Army Letters from an Officer's Wife, 1871-1888
Audio With External Links Item Preview
Share or Embed This Item
LibriVox recording of Army Letters from an Officer's Wife, 1871-1888, by Frances M. A. Roe. Read by Sue Anderson.
"There appeared from the bushes in front of me, and right in the path, two immense gray wolves . . . Rollo saw them and stopped instantly, giving deep sighs, preparing to snort, I knew . . . To give myself courage, I talked to the horse, slowly turning him around . . . when out of the bushes in front of us, there came a third wolf! The situation was not pleasant and without stopping to think, I said ‘Rollo, we must run him down - now do your best’ and taking a firm hold of the bridle, and bracing myself in the saddle, I struck the horse with my whip and gave an awful scream. . .”
Thus, the spunky and resourceful Frances Roe recounts one of her many adventures. Frances was the young wife of a West Point Army officer, whose career took them both to frontier garrisons in what are now the states of Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Utah, Montana, and Wyoming. Her letters home to her family in upstate New York, written between 1871 and 1888, and published in book form in 1909, are a fascinating chronicle of life on the frontier. Despite the grittiness of keeping house in tent-and-log-cabin quarters, Frances took to Western life, learning to shoot and ride (side saddle), fly fish for trout and hunt buffalo. Her letters, chatty and detailed, open windows on varied aspects of frontier and army life: army protocol (including the right of senior officers to bump subordinates out of their housing ); the Indian tribes--Arapahoe, Cheyenne, Apache, Kiowa (ceremonial visits from chiefs as well as Indian warfare); the black cavalry troops (at Camp Supply in Indian Territory); Chinese cooks (also Polish, Irish, and enlisted men doing kitchen duty). Her letters span years of rapid change in the West. They touch on the disappearance of the buffalo herds, the decline of the Indian tribes and the coming of the railroads. Even Yellowstone Park, established in 1872, gets a mention: “Now that the park can be reached by railroad, all of the generals, congressmen, and judges are seized with a desire to inspect it--in other words, it gives them a fine excuse for an outing at Uncle Sam’s expense.”
Her emotions run deep when she writes: “I love army life here in the West, and I love all the things that it brings to me--the grand mountains, the plains, and the fine hunting.” But, Frances’ husband, Fayette Washington Roe, is eventually promoted to a headquarters desk job. Frances tries to evinse enthusiasm for town life: “since I cannot return to the plains, I might as well go to the city, where we will meet people of culture.” But even shopping for the necessary clothes distresses her: “Parasols have bothered me. I would forget to open them in the street, and would invariably leave them in the stores when shopping and then have to go about looking them up.” She then utters a timeless cry of urban angst: “It is the feeling of loneliness I mind here--of being lost and no one to search for me.” (written at a hotel in Omaha, Nebraska in August 1888) Anyone with nostalgia for or curiosity about the Old American West will certainly enjoy this book. (Summary by Sue Anderson) For further information, including links to online text, reader information, RSS feeds, CD cover or other formats or languages (if available), please go to the LibriVox catalog page for this recording. For more free audio books or to become a volunteer reader, visit LibriVox.org. Download M4B Part 1 (163MB) Download M4B Part 2 (159MB)
Thus, the spunky and resourceful Frances Roe recounts one of her many adventures. Frances was the young wife of a West Point Army officer, whose career took them both to frontier garrisons in what are now the states of Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Utah, Montana, and Wyoming. Her letters home to her family in upstate New York, written between 1871 and 1888, and published in book form in 1909, are a fascinating chronicle of life on the frontier. Despite the grittiness of keeping house in tent-and-log-cabin quarters, Frances took to Western life, learning to shoot and ride (side saddle), fly fish for trout and hunt buffalo. Her letters, chatty and detailed, open windows on varied aspects of frontier and army life: army protocol (including the right of senior officers to bump subordinates out of their housing ); the Indian tribes--Arapahoe, Cheyenne, Apache, Kiowa (ceremonial visits from chiefs as well as Indian warfare); the black cavalry troops (at Camp Supply in Indian Territory); Chinese cooks (also Polish, Irish, and enlisted men doing kitchen duty). Her letters span years of rapid change in the West. They touch on the disappearance of the buffalo herds, the decline of the Indian tribes and the coming of the railroads. Even Yellowstone Park, established in 1872, gets a mention: “Now that the park can be reached by railroad, all of the generals, congressmen, and judges are seized with a desire to inspect it--in other words, it gives them a fine excuse for an outing at Uncle Sam’s expense.”
