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Title: Custer's Last Campaign: Mitch Boyer and the Little Bighorn Reconstructed by John Shapley Gray, Robert M. Utley ISBN: 0-8032-7040-2 Publisher: Univ of Nebraska Pr Pub. Date: August, 1993 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.8 (10 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Accurate History with Elaborate Time Motion Studies
Comment: Outstanding detail on the LBH battle. References cover virtually all the important facts associated with the campaign. Extraordinary study of movements by all those key participants associated with the battle and timing of such. An example is the study of Benteen's movements (3rd wing). Boston Custer leaves the pack train, passes Benteen watering his horses and joins his brother in death as Benteen remains over an hour behind. Great detail on Custer's final battle and possible plan. The first half of the book is dedicated to Mitch Boyer, the half Sioux and white scout who was adopted by the Crows. He elects to stay with Custer until the final end and the story of his life is told in admirable detail. Boyer was quite a brave an independent man who expertly knew the plains and Indians. Perhaps the best book on the LBH.
Rating: 5
Summary: Fascinating Reconstruction of Custer's Stand
Comment: The reader becomes mesmerized and impressed by the thorough and meticulous process of constantly checking witness testimony with known topography and horse/walking/etc. mph rates, then time/motion studies with all possible data examined to see what plausible explanations can be more pushed forward as likely scenarios.
At the center here is the infamous Indian scout, Mitch Boyer and the testimony of the young Curly, survivor with Custer.
Amazing how the evidence Gray presents turns Custer 180o around from what is historically bantered, an aggressive disobiendent hawkish leader. Gray's reconstruction reveals soldier who emphasized and implemented what orders were given to him, to pin the Indians from left flank escape, and all the time awaiting Benteen's company and ammo train, which never arrived in time.
Disappointed that no chronology chain here shown how the followup takes place to discover the battlefield. Possibly Gray's other books on this subject cover that.
Remarkably well written, able to keep this reader's attention easily even with all the careful calculation checks, etc.
Rating: 4
Summary: Fascinating account of Custer's Last Stand
Comment: Essentially a physicist's interpretation of the Battle of Little Bighorn, author John S. Gray's "Custer's Last Campaign: Mitch Boyer and the Little Bighorn Reconstructed" is a fascinating account of one of the most storied battles ever to take place on American soil. And this was a battle, with more than 350 men, women and children killed in the span of two furious hours on the dusty slopes of 1876 southeast Montana.
This is not a book for beginners of Custer/Montana lore. It can be extremely tedious at times as Gray utilizes time-motion studies to piece together the puzzle of what happened during the Seventh Calvary's final minutes. Since every man of the U.S. Army was killed during this prong of the battle, there are no eyewitness military accounts. Yes, hundreds of Native Americans survived, but few spoke of this battle for fear of punishment and hatred of Anglo historians. Crazy Horse, one of the few Native American leaders during this confrontation, was assassinated a week after arriving on the reservation. So this very important man's account was never taken. Thus, we are left with a hodgepodge of hazy Native American reconstructions.
Visiting the battlefield today, which stretches over several miles, solemn white headstones mark the spot where bodies of the Seventh Calvary were found. The location of these stones are included in Gray's complex, mathematical equations. What he's intricately pieced together, with the help of eyewitness accounts, archaeological digs and his own analytical mind, is a realistic result of this unusual battle. His conclusions are perhaps outside of the realm of what people would consider today.
The myth surrounding Custer and Little Bighorn has been shaped by such matinee films as "They Died With Their Boots On," "Little Big Man" and television's "Son of the Morning Star." These films portray Custer as headstrong, vain, heroic and, in one case, a tad insane. But each version, thematically forged by the decade it was filmed, portrays Custer fighting gallantly to the last, standing alone in buckskins while angrily firing his pistol at the approaching Native American hordes. Custer, as if performing the concluding act of Shakespeare's "Hamlet," falls dead to the ground in bloody, poetic, slow motion. It makes for a great painting hanging above the neighborhood bar.
The reality, revealed by Gray's novel, is Custer did indeed have a battle plan rather than making a vain stab at glory. But his forces were simply overwhelmed, chaos ensued, and panicking men were run down like herds of buffalo. It's not very poetic, but has war truly ever been? To understand America's fascination with this battle, one must first read Evan S. Connell's "Son of the Morning Star," one of the greatest historical nonfiction novels ever written.
Gray discards such weighty wisdom like an old blanket, and scientifically gets to the root of what actually happened. A Last Stand does indeed take place on Custer Hill, where Custer's body was found. Survivors panic, some commit suicide, and Boyer and company frantically run west, fighting and killing in a froth-like animal panic. But west is towards the Native American village they were attacking in the first place. They are then desperately cornered in a ravine, a small gully which can be stared at to this very day.
When the U.S. Army rides into a primitive village, shooting defenseless women and children, the primitive man will fight back if for no other reason than to protect their families. Like poking a stick into an ant hill, Custer and his Seventh Calvary were overwhelmed, the sorry battle ending in a ditch. Men attempted to claw their way out, perhaps asking themselves how they ended up in such a remote location, dying the loneliest of deaths.
This battle haunts us for a number of reasons, mainly because of our inhumane treatment of the Native American people. So we obsessively analyze this epic Homerian battle, trying to find a moment of heroism, a brief glimpse to help salve our morally guilty wounds. But all we find in Gray's account is wide-eyed reality, and desperate men crying in a ditch. Gray's novel details these horrors in scientific fashion, and unknowingly provides a glimpse of the dangers of American warrior vanity.
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Title: Archaeology, History, and Custer's Last Battle: The Little Big Horn Reexamined by Richard Allan, Jr Fox, W. Raymond Wood ISBN: 0806129980 Publisher: Univ of Oklahoma Pr (Trd) Pub. Date: June, 2003 List Price(USD): $15.16 |
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Title: Lakota Noon: The Indian Narrative of Custer's Defeat by Gregory F. Michno ISBN: 0878423494 Publisher: Mountain Press Publishing Company Pub. Date: August, 1997 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: The Mystery of E Troop: Custer's Gray Horse Company at the Little Bighorn by Gregory Michno ISBN: 0878423044 Publisher: Mountain Press Publishing Company Pub. Date: June, 1994 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: Archaeological Perspectives on the Battle of Little Bighorn by Douglas D. Scott, Richard A., Jr. Fox, Melissa A. Connor, Dick Harmon ISBN: 0806132922 Publisher: Univ of Oklahoma Pr (Trd) Pub. Date: September, 2000 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: Custer in '76: Walter Camp's Notes on the Custer Fight by Kenneth Hammer, Walter Camp ISBN: 080612279X Publisher: Univ of Oklahoma Pr (Trd) Pub. Date: June, 1990 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
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