Harvey Johnson's letters offer a fascinating first-person account of the critical Indian War years on the high plains of eastern Wyoming during which a confederation of Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho Indians successfully defended their Powder River buffalo range. 
 
Stationed at Fort Laramie, Deer Creek, Sweetwater, and the Platte Bridge, this young Quaker volunteer - who joined up to avoid fighting in the Civil War - experienced events firsthand while he and his companions of the Eleventh Ohio Volunteer Cavalry  guarded the newly strung transcontinental telegraph and protected thousands of emigrants on their way to Utah, California, and Oregon.