Archaeology, History, and Custer's Last Battle

Archaeology, History, and Custer's Last Battle PDF Author: Richard A. Fox
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 0806170514
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 431

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Book Description
On the afternoon of June 25, 1867, an overwhelming force of Sioux and Cheyenne Indians quickly mounted a savage onslaught against General George Armstrong Custer’s battalion, driving the doomed troopers of the U.S. Seventh Cavalry to a small hill overlooking the Little Bighorn River, where Custer and his men bravely erected their heroic last stand. So goes the myth of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, a myth perpetuated and reinforced for over 100 years. In truth, however, "Custer’s Last Stand" was neither the last of the fighting nor a stand. Using innovative and standard archaeological techniques, combined with historical documents and Indian eyewitness accounts, Richard Allan Fox, Jr. vividly replays this battle in astonishing detail. Through bullets, spent cartridges, and other material data, Fox identifies combat positions and tracks soldiers and Indians across the Battlefield. Guided by the history beneath our feet, and listening to the previously ignored Indian testimonies, Fox reveals scenes of panic and collapse and, ultimately, a story of the Custer battle quite different from the fatalistic versions of history. According to the author, the five companies of the Seventh Cavalry entered the fray in good order, following planned strategies and displaying tactical stability. It was the sudden disintegration of this cohesion that caused the troopers’ defeat. The end came quickly, unexpectedly, and largely amid terror and disarray. Archaeological evidences show that there was no determined fighting and little firearm resistance. The last soldiers to be killed had rushed from Custer Hill.

Archaeology, History, and Custer's Last Battle

Archaeology, History, and Custer's Last Battle PDF Author: Richard A. Fox
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 0806170514
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 431

Get Book Here

Book Description
On the afternoon of June 25, 1867, an overwhelming force of Sioux and Cheyenne Indians quickly mounted a savage onslaught against General George Armstrong Custer’s battalion, driving the doomed troopers of the U.S. Seventh Cavalry to a small hill overlooking the Little Bighorn River, where Custer and his men bravely erected their heroic last stand. So goes the myth of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, a myth perpetuated and reinforced for over 100 years. In truth, however, "Custer’s Last Stand" was neither the last of the fighting nor a stand. Using innovative and standard archaeological techniques, combined with historical documents and Indian eyewitness accounts, Richard Allan Fox, Jr. vividly replays this battle in astonishing detail. Through bullets, spent cartridges, and other material data, Fox identifies combat positions and tracks soldiers and Indians across the Battlefield. Guided by the history beneath our feet, and listening to the previously ignored Indian testimonies, Fox reveals scenes of panic and collapse and, ultimately, a story of the Custer battle quite different from the fatalistic versions of history. According to the author, the five companies of the Seventh Cavalry entered the fray in good order, following planned strategies and displaying tactical stability. It was the sudden disintegration of this cohesion that caused the troopers’ defeat. The end came quickly, unexpectedly, and largely amid terror and disarray. Archaeological evidences show that there was no determined fighting and little firearm resistance. The last soldiers to be killed had rushed from Custer Hill.

Custer Battlefield

Custer Battlefield PDF Author: Robert M. Utley
Publisher: National Park Service Division of Publications
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 120

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Book Description
Tells the story of Custer's last stand against the Indians in the Sioux War of 1876. Includes maps and photos. Also recounts the history of how that battlefield became a national monument and its importance to Americans today and in the past.

The Papers of Edward S. Curtis Relating to Custer's Last Battle

The Papers of Edward S. Curtis Relating to Custer's Last Battle PDF Author: Edward S. Curtis
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Little Bighorn, Battle of the, Mont., 1876
Languages : en
Pages : 202

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Book Description


Red Hawk's Account of Custer's Last Battle

Red Hawk's Account of Custer's Last Battle PDF Author: Paul Goble
Publisher: Bison Books
ISBN: 9780803270336
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 59

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Book Description
A Sioux warrior's account of the events surrounding the Battle of the Little Bighorn

Killing Custer

Killing Custer PDF Author: James Welch
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 9780393329391
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
The classic account of Custer\'s Last Stand that shattered themyth of the Little Bighorn and rewrote history books. This historic and personal work tells the Native American sideof Custer\'s fabled attack, poignantly revealing how disastrous theencounter was for the "victors," the last great gathering of PlainsIndians under the leadership of Sitting Bull.

Drawing Battle Lines

Drawing Battle Lines PDF Author: Michael Neal Donahue
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780912783451
Category : Little Bighorn, Battle of the, Mont., 1876
Languages : en
Pages : 413

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Book Description
The book is intended to create a historically accurate and visual study guide. It is much more than just a book of maps. These literal battle lines in map form were drawn by those who had direct and indirect knowledge of this tragic episode in our nation's history.

