A Terrible Glory: Custer and the Little Bighorn – the Last Great Battle of the American West

A Terrible Glory – Custer and the Little Bighorn The Last Great Battle of the American West is a very informative fast moving detailed book. After reading the book I was amazed at the detail of information from both sides of the battle. Many people know of the battle, but I doubt many know the intricacies of the cause and effect of it. I feel that the U.S. Government wanted to get rid of the Indians from their ancestral lands for greed and convenience. The hatred that was heaped on the Indians by the White Man was very strong at the time.

I feel that the main reasons that they massacre happened was that General Custer was a strong willed and ego heavy character. He had a small circle of friends and favorite officers around him. He didnt share information or consult other officers. Thus several officers in his command held ill will for him and were not up to the job assigned to them. The U.S. Government had soldiers that were ill trained, supplied and poor leadership to go on such a highly dangerous mission of bringing the Indians to the reservations.

A Terrible Glory – Custer and the Little Bighorn The Last Great Battle of the American West will show you the strong leadership that Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse brought to their people. Its very fascinating with all the detailed notes and information that James Donovan brings to the story.

By the end of the book youll have a greater understanding and appreciation of the battle from all points of views. It will answer many questions people may have of what happened to the participants in the American Wests last great battle.

This is another masterpiece by Donovan. He is my favorite historian along with H,W. Brands. Clearly Donovan has continued to do his research from his earlier book on Custer’s life, now narrowing to the events leading to the battle at the BLH and its aftermath. Indeed, his chapters on the aftermath are very strong in presenting some interesting facts and conclusions. I find his prose to be enthralling (old term) and yet informative. This is not easy to accomplish. Importantly, Donovan has screened and cross-screen sources, electing not to hype the work with stories of some trooper’s ridiculous claims. The footnotes are fascinating and almost worth the book in themselves! I prefer this book to Nathaniel Philbrick’s due to Dovovan’s superior documentation and his prior knowledge of Custer due to his earlier book- Custer and the Little Big Horn. I also believe it is a better read regarding the battle than T.J. Stiles – Custer’s Trials, however Stiles book does a better job of detailing Custer’s activities while he was in New York away from the regiment, his business miss-steps and includes interesting excerpts from his letters to Libbie. But then again that was not the first focus of Donovan’s work which is superior regarding the lead up to, the engagement and outcomes. If you need one book on the battle pick this one.

After spending many months reading books on the Little Big Hornmany from the 1920sthis book was a fabulous study availing itself of over 100 years of material. I had previously read most of his sources so I can say they were exhaustive and properly analyzed and annotative. If you can read only one Custer book, this should be the one. However, I wouldnt read just oneThe Arikara Narrative, Wooden Leg, and the Benteen-Goldin Letters, and Legend Into History: The Custer Mystery (and others) shed much light on the difficulties any historian would face in reconstructing the battle, and show what an unbiased and well documented account Donovan has constructed. Although Ive been reading other Little Big Horn material, when preparing to make my second trip to the battlefield this summer, I wrote to the Park and asked if they could recommend a book to prepare myself for the visit, and this was their recommendation.

I realize a lot has been written about this. But to me, between this book and Philbrick’s book I don’t see how much more of significance can be said. Refinement maybe, but the fundamentals? What more could there be? After reading both books, I had the feeling of actually being there. In fact, both authors, by integrating the Indian accounts, create a perspective unknown at the time that it happened. Truly excellent historians.

There are enough differences that, could you superimpose one book over another, a 3-dimensional picture would emerge.

The one big difference was that Philbrick’s book covers the unique story of Private Peter Thompson’s while Donovan barely references it. It’s understandable as it reflects the controversial nature of the story Thompson told.

ITEM ARRIVED ON TIME AND IN EXCELLENT CONDITION. VERY INTERESTING READ THAT CAPTURED MY ATTENTION COMPLETELY. I AM PARTIAL TO HISTORICAL SUBJECTS AND MORE PARTICULARLY TO HISTORIES OF THE OLD ARMY HORSE SOLDIERS THAT HAD TO FIGHT THE NORTHERN PLAINS NATIVE AMERICANS WHO WERE CONSIDERED BY MANY NOTABLE GENERALS AS BEING THE FINEST “LIGHT CAVALRY IN THE WORLD” HAD TO OFFER AT THE TIME IN QUESTION.” THANKS TO THE WRITER AND AMAZON.

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