Command

 

James Warner Bellah wrote a number of short stories dealing with the Indian Wars in the Old West, with many of them centered on troopers stationed at the fictional Fort Starke. Bellah created a Fort Starke universe, with the same cast of reoccuring characters. These stories were originally published in The Saturday Evening Post in the late 1940s. 

I had never gotten around to reading any of them, since Bellah's stuff is out-of-print and has yet to appear electronically. Buying used paperbacks isn't necessarily an option. The 1962 anthology Reveille reprinted many of the Fort Starke stories, costs over a hundred bucks on the used book market.

But at least a few of his stories can be found online. For instance, I found his 1946 story "Command" HERE.

I loved the radio adaptation done on Escape in 1949 (listen to that HERE), but was driven to finally find and read the original when it was mentioned prominently on the excellent Six-Gun Justice Podcast. It's a great story. Captain Nathan Brittles is leading a troop of cavalry in search of another missing troop. Also along is a relatively inexperienced officer named Cohill.

The missing troopers are found--all are dead, having run into hostile Indians and come out on the losing end of the ensuing fight. Brittles orders a return to Fort Starke--his orders are simply to find the missing patrol and report back. In fact, standing orders dictate that the troopers can only fight if attacked.

Cohill wants to pursue and attack the Indians regardless. In fact, he's pretty disgusted with Brittles. He doesn't confront the captain directly, but by golly, he thinks about it. He even more than half-convinces himself that if a fight does occur, he might have to take over.

But there is a lot more to Brittles than Cohill believes. Heck, when the movie She Wore a Yellow Ribbon was produced in 1949 (based on two Bellah stories, with a few elements drawn from "Command" as well), Brittles is played by John Wayne. You don't get more on the ball than that.

Both the action and the character development plays out in a satisfying manner, bringing "Command" to a strong conclusion. In fact, it's amazing how much in terms of both plot and characterization Bellah manages to put into the short story.

It's definitely worth reading. I just wish more of his Fort Starke stories were available. I'm tempted to pay $15.00 for a years' subscription to the Saturday Evening Post so I can also gain access to electronic copies of their back issues. I could use that to make my own PDF anthology of the stories.

By the way, I found a nifty chronology of Bellah's Fort Starke stories HERE.