Stotts relates his experiences joining the army at St. Louis in 1866 and traveling over the Great Plains to Fort Lyon, Colorado. He describes killing buffalo, a Native American village, Fort Dodge and Buffalo Bill, Bent's Fort, flooding of Fort Lyon and the construction of New Fort Lyon, and the wars with Native American tribes, including comments on General Goerge Custer and the death of Black Kettle, a chief of the Cheyenne.

Five letters from George W. Smith to his mother. The sixth item are regimental orders announcing Smith's death.

Describes frontier life in Kansas 1866-1869 while Gorden worked as a telegraph operator for the Kansas Pacific Railroad.