On Earth's Remotest Bounds: Year One: Blood and Water

By William F. McNeil

ON EARTH'S REMOTEST BOUNDS
is the story of the far-frontier bastion called Fort Atkinson, built on the Council Bluff made famous by the Indian parley held with Lewis and Clark there in 1804. It is a saga of a fledgling, struggling nation with a most tenuous toehold on a massive territory. The fort faces threats from Indians, British, and nature itself. It is a fascinating and brutal time little chronicled, falling between the Revolution and the main westward expansion, when American attitudes, character, and policies were being shaped. It is filled with names of heroes like Riley and Leavenworth, the friends and relatives of Lewis and Clark, famed explorers like Long and Kearney, and folklore figures like Jim Bridger, Mike Fink, and Hugh Glass. Year One: BLOOD and WATER chronicles the first year of the thousand-man expedition as it battles hundreds of miles up the wild Missouri on primitive steamboats and keels to reach the bluff and build its first fort. Here the exhausted men must survive a winter plagued by severe weather, food shortages, a scurvy epidemic felling hundreds, and a devastating flood. They hang on by courage and sheer doggedness to begin a new fortress atop the high Council Bluff.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0595320597
• ISBN13: 9780595320592
• Release Date: June 2004
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Length: 348 Pages
• Weight: 1.12 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

On Earth's Remotest Bounds: Adventure at its best

Not since Steven Ambrose's "Undaunted Courage" has a historical novel kept me spellbound so consistently. Having a fair familiarity with the history of Fort Atkinson on the Missouri, I can say that Mr. Flint has done his research and turned a little known but fascinating period of American's development into a must-read for history buffs and fans of adventure alike. For me, the engaging quality of this book is only enhanced...

The story of an forgotten army of American heroes.

In 1819 an American expeditionary force was sent out to challenge a vast wilderness. The force was the Missouri Expedition, the first major expedition to follow in the trail opened by Lewis and Clark fifteen years before. Not only was their endeavor the first of its kind for America, utilizing a fleet of newly invented steamboats to carry over a thousand soldiers of the 6th Infantry and 1st Rifle Regiments over 650 miles up...