author
George H. Pettis
b. 1834
A Civil War veteran turned memoirist, this writer left vivid firsthand accounts of the American West at war. His books draw on his service with the California Volunteers and focus on campaigns, soldiers, and frontier fighting in the 1860s.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born on March 17, 1834, in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, George Henry Pettis later became an officer in Company K of the 1st Infantry, California Volunteers. Archival and library records connect him closely with the Civil War campaigns of the American Southwest, especially service in New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas.
Pettis is remembered less as a literary stylist than as a participant who wrote from experience. His best-known works include Frontier Service During the Rebellion; or, A History of Company K, First Infantry, California Volunteers, The California Column, and Kit Carson's Fight with the Comanche and Kiowa Indians, at the Adobe Walls on the Canadian River, November 25th, 1864. Together, they preserve a soldier's-eye view of military life on the far western frontier.
He published these works late in life, helping record parts of the Civil War that are often overshadowed by battles in the eastern United States. George H. Pettis died in 1909.