Saving the Donner Party And Forlorn Hope Richard F Kaufman 9781480809383 Books
Download As PDF : Saving the Donner Party And Forlorn Hope Richard F Kaufman 9781480809383 Books
Books, articles, and commentaries have told the story of how the storm of the century in the fall of 1846 trapped eighty-one innocent men, women, and children in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and how brave men risked their lives to save them. In Saving the Donner Party, author Dr. Richard F. Kaufman tells the story of the rescuers of the Donner Party. During the last two decades, Dr. Kaufman has compiled a record of historical documents and letters from Sutter's Fort State Park and the California State Library. He reviews the older literature with a more modern approach, introducing orbital satellite studies with panoramic descriptions of travel routes not seen before. Using historical weather statistics and tree ring technology, he presents a more thorough understanding of the so-called "storm of the century" that enveloped the Donner Party. His account focuses on the massive effort and expenditure of resources by the rescue parties, involving the progress of the Mexican War going on at that time. Saving the Donner Party presents an in-depth interpretation of the event with surprising revelations that changed the historical setting and legacy of California, adding richly to the literature of this topic and updating the knowledge of the Donner Party episode.
Saving the Donner Party And Forlorn Hope Richard F Kaufman 9781480809383 Books
Kaufman’s book on the specific treatment of the Donner Party rescues is an interesting stand-alone component of a familiar story, which caught my attention and led me to buy it. I was surprised that it was not a better seller among Donner Party buffs and historians, but as I read, it became apparent that a blur of conjecture, facts and unsupported claims made the book hard to track. More concerning, it was occasionally at odds with known facts, and a lack of needed citations that most certainly should have been in place.A helpful reference not included would be a detailed fold-out map linking the rescue route and significant points along the way from Johnson’s Ranch to Donner Pass down to the camps. A variety of sites are repeatedly referred to throughout the book and a quality map would make the drama easier to follow. Topo maps are included but next to useless because of their small size and fuzzy appearance.
To be fair, Kaufman does a good job of detailing the complexities of various rescue attempts and who went in and out and when, but his narrative is marred with some misinformation and inaccuracy. As I read, I felt as if a graduate student wrote the text for Kaufman, the emeritus professor who takes credit for this work. He did not seem to check for historical accuracy nor sought the employment of a paid proofreader (helping all aspiring master thesis students and PhD dissertation hopefuls to look good in print). This would have eliminated a surprising number of grammatical and punctuation errors contained in the book: But I will not throw the first stone here as most everyone, myself included, has had errors slip by at one time or another.
There are numerous examples of misinformation or partial information. Page xi in the introduction states that there were two cabins at the lake when the first fragment of the Donner Party arrived. Not so. There was one cabin built the previous year for Moses Shallenberger who wintered there during a less harsh winter. In another example, when the Donner Party tried to rescue itself via the snowshoe party, page 85 states that the two Indian guides Lewis and Salvador were murdered by William Foster, but oddly fails to say why; they were cannibalized.
Page 135 references the “Starved Camp” where Kaufman omits James Reed’s statement that he was not abandoning Patrick Breen and his family who decided to travel no further. This had a serious affect upon the rescue logistics. Additionally, there are other unidentified sources about children with dried blood on their faces and Lewis Keseburg reaching for a piece of human bone he had cooked disgorging its flesh before being taken back in chains by the fifth rescue/salvage party (as he was accused of murder). It’s hard to imagine that he was such a flight risk! The man could hardly walk. This makes great reading, but unfortunately there is no citation for the sources referred to. I would like to read them.
Finally, there was an incident involving John C. Fremont “directing” General Kearny and his contingent to the Donner Party campsites for cleanup during the spring of 1847. The author fails to mention that Fremont was directing nothing at this point in his career as he was being escorted, so to speak, back to Washington, D. C. where he was going to be court-martialed! Fremont, who rode ahead of Kearny to avoid contact with him (and the cleanup), was not going to the Donner camps exclusively but simply passing through.
It is a shame that more care was not taken in the production of this book. It had the potential to be shelved with the best of Donner party narratives, but misses the mark. My copy is filled with a panoply of red-flag comments and riddled with penciled notations throughout the text. Citation of this work must be viewed with caution and verified before quoting. Perhaps a heavily revised edition is in the making. I’ll look forward to it.
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Saving the Donner Party And Forlorn Hope Richard F Kaufman 9781480809383 Books Reviews
A great study of a significant historical event, little understood. Well researched, it uncovers a number of missing links contained in earlier historical accounts.
great book
This book is a terrific addition to the number of books that have been written about the Donner Party. For the first time readers (I am a family member of the Breens) the graphic details of the suffering endured by the survivors are compelling. Also the folly of some of the early decisions made by the party that lead to the tragedy are clearly outlined. From the historical perspective the book is well referenced and tells in a compelling manner the efforts made by many to rescue these pioneers. Even for anyone not particularly interested in the oft told story of the Donner Party, the reader will find the story one hard not to put down.
