Born in Virginia, Reed Anthony serves in a regiment of his home state during the Civil War before travelling to Texas to take up the hard life of a cowboy. Driving cattle for a living, Reed transitions from a hired hand cowboy to a cattle owning cowman. Presented as an autobiography, Reed Anthony, Cowman is one of the most in-depth and detailed examinations of the real life of the hardy men who herded catle in the Old West. The age of this book and the time period in which it is set means that some terms and words would not be considered acceptable for the Twenty First Century.