The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull and the Battle of Little Bighorn

The title really says it all:  The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull and the Battle of Little Bighorn (#28).  I saw this book listed in the New York Times Non-Fiction best seller list and decided to read it.  I'm not a Custer or Little Bighorn buff, but I've been curious about him and what happened to him ever since I read a child's biography of his wife, Elizabeth Bacon Custer, so I've read a few books on the subject.  Nathan Philbrick does an excellent job of making the people and the events come alive. 

This is not a dull recounting of historical "facts" in chronological order.  Mr. Philbrick pulls you into the swirl of ambition, jealousies, vindictiveness and misjudgments on both sides that resulted in the debacle of Little Bighorn and culminated at the Battle of Wounded Knee some ten years later.  It's fascinating.  There is so much blame to spread around I wouldn't know where to start.

One of the features I particularly liked about this book is the abundance of photographs.  Custer and Sitting Bull are familiar faces, but it really helped me visualize the personalities involved by seeing their photos.  I could put a face on Benteen and Reno or the Indian scouts when they were quoted or described, making the narrative more vivid.  I also discovered that I had nightmares about some of the facial hair in fashion at that time in the cavalry.

I also learned a few things about the campaign that I had never known or realized before.  I had no idea what a crucial role the steamboat Far West played in the campaign, or the opening of that area of the West - the "grasshopper" technique that allowed these boats to pull themselves across the ever-shifting sandbanks of the rivers.  I did not know that Sitting Bull had tried at the beginning of the battle to negotiate peace with the Federals as he had finally come to realize that his way of life was ending for his people.  I always thought he was actively involved in the battle, but he basically sat it out.  Finally, it was ironic that officer George Wallace survived Little Bighorn, only to die at Wounded Knee, probably by "friendly fire".  Putting events in a different perspective definitely makes this book worth reading.

Visiting Little Bighorn is now on my "bucket list".