Historic advance guards of civilization or perpetrators of brutality -- both sides of the popular image of soldiers in the Old West contain elements of truth, but neither is correct. "The story of the military frontier of the American West, is far more complex," writes Paul Hutton in his preface.

The biographies in this collection emphasize the wide diversity of style, temperament, activity, and occupation that marked the careers of frontier soldiers. the officers in the anthology represent the solder as explorer, topographer, engineer, administrator, writer, scientist, combat officer, policy formulator, and subaltern.