Stones, Bullets and Blood

In the early fall of 1867, on the plains of Western Kansas, a little-known but important fight took place between a large number of experienced Southern Cheyenne warriors and a small detachment of inexperienced 10th Cavalry troopers. It was the Battle of the Saline River and it was the first major engagement of a group of soldiers who came to be called “The Buffalo Soldiers.” Follow the desperate battle through the eyes of both the cavalry troopers and the Cheyenne warriors. But not all battles were between soldiers and Indians. Soldiers often fought among themselves. Fort Hays was established in 1865 to protect white settlers, stagecoaches and freight wagons, and to ensure that the Kansas Pacific railroad was completed from Kansas City to Denver, across the contested plains. The Army had specific rules for how these western forts were to be built but two officers at Fort Hays had different ways of interpreting those rules. This battle of wills and authority resulted in both serious and comical results. Sometimes battles were waged between man and beast. Doctors were the early naturalists of America and you will follow one young military physician as he sets out alone to document the flora and fauna of western Kansas, only to abruptly cross paths with a hungry mountain lion. He is injured and is left alone on the prairie, defending himself from not only several ferocious predators but Mother Nature as well. These stories, based on actual events, are chronicled in the second installment of the “Tales of the Sergeant Major” and continue to tell the stories of Fort Hays, Kansas, in the late 1800s. They are stories of action, intrigue and adventure made up of “Stones, Bullets and Blood.”