Her emotions run deep when she writes: “I love army life here in the West, and I love all the things that it brings to me--the grand mountains, the plains, and the fine hunting.” But, Frances’ husband, Fayette Washington Roe, is eventually promoted to a headquarters desk job. Frances tries to evinse enthusiasm for town life: “since I cannot return to the plains, I might as well go to the city, where we will meet people of culture.” But even shopping for the necessary clothes distresses her: “Parasols have bothered me. I would forget to open them in the street, and would invariably leave them in the stores when shopping and then have to go about looking them up.” She then utters a timeless cry of urban angst: “It is the feeling of loneliness I mind here--of being lost and no one to search for me.” (written at a hotel in Omaha, Nebraska in August 1888) Anyone with nostalgia for or curiosity about the Old American West will certainly enjoy this book. (Summary by Sue Anderson) For further information, including links to online text, reader information, RSS feeds, CD cover or other formats or languages (if available), please go to the LibriVox catalog page for this recording. For more free audio books or to become a volunteer reader, visit LibriVox.org. Download M4B Part 1 (163MB) Download M4B Part 2 (159MB)
- Addeddate
- 2010-01-08 21:48:35
- Boxid
- OL100020209
- Call number
- 3509
- External-identifier
- urn:storj:bucket:jvrrslrv7u4ubxymktudgzt3hnpq:army_letters_officers_wife_sa_librivox
- External_metadata_update
- 2019-04-17T06:52:40Z
- Identifier
- army_letters_officers_wife_sa_librivox
- Ocr
- tesseract 5.0.0-1-g862e
- Ocr_autonomous
- true
- Ocr_detected_lang
- en
- Ocr_detected_lang_conf
- 1.0000
- Ocr_detected_script
- Latin
- Ocr_detected_script_conf
- 1.0000
- Ocr_module_version
- 0.0.14
- Ocr_parameters
- -l eng+Latin
- Ppi
- 600
- Run time
- 11:36:28
- Taped by
- LibriVox
- Year
- 2010
comment
Reviews
Reviewer:
CarlSawyer
-
favoritefavoritefavoritefavoritefavorite -
August 15, 2010
Subject: Army Letters
Subject: Army Letters
Thank you Ms Anderson for a wonderful read of these fascinating letters from a fascinating lady.
Reviewer:
Dragonflyer
-
favoritefavoritefavoritefavoritefavorite -
August 1, 2010
Subject: Ditto
Subject: Ditto
Ditto
Reviewer:
benefitsingers
-
favoritefavoritefavoritefavoritefavorite -
July 28, 2010
Subject: Interesting and a question for the narrator
Subject: Interesting and a question for the narrator
The story was very interesting from a historical standpoint. The descriptions of life on the frontier were exceptional. I thought the end was a bit abrupt but then they were letters. The narrator was truly excellent; however, I was confused about the reference to Mrs. Ray. She pronounced Francis Roe in the librox spiel but in the book she referred to Mrs. Ray. I am just confused and it is not a criticism. Just wondering why. I thought this reader did a wonderful job of bringing the character to life. The books is not for those who are very sensitive to wording that would not be politically correct in our day. You must simply understand it in the context of the letters and those times. (Does not mean it was right to say those things either.) It does however show how differently people thought about other races and "foreigners" in those early days of America. I recommend this if you like history.
72,339 Views
13 Favorites
DOWNLOAD OPTIONS
128KBPS MP3
Uplevel BACK
46.3M
01 - 1871 download
35.5M
07 - 1874-1877 download
34.5M
08 - 1877 download
28.9M
11 - 1879-1880 download
30.4M
14 - 1881-1882 download
17.3M
16 - 1883-1884 download
18.7M
18 - 1884-1885 download
27.3M
19 - 1886-1887 download
64KBPS MP3
Uplevel BACK
23.2M
01 - 1871 download
17.7M
07 - 1874-1877 download
17.3M
08 - 1877 download
14.4M
11 - 1879-1880 download
15.2M
14 - 1881-1882 download
13.6M
19 - 1886-1887 download
IN COLLECTIONS
The LibriVox Free Audiobook Collection Audio Books & PoetryUploaded by librivoxbooks on