For someone like myself, a long time resident of Sacramento who has hiked the trails near Donner Summit and who knows the terrain, "Saving the Donner Party and Forlorn Hope" by Professor Richard Kaufman is an eye opener and a page turner. It fills a gap in the long history of writings about the 81 men, women and children on the last leg of their overland journey to California in covered wagons who were trapped by heavy snows in the Sierra Nevada Mountains during the winter of 1846/47. This book is not about the Donner Party per se, but rather about thirty-five men who organized and participated in five separate rescue attempts to bring out the starved, emaciated, frost bitten survivors. The appropriation of public and private funds and the gathering of supplies for the rescue parties through the efforts of John Sutter, Governor Stockton and other California political leaders of the time are described as well.
The author has done an admirable job of profiling key members of the rescue parties whom he groups into three categories first, those who sought glory and fame, second, the experienced backwoodsmen, some of questionable character, who did it for the pay, and finally the humanitarians who were truly volunteers. At the end of the book in a chapter entitled "What Happened to the Rescuers" the author closes out the life of 23 of the rescuers with a brief history of how and where they lived their lives afterwards.
Although the actual members of the Donner Party are not the main focus of Dr. Kaufman's book, of necessity he does get into the details of their ordeal and the shocking scene of mutilated bodies lying about in the snow that greeted the first relief party to reach the Donner Lake cabins. When the word got out that the living had survived by consuming the bodies of the dead, that fact did not change the rescuers' determination to continue their heroic efforts to bring-out as many survivors as was humanly possible. Under these circumstances one cannot but wonder about the terrible moral dilemma facing the mothers and fathers in the Donner Party. Had they not resorted to cannibalism, every one of the immigrants trapped in the mountains during that fateful winter of 1846/47would have starved to death. As it was, twenty-three children under the age of 16 were brought out alive.
Kaufman’s book on the specific treatment of the Donner Party rescues is an interesting stand-alone component of a familiar story, which caught my attention and led me to buy it. I was surprised that it was not a better seller among Donner Party buffs and historians, but as I read, it became apparent that a blur of conjecture, facts and unsupported claims made the book hard to track. More concerning, it was occasionally at odds with known facts, and a lack of needed citations that most certainly should have been in place.
A helpful reference not included would be a detailed fold-out map linking the rescue route and significant points along the way from Johnson’s Ranch to Donner Pass down to the camps. A variety of sites are repeatedly referred to throughout the book and a quality map would make the drama easier to follow. Topo maps are included but next to useless because of their small size and fuzzy appearance.
To be fair, Kaufman does a good job of detailing the complexities of various rescue attempts and who went in and out and when, but his narrative is marred with some misinformation and inaccuracy. As I read, I felt as if a graduate student wrote the text for Kaufman, the emeritus professor who takes credit for this work. He did not seem to check for historical accuracy nor sought the employment of a paid proofreader (helping all aspiring master thesis students and PhD dissertation hopefuls to look good in print). This would have eliminated a surprising number of grammatical and punctuation errors contained in the book But I will not throw the first stone here as most everyone, myself included, has had errors slip by at one time or another.
There are numerous examples of misinformation or partial information. Page xi in the introduction states that there were two cabins at the lake when the first fragment of the Donner Party arrived. Not so. There was one cabin built the previous year for Moses Shallenberger who wintered there during a less harsh winter. In another example, when the Donner Party tried to rescue itself via the snowshoe party, page 85 states that the two Indian guides Lewis and Salvador were murdered by William Foster, but oddly fails to say why; they were cannibalized.
Page 135 references the “Starved Camp” where Kaufman omits James Reed’s statement that he was not abandoning Patrick Breen and his family who decided to travel no further. This had a serious affect upon the rescue logistics. Additionally, there are other unidentified sources about children with dried blood on their faces and Lewis Keseburg reaching for a piece of human bone he had cooked disgorging its flesh before being taken back in chains by the fifth rescue/salvage party (as he was accused of murder). It’s hard to imagine that he was such a flight risk! The man could hardly walk. This makes great reading, but unfortunately there is no citation for the sources referred to. I would like to read them.
Finally, there was an incident involving John C. Fremont “directing” General Kearny and his contingent to the Donner Party campsites for cleanup during the spring of 1847. The author fails to mention that Fremont was directing nothing at this point in his career as he was being escorted, so to speak, back to Washington, D. C. where he was going to be court-martialed! Fremont, who rode ahead of Kearny to avoid contact with him (and the cleanup), was not going to the Donner camps exclusively but simply passing through.
It is a shame that more care was not taken in the production of this book. It had the potential to be shelved with the best of Donner party narratives, but misses the mark. My copy is filled with a panoply of red-flag comments and riddled with penciled notations throughout the text. Citation of this work must be viewed with caution and verified before quoting. Perhaps a heavily revised edition is in the making. I’ll look forward to it.
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