A Surgeon with Custer at the Little Big Horn

A Surgeon with Custer at the Little Big Horn PDF Author: James Madison DeWolf
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 0806158123
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
In spring 1876 a physician named James Madison DeWolf accepted the assignment of contract surgeon for the Seventh Cavalry, becoming one of three surgeons who accompanied Custer’s battalion at the Battle of the Little Big Horn. Killed in the early stages of the battle, he might easily have become a mere footnote in the many chronicles of this epic campaign—but he left behind an eyewitness account in his diary and correspondence. A Surgeon with Custer at the Little Big Horn is the first annotated edition of these rare accounts since 1958, and the most complete treatment to date. While researchers have known of DeWolf’s diary for many years, few details have surfaced about the man himself. In A Surgeon with Custer at the Little Big Horn, Todd E. Harburn bridges this gap, providing a detailed biography of DeWolf as well as extensive editorial insight into his writings. As one of the most highly educated men who traveled with Custer, the surgeon was well equipped to compose articulate descriptions of the 1876 campaign against the Indians, a fateful journey that began for him at Fort Lincoln, Dakota Territory, and ended on the battlefield in eastern Montana Territory. In letters to his beloved wife, Fannie, and in diary entries—reproduced in this volume exactly as he wrote them—DeWolf describes the terrain, weather conditions, and medical needs that he and his companions encountered along the way. After DeWolf’s death, his colleague Dr. Henry Porter, who survived the conflict, retrieved his diary and sent it to DeWolf’s widow. Later, the DeWolf family donated it to the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. Now available in this accessible and fully annotated format, the diary, along with the DeWolf’s personal correspondence, serves as a unique primary resource for information about the Little Big Horn campaign and medical practices on the western frontier.

Little Bighorn Remembered

Little Bighorn Remembered PDF Author: Herman J. Viola
Publisher: Crown
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
On the morning of June 25, 1876, soldiers of the elite U.S. Seventh Cavalry led by Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer attacked a large Indian encampment on the banks of the Little Bighorn River. By day's end, Custer and more than two hundred of his men lay dead. It was a shocking defeat--or magnificent victory, depending on your point of view--and more than a century later it is still the object of controversy, debate, and fascination. What really happened on that fateful day? Now, thanks to the work of Herman J. Viola, Curator Emeritus of the Smithsonian Institution, we are much closer to answering that question. Dr. Viola, a leader in the preservation of Native American culture and history, has collected here dozens of dramatic, never-before-published accounts by Indians who participated in the battle--accounts that have been handed down to the present day, often secretly and accompanied by oaths of silence, from one generation to the next. These remarkable eyewitness recollections provide a direct link to that day's events; together they constitute an unprecedented oral history of the battle from the Native American point of view and the most comprehensive eyewitness description of Little Bighorn we have ever had. Here are the dramatic stories of the Cheyenne and Lakota warriors who rode into battle against Custer, the yellow-haired Son of the Morning Star, an adversary whose valor they admired--but who became a mortal enemy after breaking his peace-pipe oath, a scene described vividly in these pages. Here in their own words are the stories of the Crow scouts, allies of Custer, who advised against attacking Sitting Bull's village on the Little Bighorn. Hereare tales of valor told by the Arikara scouts who fought side by side with Custer's men against the Lakota and Cheyenne; although the Great Father in Washington rewarded their heroism with silence, it is celebrated to this day in tribal stories and songs that come to us from beyond the grave with hair-raising immediacy and power. Lavishly illustrated with more than two hundred maps, photographs, reproductions, and drawings, this remarkable book also includes: An account of the battle, including startling descriptions of Custer's conduct, collected from the Crow scouts by the famed photographer Edward S. Curtis in 1908. Curtis never published this report--President Theodore Roosevelt advised him not to--and it remained a secret until his ninety-year-old son recently gave the material to the Smithsonian. New archaeological evidence from the battlefield that casts fresh light on the Seventh Cavalry's movements, along with discoveries from the site of Sitting Bull's village--including the complete skeleton of a cavalry horse with its rider's well- preserved saddlebags and personal items. A series of illustrations made soon after the battle by Red Horse, a remarkable tableau that is reproduced here in its entirety for the first time. Three letters written by Lieutenant William Van Wyck Reily just days before he died at Little Bighorn that provide key and potentially controversial insights into the conduct of the cavalry under Custer's command. In short, this landmark book takes us much closer to knowing what really happened on that June day in 1876 when Custer died and a legend was born.

The Last Days of George Armstrong Custer

The Last Days of George Armstrong Custer PDF Author: Thom Hatch
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 1250051029
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 383

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Book Description
Subtitle from jacket; subtitle on title page repeats the main title.

The Last Stand

The Last Stand PDF Author: Nathaniel Philbrick
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0099521245
Category : Little Bighorn, Battle of the, Mont., 1876
Languages : en
Pages : 495

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Book Description
AMERICAN HISTORY: C 1800 TO C 1900. 'The whites want war and we will give it to them' - Sitting Bull. This is the archetypal story of the American West. Whether it is cast as a tale of unmatched bravery in the face of impossible odds or of insane arrogance receiving its rightful comeuppance, Custer's Last Stand continues to captivate the imagination. Nathaniel Philbrick brilliantly reconstructs the build-up to the Battle of the Little Big Horn through to the final eruption of violence. Two legendary figures dominate the events: George Armstrong Custer and Sitting Bull. No longer the fresh-faced 'Boy-General' of the Civil War, Custer was now mired in financial, professional and political problems. A clear and just cause had been replaced by ambiguity and frustration - by ill-fated efforts at peace treaties, treachery and compromises on both sides.