Still one of the best Custer books, E.A. Brininstool's classic brings together his lifetime of work on the Little Bighorn disaster and the Indian Wars. A newspaperman and cowboy poet born just six years before Custer's last battle, Brininstool met, interviewed, and corresponded with many Little Bighorn survivors. Here is his final work on the subject, published a few years before his death in 1957. Even if you've read lots of Custer material, you'll find information that you haven't read before in this volume. Every history of the American West provides us with another view of the movement that changed the country forever. For the first time, this long out-of-print volume is available as an affordable, well-formatted book for e-readers and smartphones. Be sure to LOOK INSIDE by clicking the cover above or download a sample.
On the morning of June 25, 1876, soldiers of the elite U.S. Seventh Cavalry led by Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer attacked a large Indian encampment on the banks of the Little Bighorn River. By day's end, Custer and more than two hundred of his men lay dead. It was a shocking defeat--or magnificent victory, depending on your point of view--and more than a century later it is still the object of controversy, debate, and fascination. What really happened on that fateful day? Now, thanks to the work of Herman J. Viola, Curator Emeritus of the Smithsonian Institution, we are much closer to answering that question. Dr. Viola, a leader in the preservation of Native American culture and history, has collected here dozens of dramatic, never-before-published accounts by Indians who participated in the battle--accounts that have been handed down to the present day, often secretly and accompanied by oaths of silence, from one generation to the next. These remarkable eyewitness recollections provide a direct link to that day's events; together they constitute an unprecedented oral history of the battle from the Native American point of view and the most comprehensive eyewitness description of Little Bighorn we have ever had. Here are the dramatic stories of the Cheyenne and Lakota warriors who rode into battle against Custer, the yellow-haired Son of the Morning Star, an adversary whose valor they admired--but who became a mortal enemy after breaking his peace-pipe oath, a scene described vividly in these pages. Here in their own words are the stories of the Crow scouts, allies of Custer, who advised against attacking Sitting Bull's village on the Little Bighorn. Hereare tales of valor told by the Arikara scouts who fought side by side with Custer's men against the Lakota and Cheyenne; although the Great Father in Washington rewarded their heroism with silence, it is celebrated to this day in tribal stories and songs that come to us from beyond the grave with hair-raising immediacy and power. Lavishly illustrated with more than two hundred maps, photographs, reproductions, and drawings, this remarkable book also includes: An account of the battle, including startling descriptions of Custer's conduct, collected from the Crow scouts by the famed photographer Edward S. Curtis in 1908. Curtis never published this report--President Theodore Roosevelt advised him not to--and it remained a secret until his ninety-year-old son recently gave the material to the Smithsonian. New archaeological evidence from the battlefield that casts fresh light on the Seventh Cavalry's movements, along with discoveries from the site of Sitting Bull's village--including the complete skeleton of a cavalry horse with its rider's well- preserved saddlebags and personal items. A series of illustrations made soon after the battle by Red Horse, a remarkable tableau that is reproduced here in its entirety for the first time. Three letters written by Lieutenant William Van Wyck Reily just days before he died at Little Bighorn that provide key and potentially controversial insights into the conduct of the cavalry under Custer's command. In short, this landmark book takes us much closer to knowing what really happened on that June day in 1876 when Custer died and a legend was born.
On the afternoon of June 25, 1867, an overwhelming force of Sioux and Cheyenne Indians quickly mounted a savage onslaught against General George Armstrong Custer’s battalion, driving the doomed troopers of the U.S. Seventh Cavalry to a small hill overlooking the Little Bighorn River, where Custer and his men bravely erected their heroic last stand. So goes the myth of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, a myth perpetuated and reinforced for over 100 years. In truth, however, "Custer’s Last Stand" was neither the last of the fighting nor a stand. Using innovative and standard archaeological techniques, combined with historical documents and Indian eyewitness accounts, Richard Allan Fox, Jr. vividly replays this battle in astonishing detail. Through bullets, spent cartridges, and other material data, Fox identifies combat positions and tracks soldiers and Indians across the Battlefield. Guided by the history beneath our feet, and listening to the previously ignored Indian testimonies, Fox reveals scenes of panic and collapse and, ultimately, a story of the Custer battle quite different from the fatalistic versions of history. According to the author, the five companies of the Seventh Cavalry entered the fray in good order, following planned strategies and displaying tactical stability. It was the sudden disintegration of this cohesion that caused the troopers’ defeat. The end came quickly, unexpectedly, and largely amid terror and disarray. Archaeological evidences show that there was no determined fighting and little firearm resistance. The last soldiers to be killed had rushed from Custer Hill.
