Emerging America Story Analysis

Emerging America Story

John Riley grew up in Memphis, Tennessee. He had a very rough life as a young kid, his family was poor and consisted of a mom and dad and his brother. When he was only 6 years old his mother and older brother both died of cholera due to bad living conditions, leaving John and his dad Cliff the only two in the family. Cliff worked on the railroad and had served in the Confederate Army in the Civil War. John went to school up to the 3rd grade but had to get a job to support him and Cliff, he got a job as a street sweeper. Cliff’s health was beginning to deteriorate, he had taken some injuries in the Civil War and with the physical labor of the railroad job, and he was always tired and very sore. When he was 14 he got a job as a grain hauler. He would take the grain, load it on the horse, When John reached the age of 16 his father died because of an accident on the railroad. John was devastated, his dad Cliff was all he had left and now he was gone. John decided the

He was trained as a cavalry soldier, because of his experience with riding horses. He was sent to Fort Riley, Kansas to train and learn how to be a soldier. He was put in the 7th cavalry under the command General Custer. After he was done with his training the 7th cavalry they went out and roamed around the prairie and made sure that the settlers weren’t under attack from the Native Americans and that the Indians were staying on their reservations. They would scout and patrol the area and then they would head back to Fort Riley, Kansas to get new equipment and recharge. On his off time he would go fishing in the creek and go hunting for rabbits and raccoons. One day when they came back they had gotten orders that they were going to go up to Fort Ellis in Montana to see what was going on with the Native Americans, the word was that many Indian tribes had left their reservations and had gathered up by the Little Bighorn River in