Horse Soldier, 1881-1916, Volume 3: The Last of the Indian Wars, the Spanish-American War, the Brink of the Great War 1881-1916

This is the third volume of a projected four-volume work delineating, in text and voluminous illustrations, every aspect of the uniforms and equipment of that most colorful of all United States military forces--the cavalry.

In Volumes I and II the author described and pictured the uniforms, arms, and equipment of the cavalry from Revolutionary days to the outbreak of the Indian Wars. In this volume the author addresses the period of the cavalry's decisive conquest of the Indians and the securing of the western frontier, the Spanish-American War and the glory of "Teddy Roosevelt's boys," and the years when the thunder of the Great War in Europe was echoing ominously across the Atlantic to America.

Each era made its demands upon the horse soldier and his mount, and the author shows how the government dressed, armed, and supplied them to meet those demands. Volume III, like the earlier volumes, is lavishly illustrated with two color plates and 168 black-and-white drawing, meticulously detailed.

This book and the two earlier volumes in the series are indispensable reference works for researchers and historians of America's military past.

Randy Steffen, who died early in 1977, while these volumes were in production, was born in Maverick County, Texas of part Sioux-Cheyenne Indian descent. He was the author of more than a thousand articles on military and western history. His paintings, drawings, and sculpture have appeared in exhibits and publications in this country, Europe, South Africa, and Australia. In 1976 he was presented the George Washington Award by the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge for his contributions to American history. At the time of his death he was a Governor of the Company of Military Historians. He was the author of United States Military Saddles (1973), also published by the University of Oklahoma Press.