Unexpected Company

During the Indian Wars period, some fifteen years duration following the Civil War, the Army had forts scattered throughout the Western Territories to protect what few settlers were already there and to ensure the safety of an ever-increasing arrival of immigrants and miners from the East. As more settlers arrived, tensions rose as Indian lands were being taken up. Confrontations were inevitable.

The painting depicts an early morning scene of a survey party from Col. McKenzie's 5th Cavalry in Arizona near a waterhole in the vast desert. Two Comanche warriors approach, one gesturing peace toward the approaching wary sentinel. After all, they all had to share the water.