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The Captured: A True Story of Abduction by Indians on the Texas Frontier |  | Author: Scott Zesch
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Category: Book
List Price: $15.95
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Rating:  44 reviews
Sales Rank: 19933
Media: Paperback
Pages: 384
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.5 x 1.1
ISBN: 0312317891
Dewey Decimal Number: 976.44049725
EAN: 9780312317898
ASIN: 0312317891
Publication Date: December 27, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
On New Year+s Day 1870, ten-year-old Adolph Korn was kidnapped by Plains Indians. For three years, he thrived on their rough, nomadic existence, becoming a fierce warrior. Never readjusting to white society, he spent his last years in a cave, all but forgotten by his family. That is, until Scott Zesch stumbled over his great-great-great uncle+s grave. Determined to understand how a timid farm boy could have become so Indianized, Zesch traveled across the west, digging through archives, speaking with Comanche elders, and tracking eight other child captives with hauntingly similar experiences.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 44
Teutonic Comanches November 16, 2005
Smallchief
65 out of 65 found this review helpful
I was pleasantly surprised at how good this book is. Author Zesch has turned out what should become a minor classic of Texas and Western history.
"Captured" is about the experiences of nine White children captured by Comanches and Apaches from 1865 to 1871. The children lived among the Indians for up to 12 years. Several of them were members of the large German-speaking community which settled in the Texas Hill Country west of San Antonio.
As the author wryly notes the only career path for Comanche men was "warrior" and the author details many of the brutal battles between Comanche and Texan. There are massacres and atrocities and gore galore here, but also a bit of humor and humanity. White children captives were often treated kindly and adopted into the tribe. Despite being eyewitnesses to the murder of their families, several of the male captives profiled by Zesch came to prefer the wild and free life of a Comanche warrior to that of a Texas sodbuster. Most notably, Herman Lehmann was one of the last few Comanche holdouts to surrender to the Whites in 1878 and he was a willing and enthusiastic participant in many battles against White soldiers and raids on White communities. Zesch also details the inability of the freed captives to readjust to life as Whites. Most became alienated drifters and a few later rejoined the defeated Comanches on reservations in Oklahoma. Many also lived to ripe old ages.
There are many volumes of stories about Whites being taken captive by and living among the Indians. This is the best I have read. The author delves into reasons why so many White captives came to prefer living among Indians rather than returning to their own culture.
Smallchief
Fascinating and bittersweet history May 26, 2005
Claudia McGill (Wyncote, PA)
31 out of 31 found this review helpful
This book tells the story of some ordinary children who had extraordinary experiences, and the immediacy and directness of the author's writing makes their long-ago world come alive. The premise of the book, searching for the facts to flesh out the story of a long-forgotten relative, grows into something larger and more emotionally-ridden than simple history. This book is fascinating and you won't want to put it down once you start - not the usual thing for a non-fiction account. I was left with a lot to think about at the end of the book, about the way society handled things 100 years ago, the effects of their exeriences on these children... and I also wondered how I or anyone I know would have reacted in these circumstances, circumstances which still come up at some place in the world today every day.
My Echo of Other 5 Star Reviews! July 13, 2006
John Boland (USA)
20 out of 21 found this review helpful
I usually like to "put in my two cents" with an Amazon review when there aren't any other reviews or when I disagree strongly with the other reviews. Why just "echo" what other people are saying, I figure? But, this book is so well-written and fascinatin' that I gotta write somethin'. This is one of those few books that you'll remember and think about for a long time to come.
I "read" this book using "Books on Tape" audio CD. (You can get this book on ONE Mp3 CD---very convenient to listen while you're in your car or waiting in line someplace)
I liked the book so much I just ordered my own hardcopy! Also, I ordered some of the "source books" mentioned in the narrative. Maybe I'll review those when I read 'em. As a result of reading this book, maybe sometime in the future I'll travel to "the hill country" of Texas and Fort Sill, Oklahoma to take a look see myself at where some of the events took place. This book is a "DaVinci Code" for people who love history and who appreciate a good story! Enjoy! Email:boland7214@aol.
Riveting - manages to be fascinating, funny, & sad January 1, 2005
Swiss Miss (Falls Church, VA)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
The author manages to work some humor into this wonderful account of Indian captives on the Texas Frontier. Indians were noted for their generosity and this sometimes worked against them, even when they could have used the income. Zesch relates the story of one captive who wrote his life story many years later, but ended up giving away copies to almost everyone instead of making some money, which he sorely needed. There's a lot of sadness in this book, too. Many of the captives lived the remainder of their lives never quite living fully in either the white man or the Indian's world.
Praise for Scott Zesch January 6, 2005
Wayne Bethard (Longview, Texas)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
Computers, flash drives, and Internet download capability permit today's authors amazing ease and accuracy in their writing. Still, it requires a writer to do months and sometimes years of research then sit before a keyboard and peck out twenty-six little letters of an alphabet into words, sentences, paragraphs, chapters and volumes that warrant a reader to occasion his or her valuable past time. Scott Zesch has done a remarkable job here with America's past. Anyone who reads The Captured cannot help but become connected to the captives in this book. Scott not only tells a riveting story, he does it with style in what might be called that ambiguous category known as creative non-fiction---truth which evolves as an expression that explores all possibilities, a release of imagination in a world that argues what realities really were.
This is a must read for every Western Historian, Writer, and serious reader, especially Texans. Highly recommended. Wayne Bethard, pharmacist, medical historian, author of Lotions, Potions, and Deadly Elixirs-Frontier Medicine in America.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 44
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