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Title: Cavalier in Buckskin: George Armstrong Custer and the Western Military Frontier (Oklahoma Western Biographies) by Robert Marshall Utley ISBN: 0-8061-3387-2 Publisher: Univ of Oklahoma Pr (Trd) Pub. Date: November, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.29 (7 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A brief but informative look at the life of this great man
Comment: This is a very short biography (just under 200 pages, not counting the pictures) of one of the most flamboyant and controversial military figures in our nation's history. Volumes could be written about George Custer, and indeed have been, and yet still there could never be a consensus as to the man's character, his skill as a warrior, and the amount of blame he should shoulder for charging headlong into immortality when he and part of his regiment were wiped out at the Little Bighorn. Custer is one of those figures on whom it would be difficult to write a good biography in 500 pages. Somehow, Utley has done it in 200.
This work is by no means thorough, but rather provides a good introduction and outline of Custer's life. Not a lot of detail is provided about any one phase of Custer's adult life--boy general, frontier greenhorn, Indian fighter extraordinaire--and yet there is enough information here to get a good idea of what Custer the man must have been like. I think it is outside of the scope of this book to psychoanalyze this complex individual, or to analyze his several controversial achievements, from Civil War battles to an Indian attack on the Washita River to rushing into battle at the Little Bighorn without the necessary reconnaissance, and yet Utley manages to put things into a perspective that at least seems reasonable and fair, if not conclusive. His section on the Little Bighorn battle is concise, to the point, and objective, and, though he tends to imply that the blame for Custer's death cannot be fixed entirely on Custer's rashness, yet he does not attempt to deify or exonerate the man wholly from blame.
This book was meant to be a short introduction into Custer's life, and in that it fills its purpose completely. For students seeking a deeper and more thorough understanding of Custer, however, a larger work is needed. Still, this book is immensely valuable in that it provides a short, objective, and concise narrative of the life of George Armstrong Custer.
Rating: 5
Summary: Bringing the Indian Problem to a Final Solution
Comment: This biography of George Armstrong Custer devotes most of its pages to his post Civil War career. Most people only know that he died at the Little Bighorn battle; they know the legend or the symbol, not the real person. Chapter 1 discusses his legend from 1876 to the present. Before his last campaign Custer charged the Grant administration with fraud and corruption. So whether he was a "victim of Grant's Indian policy" or a "foolhardy glory hunter" depended on the politics of the beholder.
Custer's postwar career depended on the support of Sherman and Sheridan ("Custer never let me down"). Since the Indians kept far away from the railroads, building the Northern Pacific railroad would ethnically cleanse the northern Dakota territory. The railroads were given tens of thousands of square miles of land ("sunblasted in summer, frozen in winter" p.125). They could not be sold to settlers until Indians were removed and neutralized. Settlers would then buy railroad lands, then use the railroad to transport their produce and supplies. The army's task was to implement this political policy; they only followed orders. There were treaties such as at Medicine Lodge in October 1867. But the Indians had no idea that they were giving up the country they claimed as their own (p.59).
The announced purpose of the Black Hills Expedition of 1874 was to find a site for a new fort, and for scientific exploration. The discovery of gold meant that miners would flock to these Indian lands via the Northern Pacific. The chief geologist, and Lt. Col. Fred Grant, cast doubt on this report: it might have been planted (p.141)! These lands could not be developed while the Indians held title, unless a war was created to negate the treaty (p.147). The Interior Dept. issued an ultimatum to the Sitting Bull bands: move to the Great Sioux Reservation or be driven in (p.156). But the Indians were immobilized in winter! Their failure to migrate was used to start a war. The military campaign started in April 1876. Custer believed that the Indians should be civilized into Christian farmers, but "if I were an Indian I often think that I would prefer to adhere to the free open plains rather than submit to a reservation" (p.149).
Just before his last campaign Custer testified against the actions of Secretary of War Belknap. Was he looking for some heroic action to gain popular acclaim? Was he suffering from any ailment that could affect his judgment? Chapter 9 discusses the "Judgments" on the defeat. Utley wonders if Custer received his chest wound at the beginning of the battle, and this demoralized and confused their defense? This would account for much that is puzzling about the battle (p.199). Those paintings of "Custer's Last Stand" are imagined. The Sioux fired their rifles and arrows from long range while concealed (p.190). They were too smart for a "Charge of the Light Brigade".
Rating: 5
Summary: The Best Book Available on Custer
Comment: I have been an avid reader of Custer related literature
through the years and this is simply the best book on the market
on George Armstrong Custer. As a graduate student at Mississippi
State University and taking a course on the American West I gave
a lecture on Custer and recommended this book to the class.
Mr. Utley gives great detail on Custer's life. As with any
reader of Custer the debate rages on about General Terry's orders
to Custer and if they were obeyed or not. The author brought
out something I had not read before and that being the affidavet
of a cook who overheard a conservation between Terry and Custer.
A great book on Custer and especially on the Battle of the
Little Bighorn. Also, being a Civil War buff I liked the way the author mentioned how former Confederate generals were some
of Custer's biggest defenders after the battle.
If one were looking for a starting place on Custer this book
would be the one.
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Title: My Life on the Plains: Or Personal Experiences With the Indians by George Armstrong Custer ISBN: 080611357X Publisher: Univ of Oklahoma Pr (Trd) Pub. Date: February, 1977 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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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: The Custer Album: A Pictorial Biography of General George A. Custer by George A. Custer, Lawrence A. Frost ISBN: 080612282X Publisher: Univ of Oklahoma Pr (Trd) Pub. Date: June, 1990 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: A Short History of Reconstruction by Eric Foner ISBN: 0060964316 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 10 January, 1990 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: CUSTER by Jeffry D. Wert ISBN: 0684832755 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 10 June, 1997 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
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