Days on the Road: Crossing the Plains in 1865

by Sarah Raymond Herndon

Book Overview

Sarah Raymond was an unmarried woman of twenty-four who in May 1865--barely a month after the end of the Civil War--mounted her beloved pony and headed west alongside the wagon carrying her mother and two younger brothers. They traveled by wagon train over the Great Plains toward the Rocky Mountains, with no certain idea of where they would settle themselves but a strong desire to leave war-torn Missouri behind and start a new life.Days on the Road...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1539786269
• ISBN13: 9781539786269
• Release Date: October 2016
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 107 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.3" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

pioneers

I liked this book. Nice descriptions. Interesting how she viewed her travels throughout the west. You could really imagine the places. I like the map. I was able to refer to it as she traversed the Midwest on her journey.

Great Read!

This diary is well written and thoughtful. The detail is really vivid.

Absolutely wonderful!

I found this diary charming and informative. Having always had a fascination with the time period and wagon trains, I couldn't put this book down. By the end of the book, I was saddened by the fact that Sarah didn't continue recording her life in Montana. I felt as if I had known her personally and was touched by the whole accounting of her travels.

Depictions of life on the trail

Enhanced with a Foreword by Mary Barmeyer O'Brien, Days On The Road: Crossing The Plains In 1865 is the personal diary of Sarah Raymond Herndon, a young pioneer woman who, as the dust from the Civil War settled, left the battle-scarred state of Missouri with her family and traveled overland to the Rocky Mountains in search of a new place to live and a new life to build. Sarah's daily insights, her depictions of life on the trail, her descriptions of the hardships, the triumphs, and the evocations of her memories, combine to form a vivid and accurate image of pioneer life through the words of a pioneer who headed west to escape the ravages of the American Civil War to start her life anew. Days On The Road is a welcome and strongly recommended addition to 19th Century American Studies reading lists and history collections.