Charles King

Born in Albany, New York, in 1844, Charles King grew up in a prominent military family and later graduated from West Point. He served in the U.S. Army after the Civil War, spent years on frontier duty, and was badly wounded in 1876 during the Sioux campaign.

After leaving regular army service, he built a second career as a remarkably productive writer. King published dozens of novels, stories, and historical works, many inspired by military posts, cavalry life, and the American frontier, and he became one of the best-known popular authors of his day.

He also returned to military service in later years, including during the Spanish-American War, and remained a respected public figure in Wisconsin. Today he is remembered both as a soldier and as a writer who helped shape popular fiction about the nineteenth-century American army and the West.