Washington Territory's first governor remains as controversial today as he was to his frontier contemporaries during the Pacific Northwest's most turbulent era--the mid-1850s. Indian wars, martial law, and bitter political disputes, as well as the establishment of a new, sound governmental system, characterized Isaac I. Stevens's years as governor (1853-1857). In addition, the West Point graduate was superintendent of Indian affairs, a delegate to the U.S. Congress, head of the Northern Pacific transcontinental railroad survey, and a major general in the Union Army. Richards's definitive biography is an essential work on the history of early Washington, northern Idaho, and western Montana. This revised edition offers a new preface.