I’m currently doing a history course on the American west from 1850-1890. To include the Civil War
I wondered if anyone else has an interest in this period?

very much interest there!
I collect Morgan Silver Dollars and always wonder who had had them before I have?

The American Civil war has always interested me. This is because it was the first war, I think, that was photographed. I can actually see what happened as opposed to just reading about it.
Some of the pictures are hard to look at. the piles of bodies along a hedge row. What a tragedy.

And all the more interesting with the battles with native Americans being fought at the same time.
Yes the photographs are so clear and there were many paintings too.
Are any of the original forts still standing?

American Indians experienced battle at such places as Pea Ridge, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor and Petersburg. Tribes like the Pamunkey in Virginia were loyal to the Union, putting their lives at stake to serve as pilots and scouts on gunboats travelling Virginia waterways.

Native Americans played a vital role in the history of the United States of America. During the unrest and upheaval of the Civil War, many Native Americans pledged their allegiance to the Union or Confederacy. The Native Americans assembled armies and participated in the battles.

Most tribal leaders in Indian Territory aligned with the Confederacy. A total of at least 7,860 Native Americans from the Indian Territory participated in the Confederate Army, as both officers and enlisted men; most came from the Five Civilized Tribes: the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole nations.

There were conflicts between Native Americans and emigrants along the trail, but, when compared to the number of people traveling the Oregon Trail, deaths by Indians attacks were very rare. It is estimated that between 1840 and 1860, Native Americans killed 362 emigrants, and emigrants killed 426 Indians.

Really interesting facts Robin, and of course all the western movies we watched growing up portrayed the Native Americans as the baddies. Only in the last 50 years or so did we get ones showing the other side.

Much of what was presented as the genuine history of the US western advance and development is almost pure fiction, a romanticised, miss telling of the story mostly to cover all the actual misdeeds of the early American settlers, many who would not have survived had it not been for the Native Americans, whom they later repaid with cruelty. A history of conquest, colonisation, deceit and destruction that they have largely continued into the 21st Century.