YALE UNIVERSITY, NEW HAVEN, CONN.

May 15, 1910.

Dear Mrs. Summerhayes:

I have read every word of your book "Vanished Arizona" with intense
interest. You have given a vivid account of what you actually saw and
lived through, and nobody can resist the truthfulness and reality of
your narrative. The book is a real contribution to American history, and
to the chronicles of army life.

Faithfully yours, WM. LYON PHELPS,

[Professor of English literature at Yale University.]

LONACONING, MD., Jan. 2, 1909.

Col. J. W. Summerhays, New Rochelle, N. Y.

Dear Sir:

Captain William Baird, 6th Cavalry, retired, now at Annapolis, sent me
Mrs. Summerhay's book to read, and I have read it with delight, for
I was in "K" when Mrs. Summerhays "took on" in the 8th. Myself and my
brother, Michael, served in "K" Company from David's Island to Camp
Apache. Doubtless you have forgotten me, but I am sure that you remember
the tall fifer of "K", Michael Gurnett. He was killed at Camp Mohave in
Sept. 1885, while in Company "G" of the 1st Infantry. I was five years
in "K", but my brother re-enlisted in "K", and afterward joined the
First. He served in the 31st, 22nd, 8th and 1st.

Oh, that little book! We're all in it, even poor Charley Bowen. Mrs.
Summerhays should have written a longer story. She soldiered long enough
with the 8th in the "bloody 70's" to be able to write a book five times
as big. For what she's done, God bless her! She is entitled to the
Irishman's benediction: "May every hair in her head be a candle to light
her soul to glory." We poor old Regulars have little said about us in
print, and wish to God that "Vanished Arizona" was in the hands of every
old veteran of the "Marching 8th." If I had the means I would send a
copy to our 1st Serg't Bernard Moran, and the other old comrades at the
Soldiers' Home. But, alas, evil times have fallen upon us, and--I'm not
writing a jeremiad--I took the book from the post office and when I saw
the crossed guns and the "8" there was a lump in my throat, and I went
into the barber shop and read it through before I left. A friend of mine
was in the shop and when I came to Pringle's death, he said, "Gurnett,
that must be a sad book you're reading, why man, you're crying."

I believe I was, but they were tears of joy. And, Oh, Lord, to think of
Bowen having a full page in history; but, after all, maybe he deserved
it. And that picture of my company commander! [Worth]. Long, long