Cavalier in Buckskin; George Armstrong Custer and the Western Military Frontier

Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1988. First Edition [stated], presumed first printing. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. xvii, [1], 226, [4] pages. DJ has slight wear and soiling. Includes Series Editor's Preface, Sources, and Index. Chapters cover Immortality; Boy General; Regular Army; Total War; Iron Horse; Gold; Politics; Last Stand; And Judgments. Also includes 46 black and white illustrations following page 78, as well as 8 black and white maps of Hancock's War; The Southern Plains War; The Battle of the Washita; The Yellowstone and Black Hills Expeditions, 1873-1874; Fort Abraham Lincoln D. T.; The Sioux War of 1876; The Little Bighorn Campaign, June 1876; and The Battle of the Little Bighorn, June 25, 1876. This is Volume 1 in the Oklahoma Western Biographies series. Robert Marshall Utley (born October 31, 1929) is an American author and historian who has written sixteen books on the history of the American West. He is a former chief historian for the National Park Service. Much of his writing deals with the United States Army in the West, especially in its confrontations with the Indian tribes. He writes: the frontier army was a conventional military force trying to control, by conventional military methods, a people that did not behave like conventional enemies and, indeed, quite often were not enemies at all. This is the most difficult of all military assignments, whether in Africa, Asia, or the American West. The Western History Association annually gives out the Robert M. Utley Book Award for the best book published on the military history of the frontier and western North America. The author probes the mortal and the immortal while also characterizing and interpreting the institutional context of both--the frontier army of the American West. Custer was the best known (though not the best) of the nation's military Indian fighters. Through the man, we have clear access to the western military frontier and the nature of warfare with the Indians of the Great Plains. Custer first burst into popular imagination as the "Boy General" of Civil War fame. Despite his youth, he proved a superlative combat leader; from Gettysburg to Appomattox his handling of cavalry brigade and division was nearly flawless. Custer was a complex character, overflowing with contradictions. Robert Utley sees the contradictions as symptoms of a constant struggle between boy and man, a struggle never wholly resolved. Spotlighted here for the first time are an obsession with money that fueled shady business deals and possibly fraudulent kickback schemes and a solid marriage, that nonetheless, after some stormy interludes, accommodated infidelities. Derived from a Kirkus review: Aground-breaking biography of Custer, by a former Chief Historian of the National Park Service and author of many books and articles on the West. Utley performs a stupendous job of research here. The bibliography of Custer is one of the most extensive in American history, yet the author manages to highlight some unnoticed (or little-noticed) factors in Custer's life. For example, here Custer is reported to have had an unhealthy obsession with money that led him into some shady business deals and fraudulent kickback schemes. Similarly, Utley manages to unearth marital infidelities overlooked by previous authors. But, as usual, it is on the Battle of the Little Big Horn that Custer's reputation stands or falls. Utley is supportive of Custer's military skills, even in defeat. He finds much of the later criticisms of Custer's strategy to be based on Monday-morning quarter backing, criticizing Custer for over looking facts he could not possibly have known at the time. Sure to stir controversy amid historians, but Utley is to be commended for taking an unpopular opinion and standing firm. A fine, well-balanced biography of a complex character.