FOR THE FIRST TIME since he testified before the Reno Court of Inquiry, at Chicago, in 1879, Capt. F. W. Benteen, senior captain of Custer’s regiment, the famous 7th Cavalry, here relates the part he played in that most disastrous of Indian fights on American soil, over which more controversy has raged than over any other battle fought against the red man in the United States. Much of the account is from his own testimony at the Reno Inquiry; some of it is from the personal letters of Capt. Benteen, (in possession of the author). Certain charges were made against Major Marcus A. Reno and Capt. Benteen by Frederick Whittaker, Custer’s biographer. At the last moment Whittaker withdrew his charges against Capt. Benteen. He also utterly failed to substantiate his charges against Major Reno, the verdict of the Court being that “there was nothing in his conduct which requires animadversion from the Court, and that in view of all the facts in evidence, no further proceedings are necessary in this case.” No officer in the Civil War won a more brilliant record than Major Reno, he being brevetted by grades from a first lieutenant to a colonel ‘‘for gallant and meritorious service.” Later, he served as Assistant Instructor of Infantry Tactics at the U. S. Military Academy at West Point. The testimony at the Reno Inquiry revealed that both Capt. Benteen and Major Reno had done the best that could be done with what they had to do with, and that, but for their extraordinary heroism and bravery in the fight on the bluffs, following Custer’s overwhelming defeat, four miles down the river, the troops under their charge would likewise have been wiped out. Students of the battle of the Little Big Horn will do well to carefully preserve this account of the Custer fight as related by Capt. Benteen.
Historical and contemporary photographs accompany a narrative reflection on Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer's "Last Stand" at the Battle of Little Bighorn, which includes personal accounts of battle veterans.
This updated work of National Park Service archeologists at Little Bighorn Battlefield and scientific inquiries at two other Custer sites. Now we are proud to announce the release of the third edition of Digging into Custer's Last Stand. It includes a new chapter detailing the history and construction of the new Indian Memorial at Little Bighorn as well as the horse cemetery marker. Earlier sections of the book have been re-edited in places and new photos have been added. This book continues to offer a well-written, non-technical summary of all the battlefield digs since the early 1980s that have impacted how historians and buffs interpret action at Little Bighorn.
One of the most fascinating classics ever written about the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Dr. Thomas Marquis spent many years getting to know and interviewing Native Americans who had fought against General Custer and the 7th Cavalry. This is the narrative of Chief Wooden Leg, given to Marquis late in Wooden Leg's life. Long dismissed by historians, Little Bighorn scholars today believe the Indian accounts to be essential to an understanding of what went wrong at the Little Bighorn (and what went right for the Sioux and Cheyenne). Archaeology at the battlefield has born out the veracity of the Indian accounts and the contribution to history by Wooden Leg and Marquis is invaluable. Included is a great deal of information about the life of the Cheyenne of Wooden Leg's time, his boyhood, his understanding of Indian medicine, a very detailed account of the June 25-26, 1876 battle with Custer, and more. This is a book you'll read more than once. Every memoir of the American West provides us with another view of the movement that changed the country forever. For the first time, this long out-of-print volume is available as an affordable, well-formatted book for e-readers and smartphones. Be sure to LOOK INSIDE by clicking the cover above or download a sample.
Sergeant Charles Windolph was the last white survivor of the Battle of the Little Big Horn when he described it nearly seventy years later. A six-year veteran of the Seventh Cavalry, Windolph fought in Benteen?s troop on that fatal Sunday and recalls in vivid detail the battle that wiped out Custer?s command. Equally vivid is the evidence marshaled by Frazier and Robert Hunt on events leading up to the battle and on the investigation that followed.
This is the story of George Custer's best cavalry company at the 1876 Battle of the Little Bighorn – Company M. With a tragically-flawed, but extremely brave Company Commander and a no-nonsense First Sergeant, Company M maintained a disciplined withdrawal from the skirmish line fighting, saving Major Marcus Reno's entire detachment and possibly the rest of the regiment from annihilation. Presented here is the most-detailed work on a single company at the Little Bighorn ever written – the product of multi-year research at archives across the country and detailed visits to the battlefield by a combat veteran who understands fields of fire, weapons' effects, training, morale, decision-making, unit cohesion and the value of outstanding non-commissioned officers.
A newly-minted West Point lieutenant in 1876, he requested posting to George Armstrong Custer's 7th Cavalry just days after the general's death at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. He accompanied the brother of General Philip Sheridan to recover the remains of Custer and the other officers from the battlefield at the Little Bighorn in 1877. He met and befriended most of the important Plains Indians as well as figures like Buffalo Bill Cody, General Phil Sheridan, Frederick Remington, and others. He met "the idol of the 7th Cavalry," Captain Frederick Benteen, modeled his own style of command after Benteen, and remained friends with him until the latter's death. Fluent in Indian sign language, a true friend to Native Americans, probably no white man of his time was better at communicating with and gaining the trust of the tribes with which he worked than Hugh Lenox Scott. During his time in the west, he more than once turned down assignments to more desirable posts to remain working with the tribes. Of his fellow white citizens, he wrote: "...there is an inborn racial fear of the Indian in our minds, due to our ignorance of his thought, enhanced by the tales of scalping and bloodshed we were fed on in our youth." Many times, Scott put himself at great risk to avoid bloodshed between whites and Indians. This fascinating, exciting, and extremely important memoir is one that every student of American history should own and read repeatedly. Every memoir of the American West provides us with another view of the movement that changed the country forever. For the first time, this long out-of-print volume is available as an affordable, well-formatted book for e-readers and smartphones. Be sure to LOOK INSIDE by clicking the cover above or download a sample.
