George A. Custer -- (George Armstrong) -- 1839-1876, Black Hills War 1876-1877, Indigenous peoples -- Wars -- North America -- 1866-1895, Battle of the Little Bighorn Mont. 1876, Indigenous peoples -- Wars -- North America, Indigenous peoples -- Wars, Montana 

"This is undoubtedly a remarkable book on a period of American history about which much has already been written — the period of the Indian wars in the Northwest, from the close of the Civil War until the Custer disaster on the Little Big Horn. Unlike its predecessors, it presents in graphic detail and on a vast canvas the great events and the small which rushed to their decisive conclusion in Custer's fate. Here is no savage battle incident presented in isolation from other events, but the sweeping away of a whole era—inept, hesitant, and tragic.

To insure comprehensiveness, the author has examined the pertinent facts of the Grant administration, the embitterment of the Great Plains tribes, and the deteriorating Civil War army. The book is the record not only of the dashing Seventh Cavalry and its leader, but also of the Grant-Custer feud, Sitting Bull, the Belknap scandal, Rain-in-the-Face, the battle strategy of the Indians, and Custer's military rivals. Particular note is taken of the effect on history of Custer's recklessness and glory-seeking, and of the superstitions and fatalistic determination of the Sioux and Cheyennes.

The Battle of the Little Big Horn, reconstructed in this account largely on Indian eyewitness testimony, climaxed the long-developing tragedy and provided a "smashing crescendo to the vacillating policy of the United States government . . . towards the Indians of the Great Plains."--Book jacket. 

xvi, 522 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm. 

Includes index.