Navajo Expedition ― Journal of a Military Reconnaissance from Santa Fe, New Mexico, to the Navaho Country, Made in 1849

In 1849, the Corps of Topographical Engineers commissioned Lieutenant James H. Simpson to undertake the first survey of what he termed Navaho country in present-day New Mexico. Accompanying Simpson was a military force under the command of Colonel John M. Washington, sent to negotiate peace with the Navaho Indians.
Simpson, who had never before been west of the Missouri, was a keen observer, and his journal provides a wealth of information about the physical features of the land he surveyed and explored - including unusual geological formations and archeologically important pueblo ruins at Chaco Canyon and Canyon de Chelly. He also described the party's interactions with the Indians he encountered. His careful observations supplied information vital to subsequent military expeditions, emigrant trains, selection of Indian reservations, and charting the route of a transcontinental railroad.
In this edited and annotated edition of Simpson's journal, historian Frank McNitt discusses the expedition's lasting importance to the development of the West. McNitt's knowledge of the region, careful research of primary and secondary sources, and meticulous methodology permeate the volume, which is enriched by illustrations and maps by artists Richard and Edward Kern. Military historian Durwood Ball contributes a new foreword.