Into the Unknown Country - Michael McEwen Randall
In late 1876, a preacher riding from Benson's Landing, Montana Territory finds a badly wounded young man, near death, lying on the Bozeman Trail. So begins the story of young Mac Durant, an orphaned survivor of the Minnesota Sioux War of 1862. In spring, 1876, he leaves the troubled St. Paul home of his aunt and uncle to find his ex-lover, Sophia, who has written him a painful letter from Dakota Territory. He makes his way to Bismarck only to find that Sophia has departed for Deadwood in the company..