Following the Drum

Tales From Under the Family Tree Following the Drum By Ethel Cushing Brant Come along on the adventures with a young army wife in the early 1900s. From the Wild West to the Philippines to the Mexican border, Ethel Cushing Brant (1882-1941) describes the rigors and gaieties of traveling with the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry Regiment, known as the Buffalo Soldiers. Using colorful descriptions and witty insights, she tells interesting, historical, and humorous events, all along showing the caliber of the army wife to patiently and unwearyingly adapt to the many hardships of following the drum. Ethel grew up as a single child in a privileged, high-society family in New York City. Her life dramatically changed after marrying Gerald Brant immediately following his 1904 graduation from the US Military Academy at West Point. When I close my eyes and think back to that little, untried person, who stepped out of her warm, sheltered, cotton-wool existence into the most adventurous, hand-to-mouth, catch-as-catch-can life she could have chosen, I realize, oh so poignantly, that experience is certainly the best teacher, but she is like a tigress teaching her cubs-she cuffs them about a lot, especially in the Army. There is a bonus appendix: Memoirs from Ethel's Husband, Major General Gerald C. Brant (1880-1958). - Ethel Virginia Brant Bauer Edited by: 2 Ethel Virginia Brant Bauer