"Little Big Horn Book suggestions. " Topic

Hi all

I need to move on from the History Channel. What are your recommendations for the single best book on Little Big Horn from the points of view of accuracy, latest research and readability?

Thanks in advance.

Both books are by the author Gregory F. Michno.

Lakota Noon: The Indian Narrative of Custer's Defeat

The Mystery of E Troop: Custer's Gray Horse Company at the Little Bighorn

A Terrible Glory by Donovan is new and quite good. The Last Stand by Philbrick is another recently published book I enjoyed.

Thanks.

I second 23rds recommendations, at least Lakota Noon (I have yet to read the E Troop book though I have it). Lakota Noon is well put together and gives a timeline account of the battle. I have not read a better account. Michno shoots some holes in the account by Richard Allen Fox in Archaeology, History, and Custer's Last Battle. I would recommend that book particularly for the archaeological excavation information. His conclusions are not as good as Michno's (Michno uses the native accounts)

Son of the Morningstar

I also heartily endorse 23rdFusilier's suggestions. Greg is in my opinion the best Indian Wars historian today. He has an exceedingly analytical mind.

He can read the same facts we all have for decades and recognize their importance and what they reveal. He sees things that all others have missed.

Of the two books mentioned, Lakota Noon would be the one to pick if you only could have one.

Another excellent one is Vanishing Victory by Bruce Liddic.

Both Liddic and Michno have been at this all their lives. The popular writers do one book and that is it. They do not have the depth of understanding that Liddic and Michno have. They have been over that battlefield countless times.

Tom

I hang out with some LBL nuts each year for a Chickamauga tour…Michno's name comes up often, so to add to 23rd and Garryowen, I would go with Michno! I have his Encyclopedia of Indian Wars: Western Battles and Skirmishes, 1850 – 1890, and it is excellent!

Another vote for Son of the Morning Star.

If you like Michno pick up his Indian Wars and Forgotten fights book. They are also excellent reads for this era!

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I enjoyed Lakota Noon.

Thanks.

A few years ago when I visited the Little Bighorn Battlefield I asked the Park Ranger for a recommendation on the one book he would recommend to read on the Campaign. His recommendation was: The Sioux War of 1876 by John S. Gray

As I recall, I read it in two days, must be OK

I agree on Michno – all of his books are excellent. If you're looking for a fictional account, a superior book is "A Road We Do Not Know" by Frederick Chiaventone.

I forgot another excellent book: "The Strategy of Defeat at the Little Big Horn: A Military and Timing Analysis of the Battle", by Fred Wagner.

Another vote for Son of the Morning Star.

For a good feel of the battlefield (and how it has changed over the years) I would recommend:

Where Custer fell : photographs of the Little Bighorn Battlefield then and now

"To create Where Custer Fell, authors James S. Brust, Brian C. Pohanka, and Sandy Barnard searched for elusive documents and photographs, made countless trips to the battlefield, and scrutinized all available sources. Each chapter begins with a concise, lively description of an episode in the battle. The narratives are graphically illustrated by historical photos, which are presented alongside modern photos of the same location on the battlefield. The book also features detailed maps and photographs of battle participants and the early photographers who attempted to tell their story."

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It's popular (especially among those who have not read it) to downplay Fox's "History, Archaeology, and Custer's Last Battle," but it completely swept all books written before it off the shelf and into the bin. All of them.

You can buy it here for $4.00 USD, postpaid: link

Read this, and you are in the rare position to make sense of all the works that come after as well.

The chapter on the model of combat applied to make sense of the artifacts alone is worth the price of the book and will open your mind to aspects of gaming not addressed by most rules writers.

Just one example of the profound fact base the book provides regards the use by all previous historians of the grave markers as an attempt to plot the progress of the fight.

From the first works, people noticed that many of the headstones were "paired," along side each other. The logical conclusion was two "bunkies" fought and died together at those sites.

In fact, the rudimentary attempts to bury the dead immediately after the fight resulted in only shallow piles of earth clawed out of the rock hard prairie from either side of the body. There were no proper tools for grave digging, and the relieving force was in a great hurry to get away from the field with the survivors of Reno's battalion.

Over time, the shallow depressions came to be taken as grave sites themselves, so one body was commonly read as two.

Further, when early in the 20th Century the first formal head stones were sent out for placement, the work details eventually got tired and started laying them just to get the job done.

This was all confirmed by the prolonged dig which found no graves under many markers, only one between pairs, and a large number of bodies that had never been marked.

Thus, those works that tried to describe the movements of Custer's battalion based on those markers were simply shoveling smoke, not writing history.

HAACLB details any number of similar fallacies about the battle and field, and until actually read, no previous source is of any value beyond a good read and the continued propagation of myth--including those works that tried to "deconstruct" the battle and Custer's part in it.

TVAG

Agree with 23 fusilier, I have read both books & they are excellent.

Agree with most of what TVAG wrote above, including most of what he wrote of Fox's work, especially how tactical disintegration took hold of Keogh's 3-company battalion and the truth behind the "paired" graves. However, I do disagree on a couple of points, First, with TVAC's comment about the first formal head stone placement.
It wasn't early in the 20th Century that the first formal head stone were sent to the Battlefield for placement. That occurred in 1980 when Capt. Owen Sweet led men of the 25th Infantry Regiment there to set 246 marble gravestones where the bodies were found. (He placed no stones in the Deep Ravine where Fox states that 28 or 29 bodies were found.)
Secondly, Fox maintains that most of E Company fled into the Deep Ravine and were killed there. Since Sweet place no headstones there and no signs of bodies were discovered there in 1984-86 during the excavations that took place soon after the famous fire burned most of the Last Stand area down to the dirt. Eleven trenches were dug along the length of the ravine with no remains found there. Additionally, auger tests were drilled at several locations there, again with no remains and few artifacts found. This, as a minimum, makes Fox's assertion that most of E Troop perished there questionable, to say the least. (My comments about the "dig" results comes mostly from Michno's "The Mystery of E Troop".

