Complete Life of General George A. Custer From Appomattox to the Little Big Horn

"No Custer library is complete without Whittaker's work, which is essential to understanding the Custer Legend."-Robert M. Utley This first biography of General George A. Custer was published late in 1876, only months after the disaster at the Battle of the Little Big Horn. A Complete Life was the beginning of a legend, and Frderick Whittaker did more than anyone else except Libby Custer to make the flamboyant Boy General a permanent resident of the national consciousness. Quite aside from its contribution to the public image of Custer, this important book placed him and his associates against a concrete background of onrushing events. Drawing on newspaper reports and the general's own words, Whittaker captures the excitement of the era. Continuing the story of Custer from Volume 1, which dealt with his childhood in Ohio, cadetship at West Point, courtship of Elizabeth Bacon, and service as a cavalryman in the Civil War, Volume 2 takes Custer west to head up the newly created Seventh Cavalry and fight the Arapahoes, Cheyennes, Kiowas, and Sioux. Whittaker gives full scope to Custer's brushes with authority, his changeable relations with his troops, and his famous expeditions, ending with a memorable description of his last stand at the Little Big Horn in June 1876. The introduction to Volume 2 is by Robert M. Utley, a leading historian of the western frontier whose book include Billy the Kid: A Short and Violent Life (University of Nebraska Press, 1989).Whittaker, Frederick is the author of 'Complete Life of General George A. Custer From Appomattox to the Little Big Horn' with ISBN 9780803247673 and ISBN 0803247672.