George Armstrong Custer-the name evokes instant recognition among Americans and people around the world. Eulogized in poetry by such luminaries as Walt Whitman and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and portrayed on screen by Errol Flynn and Ronald Reagan, no other figure in the history of the American West has more powerfully moved the human imagination. The son of a village blacksmith in Ohio, Custer qualified last in his class at West Point. Yet he proved to be a brilliant Civil War commander from the moment he made his debut at Gettysburg. At age twenty-five he was promoted to the rank of major general, a feat that earned him the sobriquet "the boy general." Following the war, as part of the frontier army, he was handed the task of protecting the railroads by reining in the Plains Indians. Resplendent in buckskin, he steadily built a reputation as an Indian fighter, enhancing his legend with his own writings. Always forthright with his opinions, Custer may have held a future career, some have suggested, in politics. However, this will never be known, for on June 25, 1876 Custer reached his untimely end. Heavily outnumbered by a combined force of Sioux and Cheyenne warriors at the Battle of Little Bighorn, Custer's entire company was cut down. Never before or since have Indians inflicted such a deafeat on federal troops. This new, lavishly illustrated book combines over 200 photographs and paintings, many in color, with a revised edition of Robert M. Utley's classic biography, "Cavalier in Buckskin." Drawing on twelve years of additional research on Sitting Bull and the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Utley has dramatically changed his original interpretations of Custer's Last Stand, addressing the eternal question: might Custer have won? The result is a captivating biography that combines elegant prose with sound historical judgment.

Originally published: Cavalier in buckskin. c1988.

Immortality -- Boy general -- Regular Army -- Total war -- Iron horse -- Gold -- Politics -- Last stand -- Judgments -- Sources