Another vote for "Son of the Morning Star" also made into a pretty good movie.

TVAG: Thanks for the mention of Fox's book. Just ordered it.

Great response, and as usual more than just some quick recommendations. Thank you all for your advice and expertise.

I've ordered Lakota Moon and have Fox in my 'save for Later' list. I'm in the UK and have several local bookshops in walking distance of my home – it's a University town. Philbrick was on the shelves along with Ambrose's 'Custer and Crazy Horse' book. After browsing, both like good reads but I wanted to get to the detail of the battle before the bigger story. A very inexpensive used copy of the Osprey compilation 'To Live & Die in the West: The American Indian Wars' has also been ordered for some general background and pictorial stimulus.

I've watched 'Son of The Morning Star on YouTube' and am part way through a YouYube lecture 'The Custer Conundrum' by T. J. Stiles, so it is turning out to be a LBH themed Christmas for me!

Happy Holidays, all TMPR's!

Michno in both of the books Lakota Noon and The Mystery of E Troop, analyzes a lot of Fox's ideas. I'm not so sure Rich had everything nailed down quite like some believe.

An example is that since Rich Fox found very few empty cartridge cases on Custer Hill, the last stand was a myth. There was almost no resistance from the men on the hill. He did acknowledge that the battlefield has been "biased" by "relic hunters" in the past. But he said there is no reason to believe artifacts were not removed in the past uniformly throughout the battlefield so that the percentages would still be valid.

HUH! If any of you have been to the Battlefield, you will know that Custer's five companies fought over ground at least 3/4 of a mile long by over 1/4 of a mile wide. There is s lot of rough terrain in there.

Where did all the early visitors go (and most of them today even)? Custer Hill. It was a picnic destination for parties from Ft. Custer built the year after the battle. They picked up cartridge case all over the hill. One fellow commented on picking them up by the hatful.

Rich was an archaeologist and a new one. He got a name from the sensationalism he created.

The best thing he did was to get metal detecting on battlefields accepted by archaeologists. How could they not accept it with all the publicity it got him?

You noticed Fox termed all those who metal detected or otherwise found things on the battlefield before he did to be a "relic hunters." A bit of snobbery and elitism in my opinion. Earlier people who sought artifacts included the most well known Battlefield superintendent and Park Service historians and rangers.

Fox also must be given credit for being the first writer on the battle that I am aware of who took the trouble to read Upton's 1874 Cavalry Tactics and apply them to a study of the battle.

Tom

I, of course, recommend visiting the site (Roughly an hour on I90 from Billings MT).

Walking the ground at LBH and Rosebud (45 miles away) can really help shape your studies

"You noticed Fox termed all those who metal detected or otherwise found things on the battlefield before he did to be a "relic hunters." A bit of snobbery and elitism in my opinion. Earlier people who sought artifacts included the most well known Battlefield superintendent and Park Service historians and rangers."

There is indeed a strain of "elitism" among archaeologists and their disdain for "relic/pot hunters," but there's a solid basis for it. The Battlefield Superintendent, historians, and Rangers did not record WHERE they picked up their souvenirs, record their ORIENTATION, ammunition TYPE, catalog firing pin signatures, etc, so that they could be part of a comprehensive survey. With no malice in their hearts, such indiscriminate behavior still compromised the "scene of the crime."

And the argument that there may have been little actual fighting at the "last stand" site has another historical precedent in the Indian Wars. The "last stand" site of the Fetterman Fight similar showed the complete emotional collapse of the defenders, the end of resistance and assuming the fetal position before death. Such is the absolute extremity of terror when not even escape by flight is possible.

TVAG

PS Coopman! You're most welcome, Sir, to the link! It's there for all to access who really want to come to this legitimate argument with vastly more fact than can be found from all previous works. Fox may be faulted in a number of ways (I never did buy his ultimate theory as to why Custer's Battalion never entered the village, but that's another story). However, not reading him and still arguing about aspects of LBH is like riding down into the valley without any rounds for your carbine!

TVAG

IMHO
Connell's – Son of the Morning Star ( nice easy read )
Wagner's – Strategy for Defeat ( A great eval . on Military level)
Darling's – A sad and terrible Blunder
Greene's – Walter Camp Notes and With Custer in 76

On PDF off computer can download Reno Court of inquiry
( feel it is a must read )

There are several PDF's that can be viewed for free
These are people /students that use LBH for their thesis.
Of particular interest is " Misguided by experience "
I believe 1993 / all the thesis works are heavily referenced and a good source.

MicK, great point out of the Walter Camp notes! Boy do I wish he had actually completed that book.

Thanks!

I've always enjoyed both of John Gray's titles due their time-motion analysis studies from the Crow's Nest through the arrival of the Terry-Gibbon column.

Connell is an easy read because he is a writer, but you'll be loathe to find a footnote anywhere and bibliography is literary name-dropping. Not my favorite, BUT is does read well!

Larry Sklenar's "To Hell With Honor" is also a great read, if you can get around its crucifixion of both Reno and Benteen.

And anything the late Brian Pohanka wrote or prefaced is well worth your time.

Finally,ground-Penetrating Radar conducting in 1994 located 11 anomalies at the head of Deep Ravine and approximately 20 more at the bend. The bodies are in Deep Ravine, though deeper than the auger penetration depth in 1984. The map revealing this information may be in Lincoln, NE or at the battlefield. I saw it as an employee when showed by late Historian Doug McChristian (RIP) and Superintendent Gerard Baker.

The last paragraph should give some of you want to tear me a new corn-shoot.