76. COOKE, Philip St. George. Scenes and
Adventures in the Army. Philadelphia: Lindsay and
Blakiston, 1857. 432 pp. 12mo, original dark green cloth
with gilt title on spine. A few flecks on front cover and
slight shelf wear, front hinge cracked, else very good.
First
edition. Connor & Faulk, North America
Divided 76. Field 359: "The author was personally
engaged in several battles with the Comanches and the Sacs
and Foxes, and nearly half his volume is composed of
narratives of events connected with Indian warfare." Graff
871. Haferkorn, p. 79. Howes C740: "Personal narrative of
service in the West...escorting Santa Fe traders and Oregon
emigrants." Plains & Rockies 288a: "Cooke’s
career in the west began in 1829, with his tour as a
lieutenant in the military escort commanded by Major Bennet
Riley to guard the Santa Fe traders from depredations. In
1831 he was stationed at Fort Atkinson on the Missouri. In
1845 he set out from Fort Leavenworth (with a command) to
escort emigrants bound for Oregon and he returned to Fort
Leavenworth by way of Bent’s Fort in the latter part
of August, when the book ends....Cooke wrote ably about his
own adventures, and stories that he heard from others as
well." Rittenhouse 132: "Cooke’s first book about his
Western experiences, describing his service with the 2nd
Dragoons along the Santa Fe Trail." Pingenot:
Cooke’s career was largely in the West, beginning
as an escort for a Santa Fe caravan in 1829, and including
service at Ft. Atkinson in 1831 and on the Oregon Trail in
1845, which is as far as this volume carries his story. An
interesting military memoir. He gives a long account of
Hugh Glass’s adventures, and there is much interesting
material on Walker, Fitzpatrick, and others of the old
plainsmen. Very scarce in the first edition in which the
author’s rank is given as Lieut. Colonel.
($300-600)