become entangled with George Armstrong Custer’s life until he measures, “What in the h- – –happened at the Little Bighorn?” We all know that prior to that eventful day the then MajorGeneral had been an excellent, indeed, extraordinary Union cavalry commander during theAmerican Civil War, acknowledged and praised for his near-death fights, the last being at theBighorn, in the Plains where the Indians fought their best battles. All historians and writers onthe American west, and a surprisingly number of the lay and secular readers, know Custer onlyas a fearless and resplendent, even showy, leader, uneducated regarding his high competenceand self-assertive leadership. Not many even realize, which Ted and Gary acknowledgecorrectly that Custer was only 23 when promoted to the brevet rank of brigadier general andwas among the few invited Union generals to be present observants when Lee surrendered.Postwar years found George Armstrong reverting to his regular rank of lieutenant colonel.And, yes, he embarrassed nearly the entire Union Army in 1867 when he was court-martialedfor absence without leave. Punishment? A year-long suspension without pay. He returned toduty commanding the 7 th Cavalry in 1868 and eagerly sought to handle the Winter Campaignordered by General Sherman for the slaughter of Black Kettle’s Cheyenne on the Washita. Then,in 1874, Custer led the expedition into the Black Hills of South Dakota initiating the Gold Rush.Chapter 4, entitled, “Little Bighorn”, pages 162 to 242, is obviously the biography’s mostsensational and critical, followed by a serious, all-inclusive Conclusion. Throw in a heart-warming Preface and the general reader is sure to be pleasingly mesmerized. The co-authors’narrative style of writing is crisp, and often hard, but riddled with old and new informationrecently meticulously retrieved or researched, then combined as a whole. Even the aficionadosof George Armstrong Custer will be happily appreciative, undoubtedly the first to order and
purchase on-line for their own private libraries.
