had been the earlier part from Fort Smith. The expedition was now in uncharted hard-scrabble mountains in winter. Nevertheless, often on short rations, without water, and concerned about Indians, the members continued to do what they were there to do. They continued to study and sketch the flora, fauna, and geology, to collect specimens and to scout, measure, and sketch the way for a railroad. Balduin Mollhausen, the official artist of the expedition, was joined in the production of sketches and illustrations by Albert Campbell, engineer and surveyor, and by Tidball. Although most of the illustrations appearing in the official report are Mollhausen's, some are Campbell's and some are Tidball's, neither of whom was charged to produce art but both of whom were arguably better artists than Mollhausen.
   
   Because its location was so poorly described, the expedition had difficulty finding the Bill William's Fork that it proposed to follow to the Colorado River. When the Colorado was finally
   reached the rank and file of the party were extremely disappointed as they had been led to believe that California was a land of milk and honey and now the California side of the river appeared just as bleak, barren, and inhospitable as the New Mexico Territory side. But the prospect improved
   remarkably the nearer they drew to Los Angeles.
   
   Tidball left the expedition on the eastern side of the coast range and proceeded to the Army post at San Diego where he turned in his equipment and mules and from which he returned via Panama to the East Coast and his wife of less than a year. After an extended furlough, he was six days out from Fort Leavenworth, this time with his wife, on his way back to Fort Defiance when he received orders seconding him to the Coastal Survey. He spent the next five years on the East Coast during which time his company was reassigned, relieving Tidball of the anxiety of having to return to Fort Defiance.
   
   The 35th parallel survey party, which had left Fort Smith with 110 men, 13 wagons, two carretellas, and 245 mules, having traversed 1,845 miles and lost but one man, arrived in Los
   Angeles on March 21, 1854, with no wagons and one carretella but still with many of the mules.
   
   Eugene Tidball poses the question whether the Pacific railroad surveys were a success. He points out that, while they found all the routes feasible (and robbed the southern route of its claim of peculiar suitability to the chagrin of Jeff Davis and company), they did not immediately result in the construction of a transcontinental railroad nor in allaying controversy about the appropriate route. The first transcontinental line was not finished until 1869, roughly on what was styled the
   central route in 1853. Much later, the 35th parallel route became the Rock Island line from Memphis to Tucumcari, New Mexico, and westward from there the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa
   Fe Railway to Los Angeles. But the success of the undertaking, Tidball asserts, is the reports of the surveys published in 12 volumes composing a lavishly illustrated encyclopedic compendium of western geography, geology, botany, zoology, archeology, and ethnology.
   
   "Soldier-Artist of the Great Reconnaissance" is a valuable addition to the history of an undertaking that rivals in importance the explorations earlier in the century of the Corps of Discovery to our understanding of the American West in the 19th century. A great story of adventure, duty, dedication, and endurance.

1 comments about Captain Cook's World: Maps of the Life and Voyages of James Cook R. N..

1. This book caught my eye at Pearl Harbor on my first significant visit to Hawaii a few weeks ago. Had to order it as soon as I got home. Outstanding digest of Cook's lifetime of exploration. Excellent format with its mixture of concise narrative and outstanding maps. Fascinating "read", I couldn't put it down. Excellent level of detail -- enough to be truly educational -- not so much as to overload. Emotionally moving to recall standing on Hawaiian soil and try to imagine the worlds meeting in the explorations of Cook's time. This book helped stitch my own experience to the history of the explorations.

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1 comments about Blue-Collar Wings: Remembering Thirty Years of Private Flying.

1. I have to admit I was skeptical about the book at first since airplanes and flying are not really my thing. However, once I got into the book I found it very interesting. The author made you feel like you were inside the cockpit with him through the funny pilot screw ups, the hairy close calls and the beautiful scenery. Mr. Keith has lead an adventurous life that most of us only dream about. I am very proud to say that I am a co-worker and friend of Bob's. I can't wait for his next book! BA

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