CusterIn this lavishly illustrated volume, Larry McMurtry, the greatest chronicler of the American West, tackles for the first time one of the paramount figures of Western and American history. On June 25, 1876, General George Armstrong Custer and his 7th Cavalry attacked a large Lakota Cheyenne village on the Little Bighorn River in Montana Territory. He lost not only the battle but his life—and the lives of his entire cavalry. “Custer’s Last Stand” was a spectacular defeat that shocked the country and grew quickly into a legend that has reverberated in our national consciousness to this day. Pulitzer Prize winner Larry McMurtry has long been fascinated by the “Boy General” and his rightful place in history. In Custer, he delivers an expansive, agile, and clear-eyed reassessment of the iconic general’s life and legacy—how the legend was born, the ways in which it evolved, what it has meant—told against the broad sweep of the American narrative. We see Custer in all his contradictions and complexity as the perpetually restless man with a difficult marriage, a hunger for glory, and an unwavering confidence in his abilities. McMurtry explores how the numerous controversies that grew out of the Little Bighorn combined with a perfect storm of technological developments—the railroad, the camera, and the telegraph—to fan the flames of his legend. He shows how Custer’s wife, Libbie, worked for decades after his death to portray Major Marcus Reno as the cause of the disaster of the Little Bighorn, and how Buffalo Bill Cody, who ended his Wild West Show with a valiant reenactment of Custer’s Last Stand, played a pivotal role in spreading Custer’s notoriety. While Custer is first and foremost an enthralling story filled with larger-than-life characters—Ulysses S. Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman, William J. Fetterman, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Red Cloud—McMurtry also argues that Little Bighorn should be seen as a monumental event in our nation’s history. Like all great battles, its true meaning can be found in its impact on our politics and policy, and the epic defeat clearly signaled the end of the Indian Wars—and brought to a close the great narrative of western expansion. In Custer, Larry McMurtry delivers a magisterial portrait of a complicated, misunderstood man that not only irrevocably changes our long-standing conversation about Custer, but once again redefines our understanding of the American West. |
Contents
Section 1 | 6 |
Section 2 | 15 |
Section 3 | 24 |
Section 4 | 25 |
Section 5 | 30 |
Section 6 | 44 |
Section 7 | 65 |
Section 8 | 98 |
Section 9 | 108 |
Section 10 | 134 |
Section 11 | 157 |
Section 12 | 168 |
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Common terms and phrases
7th Cavalry Annie Oakley Archive at Art army Art Archive Art Resource attack battle battlefield Benteen Black Hills Black Kettle Bridgeman Art Library Buffalo Bill Cody Bull’s camp Charley Reynolds Chivington Civil Comanches command Crazy Horse Crook Crow Curly Custer’s Last Stand dead death Diana Ossana Elliott Evan Connell’s expedition fact famous fight Fort Abraham Lincoln fought Frémont George Armstrong Custer gold Grant historians husband Kansas killed knew Knife Lame Deer Laramie Larry McMurtry leader Libbie Custer Libbie’s Little Bighorn lives Lonesome Charley Mackenzie Major Marcus Reno Major Reno Marcus Reno military Mo-nah-se-tah Montana named narrative never officer once peace Photos/Getty Images plains Indians probably railroad Red Cloud Rock Forehead Rosebud Sand Creek scalp scouts Sheridan Sherman Sioux and Cheyenne Sitting Bull soldiers soon Terry Texas thought thousand took treaty tribal tribes troops victory wagon train wanted warrior Washita West Point white man’s wife