My Life On The Plains
George Custer
Paperback
(Independently published, July 21, 2017)
This is the personal narrative of the most famous cavalry leader America ever produced. My Life on the Plains is George Armstrong Custer’s first-hand account of the Indian Wars of 1867-1869, detailing the winter campaign of 1868 in which Custer led the 7th US cavalry against the Cheyenne Indians. When General Custer led his troops to annihilation in the Battle of the Little Big Horn in 1876, he was possibly the most notorious Indian fighter the army had known. 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. 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…” In his own time, Custer achieved much of his fame as a daring soldier through his own published accounts of his adventures. In 1874, just two years before his death, a collection of his magazine articles was published as My Life on the Plains. George Armstrong Custer, in this intensely personal account, made a major contribution to American history. My Life On The Plains is a fascinating historical account, perfect for historians and Civil War enthusiasts alike. George Armstrong Custer (December 5, 1839 – June 25, 1876), one of the most mythologized figures in American history, was an United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the Indian Wars. He eventually met his fate in the battle of Little Big Horn in one of the most notable defeats of American armed forces. His memoir, My Life On The Plains was first published in 1874.