A Soldier’s Diary: Corporal Robert Walter Main, Courier to General Custer, 1874-1875

What you hold in your hands is a compilation of handwritten journal entries, a window into a world that no longer exists: the frontier, the untamed wilderness, nowadays referred to as the Wild West. Writing in his diaries during 1874 and 1875, young Robert Walter Main – one of the long line of English Mains who landed more that 200 years earlier on the shores of York, Maine – served his United States as an Army Courier in the 7th Cavalry under General George Armstrong Custer. At night, Corporal Main routinely declined his fellow soldier’s offers to play poker, and instead sat in the corner of the fort’s main room, warm and safe by the fire, and faithfully documented the day’s exploits. Main’s diaries give us a glimpse into an era where one traveled by horseback, or perchance bedded down in a rattlesnake pit, or survived attack by a pack of wolves in the middle of the night. Life threatening injuries at the hands of Indian ambush was always a possibility, as was being captured by the famous warrior Chief Red Cloud. A Soldier’s Diary will leave you with a first hand sense of the hazardous and wild experiences, and thoughtful introspection of this brave courier while serving his country in the ever volatile Indian country.