Frontier warfare yielded legendary veterans. (Famous War Veterans).

Three centuries of war between settlers and Indians on America's borderlands produced a unique crop of veterans--civilian, military and Indian alike. Some became the stuff of legend; others made their names in more mundane yet critical occupations.

 
WALTER REED 
(1851-1902) b. Belroi, Va. 
Physician and Scientist 

Walter Reed, by helping to show how to control typhoid fever and yellow fever, laid the foundation for ridding the Americas of these diseases. A distinguished scientist, he ended his all-too short medical career as chairman of the Department of Pathology at the Columbian University Medical School in D.C.

During his Army medical service, Reed was stationed for four years (1876-80) at Forts Lowell and Apache in Arizona. From 1883-85, he was based at Forts Omaha, Sidney and Robinson, Neb. While serving at Fort Keogh, Mont., in 1891-93, he treated casualties of the Battle of Wounded Knee. In 1900, Reed was sent to Cuba to eradicate yellow fever.

Reed taught bacteriology and clinical microscopy at the Army Medical College, and served as curator of the Army Medical Museum. lie also pioneered diphtheria research.

 
JOSEPH R. WALKER 
(1798-1876) b. Roane County, Tenn. 
Explorer and Lawman 

First to explore Utah's Great Salt Lake, cross the Sierra Nevada Mountains and discover the Yosemite Valley, Joseph led numerous expeditions to California and Arizona. He is generally regarded as the greatest of the "mountain men." Today, five places in the West bear his name.

A vet of the Creek War in Alabama and its Battle of Horseshoe Bend (1814) and the 1817 Seminole Florida campaign, Walker went on to fight Blackfeet and Paiutes in the 1830s. He was an Army scout in Mojave and Apache campaigns between 1850 and 1860 in Arizona and New Mexico.

A true trailblazer of the Far West, Walker also helped found Independence, Mo., serving four years as its sheriff. He helped survey the Santa Fe Trail and led the first wagon train into California. His biographer called him a "geographical genius."

 
DANIEL BOONE 
(1734-1820) b. Reading, Pa. 
Frontier Folk Hero 

America's most famous frontiersman, Daniel Boone explored and settled Kentucky. He extended the Wilderness Road through the Allegheny Mountains' Cumberland Gap. Known for his personal integrity, he left a mark on the nation's consciousness matched by few.

A veteran (as a teamster) of the French & Indian War, Boone fought in the battles of Boonesborough and Blue Licks during the Revolutionary War. Captured three times by Indians, he spent much of the war fighting this foe as a militia captain.

Indians killed two of his sons.

Boone took civic obligation seriously, serving twice in the Virginia legislature and also as a county sheriff and surveyor.

He wandered as far south as Florida (1765) and perhaps as far west as the Yellowstone River (1814).

His influence on motivating pioneers beyond the Alleghenies cannot be overestimated. Culturally, he embodies the American ideal of virtuous independence.

 
CHARLES KING 
(1844-1933) b. Albany, N.Y. 
Writer 

Called the "American Kipling," Charles King was an immensely popular writer of fiction, especially of the 1870s-era Army of the West and Indian wars. tie wrote 62 …