Randolph Barnes Marcy (1812-1887) was a career officer in the United States Army, achieving the rank of Brigadier General before retiring in 1881. Marcya??s 1859 book, The Prairie Traveler written at the direction of the Department of State and published by the U. S. government, has been called one of the most important works in making possible the great Western overland migration of the United States in the last half of the 1800s. Marcy provided the overland pioneer with literally life-or-death advice on, packing, choosing the best routes to California, wagon maintenance and the selection and care of horses, food supplies, packing, travelling, fording rivers, tracking, and bivouacking on the plains, finding and treating water, building a fire, avoiding quicksand, treating snakebites, and other first-aid procedures. He was extremely well-read and observant, and The Prairie Traveler is replete with references and quotes from Turkish and French experiences colonizing and pacifying North...