With Custers Cavalry

This is the story of George Custer's best cavalry company at the 1876 Battle of the Little Bighorn – Company M. With a tragically-flawed, but extremely brave Company Commander and a no-nonsense First Sergeant, Company M maintained a disciplined withdrawal from the skirmish line fighting, saving Major Marcus Reno's entire detachment and possibly the rest of the regiment from annihilation. Presented here is the most-detailed work on a single company at the Little Bighorn ever written – the product of multi-year research at archives across the country and detailed visits to the battlefield by a combat veteran who understands fields of fire, weapons' effects, training, morale, decision-making, unit cohesion and the value of outstanding non-commissioned officers.

PREFACE. THE Author of this very practical treatise on Scotch Loch - Fishing desires clearly that it may be of use to all who had it. He does not pretend to have written anything new, but to have attempted to put what he has to say in as readable a form as possible. Everything in the way of the history and habits of fish has been studiously avoided, and technicalities have been used as sparingly as possible. The writing of this book has afforded him pleasure in his leisure moments, and that pleasure would be much increased if he knew that the perusal of it would create any bond of sympathy between himself and the angling community in general. This section is interleaved with blank shects for the readers notes. The Author need hardly say that any suggestions addressed to the case of the publishers, will meet with consideration in a future edition. We do not pretend to write or enlarge upon a new subject. Much has been said and written-and well said and written too on the art of fishing but loch-fishing has been rather looked upon as a second-rate performance, and to dispel this idea is one of the objects for which this present treatise has been written. Far be it from us to say anything against fishing, lawfully practised in any form but many pent up in our large towns will bear us out when me say that, on the whole, a days loch-fishing is the most convenient. One great matter is, that the loch-fisher is depend- ent on nothing but enough wind to curl the water, -and on a large loch it is very seldom that a dead calm prevails all day, -and can make his arrangements for a day, weeks beforehand whereas the stream- fisher is dependent for a good take on the state of the water and however pleasant and easy it may be for one living near the banks of a good trout stream or river, it is quite another matter to arrange for a days river-fishing, if one is looking forward to a holiday at a date some weeks ahead. Providence may favour the expectant angler with a good day, and the water in order but experience has taught most of us that the good days are in the minority, and that, as is the case with our rapid running streams, -such as many of our northern streams are, -the water is either too large or too small, unless, as previously remarked, you live near at hand, and can catch it at its best. A common belief in regard to loch-fishing is, that the tyro and the experienced angler have nearly the same chance in fishing, -the one from the stern and the other from the bow of the same boat. Of all the absurd beliefs as to loch-fishing, this is one of the most absurd. Try it. Give the tyro either end of the boat he likes give him a cast of ally flies he may fancy, or even a cast similar to those which a crack may be using and if he catches one for every three the other has, he may consider himself very lucky. Of course there are lochs where the fish are not abundant, and a beginner may come across as many as an older fisher but we speak of lochs where there are fish to be caught, and where each has a fair chance. Again, it is said that the boatman has as much to do with catching trout in a loch as the angler. Well, we dont deny that. In an untried loch it is necessary to have the guidance of a good boatman but the same argument holds good as to stream-fishing...

Albert and Jennie Barnitz "were both perceptive, articulate individuals who fully realized that they were involved in fascinating historically important events. They have left a record of frontier military life that can scarcely be matched elsewhere. . . . Historian and buff alike will find this volume both enlightening and entertaining."--Paul A. Hutton, Journal of American History "The reader will come to like Albert and Jennie Barnitz, whose letters trigger a time machine in which we come to know a good deal more about Life in Custer's Cavalry."--Montana "Albert Barnitz. . .served with Custer's famed Seventh Cavalry for four years, 1867-70. . . . In 1867 Albert and Jennie (Platt), both of Ohio, married and headed for the Kansas frontier. Four months later the growing perils of Indian clashes forced her to return east. . . . [Their] letters and diaries, dated from January 17, 1867, to February 10, 1869, are vivid and accurate. . . . [They] provide a keen picture of life in the Seventh Cavalry, both in garrison and field, immediately after the Civil War."--The Historian Editor Robert Utley's books available in Bison Books editions include Billy the Kid: A Short and Violent Life; Frontier Regulars: The United States Army and the Indian, 1866-1891; and Frontiersmen in Blue: The United States Army and the Indian, 1848-1865.

A wife?s premonition spared Lieutenant Francis M. Gibson from the fate that overtook General George A. Custer and the Seventh U. S. Cavalry. At her insistence, he declined a transfer that would have placed him in the Battle of the Little Bighorn, but he was on the scene immediately after it. Gibson?s letters detailing the devastation, together with his wife?s reports on the women at the army posts waiting for news, allow a fresh perspective on "Custer's Last Stand." Told in the first person, With Custer's Cavalry represents the story of Katherine Gibson, the author's mother, who supplied all of the material. Mrs. Gibson describes a phase of army life during the 1870s and 1880s that has received scant attention--a gala wedding, a baby's funeral, a sewing bee, a buffalo stampede, a smallpox epidemic. She provides candid glimpses of her good friends, the Custers. And every page brings the reader closer to the intimate events surrounding the most infamous battle in the history of the West.

