A Terrible Glory: Custer and the Little Bighorn - the Last Great Battle of the American West |...

A Terrible Glory: Custer and the Little Bighorn - the Last Great Battle of the American West | James Donovan | The newest, longest, most foot-noted account so far...

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A Terrible Glory: ...

	A Terrible Glory: Custer and the Little Bighorn - the Last Great Battle of the American West James Donovan Little, Brown and Company, 2008 - 544 pages average customer review:based on 56 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Probably the best non-controversial account... credible enough.

It starts long before the campaign and ends much more later on.
It lefts no stone unturned, and actually uses all the data available in a tour de force of rigour.
Actually if you are not going to read more then a book about it this one will do perfectly the job.
It is neither pro-Custer or anti-Custer, makes a good job of simply saying what is known and formulating the best plausible guesses when explaining the parts of the fight harder to establish (there other authors are perhaps much more passionate in their arguments!).
Highly Recommended for what it is fair History without undue passion.

ADB

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The newest, longest, most foot-noted account so far...

When I was eight or nine, back in the early 1950's, my parents took me to see a traveling exhibit of American historical objects in Trenton NJ. I am not sure if this mobile museum came to town for the annual State Fair or some other reason, and I don't know who sponsored it, but Henry Ford might be a good guess. The ONLY object I recall from this presentation is a rolltop school desk, there because the initials G.A.C. were carved in the lid. "G.A.C."---For George Armstrong Custer. During my childhood, he was considered a full hero who was a victim of the vicious Sioux and Cheyenne. By the time I was a teenager, Hollywood began to depict Custer as a victim only of his own arrogance and stupidity, and the Indians as victims of Caucasian conquest who had one glorious afternoon of victory.
The truth lies between these views, of course, and you will get it if you have the patience to read this lengthy, somewhat scholarly work carefully. It requires half the book to get to the morning of June 25, 1876, when the Seventh Cavalry finally connects with the hostile encampment of native Americans. The next 25 percent shows us the aftermath of the slaughter on all parties, and the final fourth consists of extensive and often fascinating notes. There are photos of the principal players, but I wanted more. There are maps, but I wanted them larger. These are minor quibbles with a massive story, masterfully composed. The Battle of the Little Bighorn, as the author notes, probably has been more written about than even the Battle of Gettysburg. "A Terrible Glory" is a fine place to begin the saga, but you won't want to stop with it alone. General Custer made mistakes, but not as many as revisionist history wants to lay on him. His chief subordinates also made mistakes, perhaps more serious than Custer's, yet there were just so many indians and so few troopers than even if these officers behaved with perfect courage, it is likely the troops would still have lost. The "blame Custer" movement got started early, got nipped in the bud, and then made a comeback, then receded, then made another comeback. Complexities such as these are what has kept this tale alive for 130 years.

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Wonderful History, Well Delivered

James Donovan clearly set out to thread a needle. He tried to write a completely fair and honest retelling of the 7th Calvary's defeat at the Little Big Horn and the death of George Armstrong Custer. He carefully lays out the past history of all the important characters, warts and all. He then does his honest best to tell the tale of the battle. Not finished there, he goes on to tell the tale of the courts martial held to determine the fate of Reno & Benteen. He doesn't even stop the story there. He carries it on to the slaughter at Wounded Knee, perpetrated by many of the same people who survived the Little Big Horn battle.

The book is very well written and incredibly well researched with a complete set of footnotes and endnotes. The maps are clear and work well with the text. The descriptions of the characters and people involved helped paint a full picture of what was happening in that part of the world and why.

Another book on this topic, To Hell With Honor: Custer and the Little Big Horn, focused almost exclusively on the battle, and while it clearly has more bias than this book, does more to detail what happened, specifically, during the fighting. This book goes way beyond the battle, before and after, to tell the bigger story of the Native Americans and their fights with each other and newcomers from a fledgling country. It's not better than the other book, it's different. If anything, they complement each other very well.

It's a real joy to get to read a well written book that also educates, so this one is really worth the time.

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Excellent read

I read Son of the Morning Star some years ago after visiting the Little Bighorn Battlefield. I found Terrible Glory a more informative read and apparently extensively researched. Donovan presents a more sympathetic view of Custer. He also discusses the Reno Court of Inquiry in some detail, which is quite interesting. In that context he delves into the actions, and motivation therefor, of certain participants to color the truth of what occurred during the battle. While Custer was in command and deserved a measure of blame, the verdict of history has been unnecessarily harsh as to him and undeservedly lenient as to others.

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A good read... not the final word... must be read with caution

I am 3/4 of the way through this book. Yes, it reads well. Yes, there are some errors and even some questionable use of source material (in my opinion). But still, it is a good story that Donovan tells. But it should be read in conjuction with other books on the topic and not as the final word. And Donovan does slant things against Reno. Yes, Reno may be guilty of not fulfilling his duty that day (and quite honestly, not being a war veteran, I don't feel completely comfortable criticizing the guy) but the following is a clear example of how Donovan clearly has it in for him:
p. 461 (bottom)-- Captain Thomas French told a New York Times reporter that Reno had been DRUNK during the hilltop fight and had hidden himself from the command..." NY Times, January 19, 1879.
Now here are the actual words from that newspaper clipping:
"Capt. French, of the Seventh Cavalry, who is credited with great bravery at the battle of Little Big Horn, and a coming witness before the Reno Court of Inquiry at Chicago, stated today that he saw nothing of Major Reno from the evening of June 25 until noon of June 26; that Reno was out of sight, and that he (French) could not find any one who did see him; in other words, that Reno slunk away in a hole and left the command to Benteen."

Please, will someone tell me where French said Reno was drunk?

Again, the book must be read with caution and with so many footnotes, many that are hard to confirm without seeing the original material, it is a painstaking task!!!

9-25-08
Well, I have finished reading this book a couple of days ago. My rating remains the same. I have located several errors (including an error in his bibliography giving credit to an author for a book he didn't write and some errors of fact elsewhere in the book). However, seeing as my initial review has not received a warm welcome with two "not helpful" votes, I prefer to let those who enjoy wallowing in their own lack of knowledge continue to do so. The book was a valiant effort but falls short of being a classic (in its current state) in my opinion. I have suggestions, but again, my thoughts appear to be unwelcome.

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