Memoirs of Gen. W. T. Sherman Vol. 2  Pgs. 413 & 414

…They naturally looked for new homes to the great West, to the new  
Territories and States as far as the Pacific coast, and we realize to-day
that the vigorous men who control Kansas, Nebraska, Dakota,
Montana, Colorado, etc., etc., were soldiers of the civil war.  These men
flocked to the plains, and were rather stimulated than retarded by the
danger of an Indian war.  This was another potent agency in producing
the result we enjoy to-day, in having in so short a time replaced the wild
buffaloes by more numerous herds of tame cattle, and by; substituting for
the useless Indians the intelligent owners of productive farms and cattle-
ranches.
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