Of the three surgeons who accompanied Custer’s Seventh Cavalry on June 25, 1876, only the youngest, twenty-eight-year-old Henry Porter, survived that day’s ordeal, riding through a gauntlet of Indian attackers and up the steep bluffs to Major Marcus Reno’s hilltop position. But the story of Dr. Porter’s wartime exploits goes far beyond the battle itself. In this compelling narrative of military endurance and medical ingenuity, Joan Nabseth Stevenson opens a new window on the Battle of the Little Big Horn by re-creating the desperate struggle for survival during the fight and in its wake. As Stevenson recounts in gripping detail, Porter’s life-saving work on the battlefield began immediately, as he assumed the care of nearly sixty soldiers and two Indian scouts, attending to wounds and performing surgeries and amputations. He evacuated the critically wounded soldiers on mules and hand litters, embarking on a hazardous trek of fifteen miles that required two river crossings, the scaling of a steep cliff, and a treacherous descent into the safety of the steamboat Far West, waiting at the mouth of the Little Big Horn River. There began a harrowing 700-mile journey along the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers to the post hospital at Fort Abraham Lincoln near Bismarck, Dakota Territory. With its new insights into the role and function of the army medical corps and the evolution of battlefield medicine, this unusual book will take its place both as a contribution to the history of the Great Sioux War and alongside such vivid historical novels as Son of the Morning Star and Little Big Man. It will also ensure that the selfless deeds of a lone “contract” surgeon—unrecognized to this day by the U.S. government—will never be forgotten.

A newly-minted West Point lieutenant in 1876, he requested posting to George Armstrong Custer's 7th Cavalry just days after the general's death at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. He accompanied the brother of General Philip Sheridan to recover the remains of Custer and the other officers from the battlefield at the Little Bighorn in 1877. He met and befriended most of the important Plains Indians as well as figures like Buffalo Bill Cody, General Phil Sheridan, Frederick Remington, and others. He met "the idol of the 7th Cavalry," Captain Frederick Benteen, modeled his own style of command after Benteen, and remained friends with him until the latter's death. Fluent in Indian sign language, a true friend to Native Americans, probably no white man of his time was better at communicating with and gaining the trust of the tribes with which he worked than Hugh Lenox Scott. During his time in the west, he more than once turned down assignments to more desirable posts to remain working with the tribes. Of his fellow white citizens, he wrote: "...there is an inborn racial fear of the Indian in our minds, due to our ignorance of his thought, enhanced by the tales of scalping and bloodshed we were fed on in our youth." Many times, Scott put himself at great risk to avoid bloodshed between whites and Indians. This fascinating, exciting, and extremely important memoir is one that every student of American history should own and read repeatedly. Every memoir of the American West provides us with another view of the movement that changed the country forever. For the first time, this long out-of-print volume is available as an affordable, well-formatted book for e-readers and smartphones. Be sure to LOOK INSIDE by clicking the cover above or download a sample.

Accounts of military life of troops with General George Custer during his successful search for gold on Sioux lands in the Black Hills in Dakota territory.

Civil War historians have long been puzzled by Pickett’s seemingly suicidal frontal attack on the Union center at Gettysburg. Here, for the first time, Paul D. Walker reveals Robert E. Lee’s true plan for victory at Gettysburg: a simultaneous strike against the Union center from the front and rear—Pickett’s infantry to charge the front, while Stuart’s cavalry struck the rear. The frontal assault by Pickett went off as scheduled, but as Stuart’s forces approached from the rear, they encountered a Union cavalry contingent. As the forces joined, the Union cavalry leader was quickly killed, and command fell to one of the most dynamic figures in American history—George Armstrong Custer. What followed was America’s greatest cavalry battle: 7,500 Confederate horsemen ranged against 5,000 Union cavalry, Jeb Stuart against George Custer, with the outcome of the Civil War at stake.

Since the shocking news first broke in 1876 of the Seventh Cavalry’s disastrous defeat at the Little Big Horn, fascination with the battle—and with Lieutenant George Armstrong Custer—has never ceased. Widespread interest in the subject has spawned a vast outpouring of literature, which only increases with time. This two-volume bibliography of Custer literature is the first to be published in some twenty-five years and the most complete ever assembled. Drawing on years of research, Michael O’Keefe has compiled entries for roughly 3,000 books and 7,000 articles and pamphlets. Covering both nonfiction and fiction (but not juvenile literature), the bibliography focuses on events beginning with Custer’s tenure at West Point during the 1850s and ending with the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890. Included within this span are Custer’s experiences in the Civil War and in Texas, the 1873 Yellowstone and 1874 Black Hills expeditions, the Great Sioux War of 1876–77, and the Seventh Cavalry’s pursuit of the Nez Perces in 1877. The literature on Custer, the Battle of the Little Big Horn, and the Seventh Cavalry touches the entire American saga of exploration, conflict, and settlement in the West, including virtually all Plains Indian tribes, the frontier army, railroading, mining, and trading. Hence this bibliography will be a valuable resource for a broad audience of historians, librarians, collectors, and Custer enthusiasts.

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.