Flashman and the Redskins

Flashman and the Redskins is a 1982 novel by George MacDonald Fraser. It is the seventh of the Flashman novels.

Plot introduction

Presented within the frame of the supposed discovery of a trunkful of papers detailing the long life and career of a Victorian officer, this series centres around Flashman, the bully from Tom Brown's Schooldays. The papers are attributed to him, who has grown from the schoolboy of Thomas Hughes's novel into a well-known and much decorated military hero. The book begins with an explanatory note detailing the discovery of these papers.

The story proper begins with Flashman fleeing with Susie Willinck (a New Orleans madam, aka "Miss Susie"), as described at the end of Flash for Freedom!. They cross the continent to join the California Gold Rush, meeting several well-known personalities of the American West in 1849 and 1850. The story resumes in 1875, when he takes part in the Battle of the Little Bighorn the following year. It also contains a number of notes by Fraser, in the guise of editor, giving additional historical information on the events described.

Plot summary

In his haste to leave New Orleans and the threat of imprisonment, Flashman agrees to shepherd Susie Willinck and her company of prostitutes to Sacramento, where she intends to set up shop and make a bundle from goldminers. As wagoncaptain, Flashman is nominally in charge of his and Susie's (now his wife) collection of women, supplies, and sex toys, and the other...
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