Frontier Partisans

Geronimo was a Tier One badass, by any measure. We’ve cut his moccasin tracks frequently here, including recounting an episode that highlights his exemplary combat marksmanship. The man was a warrior with an exceptional mystic capability — referred to as his Power — that was well-recognized by his fellow Chiricahua Apaches. He was elusive, … [Read more...] about Putting The ‘Bad’ In Badass — The Stevens Ranch Massacre

Season 3 of Taylor Sheridan’s Lioness just wrapped filming, which means we should see it sometime later this year. The spec ops show focusing on a program that uses women to infiltrate target organizations is a good un. I particularly liked Season 2, even with Sheridan indulging himself with a cameo role as a Delta operator. * Frederick … [Read more...] about Working The Trapline — African Hunters, A Lioness & A Love Song For A Rifle

The final resting place of an all-time badass may have been found — along with the musket ball that killed him. Per BBC: More than 350 years after the death of legendary French musketeer d'Artagnan, his remains may well have been found under the floor of a Dutch church. Jos Valke, who is deacon at St Peter and Paul Church in Maastricht, helped … [Read more...] about The Grave Of A Musketeer

Clan Cornelius’ live music season kicked off in fine style on Tuesday night with Corb Lund and the Hurtin’ Albertans at the Domino Room in Bend. Small club, great sound, crack band. A highlight was an extended version of I Wanna Be In The Cavalry which included both the exhilarating march and the dirge. If you haven’t discovered Corb Lund’s … [Read more...] about Working The Trapline — Hurtin’ Albertans; Californio Bandit; Radical Pirates & A Ride To Dutton Ranch

Frontier Partisan history is rife with men who appeared suddenly upon the stage as if from nowhere, and just as suddenly disappeared. This is especially true of native warriors, because they only appear in the written historical record at moments of prominence, often written about by their adversaires. Such a man was Charlot Kaské. I long to … [Read more...] about An Enigmatic Shawnee Militant

This weekend, I headed back to SoCal to celebrate the life of my dad Bob Cornelius. After enjoying an aborted takeoff from Redmond, Oregon, with an overheating engine, I rebooked and rerouted. My brother John scooped me up in Ontario, and we made a pilgrimage up to Wrightwood to pay a last tribute to Bob in the place where my family found its peace … [Read more...] about Unbroken Circle

Maintaining continuous fire was a critical aspect of early Frontier Partisan warfare, an element rendered challenging by the slow-loading characteristics of flintlock rifles. If your force expended all of its firepower at once, you were extremely vulnerable to close-quarters attack with melee weapons — whether the bayonets of Redcoats or the … [Read more...] about Get In The Ring