Give me Eighty Men: Women and the Myth

The story of the Fetterman Fight, near Fort Phil Kearney in present-day Wyoming in 1866, is based entirely on this imfamous declaration attributed to Capt. William J. Fetterman. Historical accounts cite this statement in support of the premise that bravado and contempt for the fort's commander, Col. Henry B. Carrington, compelled Fetterman to disobey direct orders from Carrington and lead his men into an ambush by an alliance of Plains Indians. 
In the aftermath of the incident, Carrington's superiors positioned him as solely accountable for the "massacre" by suppressing exonerating evidence. In the face of this betrayal, Carrington's first and second wives came to their husband's defense by publishing books presenting his version of the deadly encounter. 
In this fascinating book, Shannon D. Smith reexamines the works of the two Mrs. Carringtons in the context of contemporary evidence. Give Me Eighty Men both challenges standard interpretations of this American myth and shows the powerful influence of female writers in the nineteenth and twentieth centurys.