"Bode's literary skills matched an inquisitive eye and wry wit and helped make his soldier narrative utterly endearing. . . . With unbridled curiosity, Bode makes sumptuous reading of even the most ordinary experiences."—Montana "Bode was extraordinary in intelligence, literacy, intellectual curiosity, and skill at writing and mapmaking. Accounts by privates and corporals in the post–Civil War infantry are rare; this is one of the best."—True West "Bode's observations offer a truer picture of the frontier military experience than some other books that try to glamorize such activities."—Ross McSwain, Standard Times