Drawing on a wealth of soldiers' narratives and personal letters augmented with official records and contemporary sources, John Haymond examines what life was like for the ordinary American soldier during the years when the US Army experienced some of its toughest challenges while also undergoing the greatest transformation in its history.

In the years following the Civil War, the U.S. Army underwent a professional decline. Soldiers served their enlistments at remote, nameless posts from Arizona to Alaska. Harsh weather, bad food and poor conditions were adversaries as dangerous as Indian raiders. Yet under these circumstances, men continued to enlist for $13 a month. Drawing on soldiers' narratives, personal letters and official records, the author explores the common soldier's experience during the Reconstruction Era, the Indian Wars, the Spanish-American War, the Philippine-American War and the Punitive Expedition into Mexico.