Description
Acclaimed historian Dee Brown traces the events of that day and of the weeks before, through the eyes and ears of seventeen participants from both sides, including Natives, scouts, soldiers, and civilians.
Why did Custer divide his forces? Why did he not take his regiment's Gatling guns? Why did he expect Sitting Bull to surrender without a fight? How did Sitting Bull's vision at the sun dance on the Rosebud foretell the occasion and the outcome of the battle? How did war chiefs Crazy Horse and Gall take advantage of Custer's tactical errors? And why did they preserve Custer's body from mutilation?
Showdown at Little Big Horn answers these and other questions, telling the story of the fight from many points of view, based on reports, diaries, letters, and testimony of the participants themselves. Together the accounts provide a gripping narrative of a punitive expedition gone badly awry and an assemblage of Native peoples who forestalled for a while the army's domination of the northern plains.
About the Author
Dee Brown (1908-2002) was the author of thirty books of nonfiction and fiction about the American West, including the international bestseller Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. His books The Gentle Tamers: Women of the Old Wild West, The Galvanized Yankees, and The Fetterman Massacre, are all available in Bison Books editions.
Reviews
""A very powerful story that draws one in much the same way as a good novel: by evoking the sights, the smells, the noise, and the desperation of the battle. This is essential history for the Custer buff, or anyone interested in the Indian Wars on the Plains.""-Roundup Magazine
Book Information
ISBN 9780803262188
Author Dee Brown
Format Paperback
Page Count 220
Imprint University of Nebraska Press
Publisher University of Nebraska Press
