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Title: Death of a Myth by Bob Snelson ISBN: 0-9723935-0-1 Publisher: Snelsonbooks.com Pub. Date: 03 October, 2002 Format: Paperback List Price(USD): $15.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.67 (3 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A Rational Comprehensive Presentation Using Current Research
Comment: Snelson offers a direct and comprehensive study in this compact book that focuses on the battle and its aftermath in just 165 very readable pages. If Graham (The Custer Myth) had access to the more current research and archeological studies he may have written a book like this because Snelson tries to write a very objective account. Snelson utilizes the research of others with few primary sources to examine what occurred at the LBH, which, in one sense allows the book to flow quickly. The jist is that Snelson offers and mitigates what the bare facts are and what can be proven and argues against conspiracy theories, which are very popular. A typical example concerns Reno, was he right stopping his charge and forming a skirmish line? Well, who would want to charge into an 8,000-person village before the rest of the regiment was up? You may not like Reno or Benteen for that matter but Snelson argues pretty good points on whether or not they could have made a difference. He uses several of Hardoff's Indian accounts of the battle to establish what Custer did after he came to Medicine Ford Coulee. He obviously spilt his 5-company battalion into two parts but the mystery today still is did he leave half his command to go further north to attack at a better positioned ford to stop the exodus from the village or was he performing a feint to pull the Indians away from Reno? Who knows for sure but the end result is that Custer with E and F (and maybe part of C) move away from Keogh (L and I and all or part of C) and both now isolated cannot support the other when the Indians envelope and shock the troops into a loss of cohesion. He does make sense as does Fox that Custer had to be confidently on the offensive when the abrupt collapse occurs because he is still moving north instead of south towards the rest of the regiment. Keogh may have been split off as a lynchpin to Benteen who was expected to come up and also deal with Indians that were harassing the rear of the column. At the end Snelson attacks the various theories of why the defeat occurs from all the various angles. One of which is that this is a most unique Indian fight in that they fight in unusually large numbers with an almost unified aggressiveness that was only shown at the Rosebud just a week earlier. This unique nature unlike typical Indian fighting totally overwhelms Custer's and any commander's expectations (such as Crook). It's easy to fault Reno and Benteen because of their personalities and their variation of the facts (did not hear shooting down stream) but Snelson challenges you to look at what was happening at the time without the benefit of hindsight. In fact, they all made errors including Custer but it was based on two primary things, that the Indians would run and that Custer could take care of himself and may have if he had not made the final separation of his 5 company battalion on unsuitable ground. I learned a lot from my two day tour of the battlefield earlier this week one of which is the fact that Benteen did not follow Custer's trail at the morass and take the shorter route, he followed Reno's trail to the creek and thus took the indirect route that probably cost a half hour plus the pack train took the same course. Would that have made a difference? Maybe not if Reno still had time to block Benteen and ask for help. This is compounded by Boston Custer who told his brother that Benteen was coming up to support him as ordered which may have set Custer up to split his battalion, one to safeguard Benteen's connection and leave the other for offensive maneuvering. Unless you have been there, you cannot say enough about the effect of the terrain. The huge rising bluffs blocked Custer's command from having a total view of the village until they were committed and when suddenly put on the defensive, the bluffs offered little protection for Calvary unlike the valley floor that they were best able to operate on. A good book because you can debate the author's views with your own or with a colleague, but it is a challenge to argue his presentation that which makes the book fun to read because all Custer historians enjoy the argument. This is the anti "what if" book, the author concentrates on "what happened and what they knew then".
Rating: 5
Summary: How to summarise without prejudice a controversial issue.
Comment: First things first. You must know I've have read a lot of books about the Battle of Little Big Horn/Greassy Grass (actually it was a minor "battle" and more of an skirmish wich turned into a massacre...).
The present one does a SHORT/HARD/BELIEVABLE/FAIR/WELL EXPOSED/REASONED account of all relevant facts (and logical presumptions) without pesting the reader with a lot of trivia and pedantic "what ifs", as it is, I think I will probable put it on my top three accounts of the Battle, it's a pity the maps are'nt in color (the positive thing is THERE ARE MAPS of detail for the largely supposed movements of the 5 companies of Custer Command), many a good book about it suffers from the fact of poor graphic info. Here it's to the point but the same could be said for the text (only one word "plain" has to be "plane" in a sentence but you will deduct that yourself) a model of clarity and concision. WELL DONE.
Recommended to all, from the hardest aficionado up to the newest come to a theme wich has fascinated many generations since 1876.
For a NOVEL try "A ROAD WE DO NOT KNOW", the narrative wich will complement this one perfectly. For a colored version get OSPREY CAMPAIGN Nº39 by Peter Panzeri (with whom I will enjoy a wargame by the way...).
Rating: 4
Summary: Fact or Fiction in Detail
Comment: I read this book with a basic knowledge of what happened on the last days in the life of George Custer. There was a great deal of research into all of the happenings of The Battle of the Little Bighorn. This book covers a great deal of information that will be useful for other researchers or anyone interested in history. The conclusions drawn by the author are insightful and educated. It is definitely a keeper.
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Title: Custer and the Battle of the Little Bighorn: An Encyclopedia of the People, Places, Events, Indian Culture and Customs, Information Sources, Art and Films by Thom Hatch ISBN: 0786409649 Publisher: McFarland & Company Pub. Date: November, 2000 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: The Custer Companion: A Comprehensive Guide to the Life of George Armstrong Custer and the Plains Indian Wars by Thom Hatch ISBN: 0811704777 Publisher: Stackpole Books Pub. Date: 10 August, 2002 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: We Trailed the Sioux: Enlisted Men Speak on Custer, Crook, and the Great Sioux War by Paul L. Hedren ISBN: 0811700623 Publisher: Stackpole Books Pub. Date: August, 2003 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: The Custer Myth by W. A. Graham ISBN: 0811727262 Publisher: Stackpole Books Pub. Date: July, 2000 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Encyclopedia of Indian Wars: Western Battles and Skirmishes 1850-1890 by Gregory F. Michno ISBN: 0878424687 Publisher: Mountain Press Publishing Company Pub. Date: August, 2003 List Price(USD): $28.00 |
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