Cover Art Description:
Scouting was avital function in the frontier army. A position often filled by Indians, the scout ranged far from the main force, looking for signs ofadversaries. Military commanders employed non-Indian civilian scouts,too--usually ex-mountain men or wolfers, who knew the area's major watercourses, trails, and mountains. All of the commanders who feature in this frontier-military issue relied on scouts' reconnaissance.
Frederic Remington, the premier painter of western military adventure, captured a civilian scout in action in the painting that graces the front cover (oil on canvas, 26 1/2" x 20 1/2", circa 1907). "Relying on a minimum of detail to highlight the action," The Scout, according to one art historian, "employs a pictorial format which Remington used frequently in . . . his paintings. . . ."
The eagle on the front cover is a Remington illustration from Personal Recollections (Chicago, 1897).
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