Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy

Cormac McCarthy's masterpiece Blood Meridian follows the wanderings of an unnamed protagonist the kid. The novel opens with his birth under the Leonid meteor shower in 1833 making him 15 in 1848 when the action begins the discovery of gold in California that year denotes the opening of the frontier and immigrants began moving west. Although he acts his actions have no major consequence for the circumstances in which he finds himself rather he's caught up and carried along by the currents of history before the west can be settled however it must be pacified.