Hagiography for George Armstrong Custer, by his wife Elizabeth, covering their time at Fort Lincoln, North Dakota (then Dakota Territory). In Mrs. Custer’s eyes, “the General” (a brevet rank; his permanent rank in the Regular Army was Lieutenant Colonel) was the embodiment of military and husbandly virtue, and Mrs. Custer takes the stereotypical role of a Victorian lady – frail; dependent on her husband and servants; and frightened by wildlife, natives, and Great Plains weather. Her husband not only acquiesced to this behavior, he required it; Mrs. Custer says the General was annoyed when he found her in the kitchen, which was the province of the servants. Based on other works I’ve read, General Custer was rather less noble than portrayed here, and Mrs. Custer was tougher than she makes out (just as an example, on one of her rides with the General they run across a settler who the Lakota had captured, staked out, disemboweled, and finished off by building a fire in his abdominal cavity. She recounts the incident with less emotion than she devotes to being plagued by mosquitoes).

Mrs. Custer’s has the social attitudes of most of her contemporaries. She’s patronizing toward her two black servants – she quotes them in dialect. The Lakota are “savages”. She has more favorable words for the Crow and Arikara scouts that work for the cavalry – but even here most of her comments emphasize their quaint and “uncivilized” behavior.

The book is a chronological series of anecdotes, interesting enough if you can get by the 19th century language and attitudes. One section intrigued me – it was about one of the garrison “laundresses”, “Old Nash”. Old Nash was not very attractive – even for a garrison laundress, who didn’t exactly have a reputation as centerfold material. However, the fact the she was female and that garrison soldiers and Dakota settlers were pretty desperate allowed her to work through three husbands, two locals and a soldier. The first two husbands deserted her, but the third – a much younger cavalry trooper – stayed. “Old Nash” left instructions to be buried immediately after death, but the ladies of the camp decided that would be unfitting, prepared the body – and discovered “Old Nash” was a man. Her husband shot himself when it was revealed. Mrs. Custer narrates this without any censure for anybody involved.

The book ends with Mrs. Custer getting the news of the Little Bighorn/Greasy Grass battle.

I’ve read other books on life in the frontier Army in the 1800s (Forty Miles A Day On Beans And Hay); this is the only one that depicts it from a woman’s point of view. It’s easy to be sanctimonious about Mrs. Custer’s prejudices and behavior from 150 years later, but after the General’s death she was left impoverished and had to make a career as a writer and public speaker – which means she had to appeal to her audience. Photographs of the General, Mrs. Custer, and the two of them together. No maps or index. Appendices of Custer’s letters from campaigns of 1873 and 1876. ( )

Recommendation: A glimpse of what life was like for the wives and families of soldiers in the old west. Anyone looking for a light non-fiction read that moves along swiftly and will keep your attention. I enjoyed this book more than I care to admit.

Quick Summary: Certainly a different view from the historical one we have of General Custer. Elizabeth Custer was clearly not an unbiased observer of "The General" but she does make it clear that there was another side of the man that should be considered. What makes this book most interesting is not her excuses for the man but her descriptions of the daily life and her observations of all that was going on around her. The bottom line for Elizabeth is that General Custer was a good man maligned.

Elizabeth Barrett Custer was the wife of General George Armstrong Custer. Unlike many wives of the time she did not choose to remain behind in the East when her husband was assigned to Indian Territory. In this book (the first of three she penned) Mrs. Custer describes the time between their assignment to North Dakota and the fatal trip to Little Big Horn. In between she paints a descriptive and interesting picture of life on the prairie. There are limitations that must be accepted when reading this, her bias toward "The General", the time that the book was written in and the social conventions of that time but overall I found it to be a good read and quite enjoyable. At times it's hard to take some of her fawning (the men were all great looking and prime specimens of manhood for example) but some of the stories she tells are pretty gritty and definitely interesting.

This is another that I managed to pick up in a used book store and if you happen to stumble across it I highly recommend it. It is also available in a kindle version from Amazon. ( )

aspects of their domestic life on marches and on frontier posts in Dakota. read this as a kindle book. goes up to June, 1876 when he died on the 25th in an indian massacre. read june 2012. ( )

Normally, a book about army life and the indian wars would not appeal to me, but this chronicle is related by General Custer's wife Elizabeth and is filled with curious details and anecdotes about camp life, the food, clothing, medical care, the weather and the eccentric characters she was brought into close contact with.

"Boots and Saddles" is a charming book by Libbie Custer, written 11 years after her husband's death at Little Bighorn. Most of the book concerns their life on the Plains particularly the last few years together when they were in territories, the Dakotas, Montana, and referred to life "back in the States" as though they were residing in a foreign country. There are lengthy passages dealing with the Indian encounters both experienced, the difficulties of eight month winters, social events, Custer with his dogs, the night their home burned down, the mail delivery system, tourists who demand an audience with Custer, the capture and escape of an Indian warrior, a woman who wasn't a woman, marching with the troops. One of my favorite sections appears toward the end - the Custers are returning from leave which they spent in the east, and arrive at at train station in the prairie expecting transport back to their garrison only to find that due to ice and snow service is not expected to be resumed for months. But as a courtesy to the General who had afforded protection to the workers during the surveying and construction of the route, a train is quickly readied with multiple cars and a rather incredible and varied passenger list. There are many stops as huge snow drifts are cleared manually by train crew and passengers alike until the train is finally stuck. How the Custers are rescued is a rather incredible story and says a lot about the people of those days and the extent to which they would go to help family and neighbor. The final chapter deals with Custer's death at Little Bighorn but not in great detail. He and his wife had exchanged lengthy letters when he was out on patrol and the epilogue includes sections from some of his 80 page epistles. The insight that the reader gains into the loving, tender relationship between this man and wife is very touching. I highly recommend this book; it is an excellent companion to the recently released "The Last Stand". ( )