Randolph B. (Randolph Barnes) Marcy

Randolph Barnes Marcy was a United States Army officer born in 1812 who became known for his long service on the western frontier and for turning that experience into popular writing. He graduated from West Point in 1832, served in the Mexican-American War, and later took part in several expeditions across Texas and the southern Plains.

He is especially remembered as the author of The Prairie Traveler (1859), a guidebook drawn from real overland travel experience. It became a widely used handbook for emigrants, soldiers, and anyone interested in crossing the country at a time when practical knowledge of routes, supplies, and survival mattered deeply.

During the Civil War, Marcy served as a Union officer and was closely connected to General George B. McClellan, who had married his daughter Mary Ellen. He later wrote memoirs including Thirty Years of Army Life on the Border and Border Reminiscences, leaving behind a vivid record of military life, exploration, and travel in nineteenth-century America.