April 2008

Prairie Settlment in Nebraska

A few days ago I ran into a part of the Library of Congress’ website American Memory. American Memory is a large archive of letters, documents, etc from various times during American history. Just from the little bit of browsing I did through the archives, there appears to be quite an extensiv...

Introducing Captain Jack and the Modocs

I am currently working on a multi-part series of articles on the Modoc Indians. I will post them here as I finish each part. They are going to cover a bit of Modoc history as well as culture and will eventually dive into their eventual submission to the US government in the late 19th century....

Noah Webster

Although I am currently studying abroad in Germany this year, one of the courses I’m taking this semester at my German university is called “American English: History and Variation”. I have never really thought about the history of American English before or about how the differenc...

Indians and the Imperial Powers of Europe

At the university library, I came across a book by the title A Companion to The American West, edited by William Deverell, and have been slowly working my way through it. The book is a series of essays that talk about what the American west is, how the west is defined and how the definition...

Mr. Lincoln’s White House

If you are bored and have a couple of hours to kill, I highly recommend a website I have just come across called Mr. Lincoln’s White House. There is detailed information about the White House itself during his presidency as well as stories about Lincoln and happenings at the White House during...

General Terry’s Order to Colonel Custer

While doing research for one of my projects about the Indian Wars, I ran into the letter that General Terry sent to Colonel Custer that ordered the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Custer’s famous last stand against the Indians. I’ve typed the letter up and have decided to post it here. Col...

The American West by Dee Brown

A couple of weeks ago I just finished reading a book called The American West by Dee Brown. For anyone that wants a general overview of the American west, it is a great book. It really focuses on the settlement of the American west after the Civil War, The Indian Wars, the large cattle drives,...

New Photos of Lincoln’s Second Inauguration

This evening I was browsing a few different history sites and on one of them, AmericanHeritage.com, I ran into an interesting article about new photos of President Lincoln’s second inauguration that were miscataloged at the Library of Congress. They were discovered by Carl Jennings of Berthoud...

Starting Out

Well, I suppose I will begin with a little about myself. My name is Alex Seifert and I am currently an undergraduate student at the University of Wyoming who is studying German and history. My focus is primarily the history of the American west with a focus on postbellum 19th century America. I have...