Tending the Talking Wire: A Buck Sergeant's View of Indian Country 1863-1866. Edited by William E. Unrau.
Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1979. First Printing of the First US Edition. A Fine tight copy in a Fine unclipped dust jacket. Hervey Johnson, of Hillsboro, Ohio, was a private in the 11th Ohio Cavalry, stationed in the mid-1860s at a string of small posts along the Sweetwater River from Independence Rock to South Pass, 100 miles to the west. Their main duty was to protect the line of the transcontinental telegraph—“the line,” he calls it here. Frequently the line was cut by American Indian tribesmen; often large portions of the line were carried away to make it more difficult to repair During his three years in the Army, Johnson wrote about 100 letters home to his sisters and mother in Ohio. The family were Quakers, so he often uses the pronouns “thee” and “thy” instead of “you” and “your.” From various sources at the time he heard about the July 25, 1865, battle at Platte Bridge Station. At the time he wrote this letter, Johnson was stationed at a post on the Sweetwater near Independence Rock, about 55 miles west of Platte Bridge, which he generally refers to here as “the Bridge.”. Item #27309
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