Bloodshed at Little Bighorn
Sitting Bull, Custer, and the Destinies of Nations
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A brief history of the Battle of Little Bighorn, the deadly clash between U.S. soldiers and Native American forces in 1876.
Commonly known as Custer’s Last Stand, the Battle of Little Bighorn may be the best recognized violent conflict between the indigenous peoples of North America and the government of the United States. Incorporating the voices of Native Americans, soldiers, scouts, and women, Tim Lehman’s concise, compelling narrative will forever change the way we think about this familiar event in American history.
On June 25, 1876, General George Armstrong Custer led the U.S. Army’s Seventh Cavalry in an attack on a massive encampment of Sioux and Cheyenne Indians on the bank of the Little Bighorn River. What was supposed to be a large-scale military operation to force U.S. sovereignty over the tribes instead turned into a quick, brutal rout of the attackers when Custer’s troops fell upon the Indians ahead of the main infantry force. By the end of the fight, the Sioux and Cheyenne had killed Custer and 210 of his men. The victory fueled hopes of freedom and encouraged further resistance among the Native Americans. For the U.S. military, the lost battle prompted a series of vicious retaliatory strikes that ultimately forced the Sioux and Cheyenne into submission and the long nightmare of reservation life.
Grounded in the most recent research, attentive to Native American perspectives, and featuring a colorful cast of characters, this account elucidates the key lessons of the conflict and draws out the less visible ones. This may not be the last book you read on Little Bighorn, but it should be the first.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The U.S. military encounters a fierce insurgency it s ill-equipped to fight because its tactics are too rigid and it lacks a meaningful understanding of its opponents. Iraq, circa 2003? Or the American West, circa 1876? Historian Tim Lehman revisits Custer s Last Stand in this excellent primer, telling the story of Little Bighorn in the words of its participants. Little Bighorn remains a tragedy on an epic scale, and Lehman is chagrined by the enduring mystery of the catastrophe. True, battlefield reports are scant and conflicted, but Lehman s research provides an answer to the usual question, fueled by racial arrogance: How could a rag-tag band of savages defeat the legendary fighting Seventh? Custer made grave mistakes and the Sioux and Cheyenne warriors were highly-skilled at plains warfare, that s how. The battle was interpreted for decades from the white point of view as a conflict between civilization and barbarism, a limited lens that only deepens the tragic dimensions of the enduring tale. Custer s wife, Libbie, devoted her life to ensuring that tradition and history will be so mingled that no one will be able to separate them. With this book, Lehman has separated them.
