My Life on the Plains (Applewood Books) - Softcover

Custer, George General

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1429021047 ISBN 13: 9781429021043

Publisher: Applewood Books, 2009

Synopsis

In 1874, just two years before General George A. Custer's death at Little Big Horn, a collection of his magazine articles was published as "My Life on the Plains." Custer, General in the U.S. Army’s Seventh Cavalry, wrote personal accounts of his encounters with Native Americans during the western Indian warfare of 1867-1869.  

The collection was a document of its time and an important primary source for anyone interested in U.S. military affairs and U.S./Native American relations. Custer’s references to Indians as “bloodthirsty savages” were tempered by his empathetic understanding of their reason for fighting: “If I were an Indian, I often think I would greatly prefer to cast my lot among those of my people who adhered to the free open plains, rather than submit to the confined limits of a reservation...”

About this title

From the Back Cover:

This is the personal narrative of the most famous cavalry leader America ever produced.

Custer's solid claim to military fame rests upon his achievements in the Civil War, yet paradoxically he is chiefly remembered by reason of his death in the Battle of Little Big Horn in June 1876-- "Custer's Last Stand".

Much controversy still rages over Custer's career and character. Custer was an exceedingly complex man who, in life, won devoted friends and admirers as well as outspokenly bitter enemies.

This book, representing the major part of Custer's life, was first published some two years before the General's Death. It is a vivid picture of the American West, the rigors of life for the settlers, and the horrors of indian warfare.

Custer, in this intensely personal account, made a major contribution to american history.

About the Author:

George Armstrong Custer attended West Point, graduating in the Class of 1861. He served as an officer in the United States Army during the Civil War. He was present at the Civil War's first major engagement, the First Battle of Bull Run, and was the officer who received General Robert E. Lee's Flag of Truce, marking Lee's surrender, at the end of the war. Custer fought with the U.S. Seventh Cavalry in the Indian Wars beginning in 1867. He was killed at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876, a battle that has come to be known as Custer's Last Stand.

About this edition

• Publisher: Applewood Books
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1429021047
• ISBN 13: 9781429021043
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 270