Recommended Custer Reading

You can literally buy a ‘Custer’ related book every day. Whether or not you can actually afford to do this is another matter entirely. But there are definitely enough books, articles, periodicals, etc. on the subject to keep a person busy doing little else.

I started buying books and reading about Custer on a serious basis back around 1997. I wasn’t that discerning with my purchases back then so I ended up acquiring a lot of, well for lack of a better word, shit. As you get into studying this whole George Armstrong Custer thing you will find out that for every decent book there are dozens of worthless volumes that aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on. I should know. My bookshelves are full of them. I’ve become a lot more particular in my book buying for a few reasons. First, books are expensive. Why waste money on crap when there are so many good ones out there? Second, unless you buy your books on a Kindle or a like device you are going to start to run out of space. And you’re going to run out quickly. Why have your shelves full of less than top notch choices? Last, and certainly not least, there is only so much time to read all these books. Unless you’re buying books to just have a collection of Custer books, you will be doing a lot of reading. Life is too short to read crap.

With all that being said, I have put together a list of my top ten favorite "Custer books." I have not included any biographies of Custer in my list, although there are plenty. My list deals with Custer, the 7th Cavalry, and their experiences - mainly the Battle of the Little Big Horn and the Campaign of 1876. If you're looking for a full blown biography of Custer, I suggest you look no further than the Pulitzer Prize winning CUSTER'S TRIALS by T.J. Stiles.

This is my list and I’m sure there will be disagreement about what books made my list and which ones were left off. But it’s my list dammit. You can make your own. So here is my top ten list of Custer books in no particular order.

STRATEGY OF DEFEAT AT THE LITTLE BIG HORN. Full disclosure - Fred Wagner is a dear friend of mine. He and I are ‘Montana Mayhem’ buddies. We’ve walked the battlefield together and I am very proud of him and the work he’s done with his Little Big Horn research. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that STRATEGY is a book that will clear up many of the details and questions you will have swimming around in your head after reading other books on the subject. I must warn you though that this isn’t a beginner book. Read some of the others on this list before tackling this one. But you will definitely want/need this one on your shelf. Make sure you have several bookmarks.

PARTICIPANTS IN THE BATTLE OF THE LITTLE BIG HORN. Another Fred Wagner book. This isn’t really a book you sit in an armchair and read. This is more of a book that is crammed with sticky notes, bookmarks, and highlights. This is one of the most used books that I own. Everyone who was at Little Big Horn is listed here along with short bios for each. It’s also full of other useful items of interest to the Little Big Horn scholar. Think of it as an almanac of the 7th Cavalry and the Battle of the Little Big Horn.

A TERRIBLE GLORY. I mentioned above that STRATEGY OF DEFEAT AT THE LITTLE BIG HORN by Fred Wagner is not a book for beginners. A TERRIBLE GLORY by James Donovan is a wonderful starting point for your study. It gives you an overview of the events leading up to the 1876 campaign, the battle, and its aftermath. The chapter on the Reno Court of Inquiry is worth the price all by itself. It’s an interesting book that reads like a novel. There’s a reason it was a national bestseller.

SON OF THE MORNING STAR. This is the book that was the kick-start to my Custer/Little Big Horn obsession. It's a wonderful read that covers all aspects of the battle with little tidbits thrown in. Here's one passage that has always stuck in my mind: "It is said that at the beginning of the twentieth century one buffalo wandered across the prairie not far from a small town in Wyoming.  The townspeople hitched up their wagons and rode out to have a look. They drove around the creature and stopped, the wagons forming a circle with the buffalo inside.  For a long time they stared at this legendary animal.  Then, because they could not imagine what else to do, somebody shot it." There are no footnotes or endnotes however. If you want to know what specific source Connell used, you're out of luck.

WHERE THE RIVERS RAN RED. This is one of the latest entries into Custer literature. It was written by Michael Donahue, a seasonal park ranger at the Little Big Horn Battlefield. It covers the Indian fights of General Custer including the Washita, the fights on the Yellowstone, and of course the Battle of the Little Big Horn. It has wonderful maps that help you understand what was happening and where. What SON OF THE MORNING STAR was lacking in footnotes and endnotes, this one more than makes up for it. The endnotes are just as much fun to read as the text, with little jewels of information scattered throughout. The limited edition hardcover sold out in record time. 

EXPLORING WITH CUSTER. This book is the only one on the list that doesn't deal with Custer's last battle. This book focuses on the 1874 Black Hills Expedition which discovered gold in what is now South Dakota. The book contains the diary entries of 7th Cavalry soldiers who were on the expedition. You can almost smell the campfires and taste the frying bacon. But the highlight of this book is the before/after photographs. Custer took a photographer along and Paul Horsted does a remarkable job of recreating his photos. You will see that a lot has changed. At the same time, many of the locations look relatively the same. This book is gorgeous. It is printed on heavy duty paper that shows off the high quality photographs. Well worth the price.

WHERE CUSTER FELL. This is the before/after photograph book for the Little Big Horn. Old photos and the stories behind them alongside the same view today. It is amazing what can be learned by examining the old photos that people took of the battlefield. You can literally see the battlefield change throughout the years to become what it is today.  The book contains some stunning photos of Deep Ravine which show that the sides at one time were much steeper than they appear today. There is also information about how Last Stand Hill has changed over the years with the temporary burial of the dead from the Fetterman Massacre and the building of the battlefield road. Good stuff.

LITTLE BIG HORN DIARY: CHRONICLE OF THE 1876 INDIAN WAR. This one is a real gem. Written by James Willert, it is volume 6 of the Custer Trail Series from Upton and Sons Publishers. This book is more expensive than the others found on this list. It's also more difficult to find. As of right now it is out of print but used copies are available from booksellers and occasionally it can be found on Ebay. It is a wonderful book that outlines the entire campaign day-by-day. There are lots of photos and marvelous drawings. This is a book you will turn to again and again.

ARCHAEOLOGY, HISTORY, AND CUSTER'S LAST BATTLE: THE LITTLE BIG HORN REEXAMINED.  This is the definitive book on the archaeological digs that were done at the Little Big Horn Battlefield after a fire raged across it in 1983. Dr. Richard Fox explains the evidence, found in and on the ground. Fascinating details about firing pin signatures and the ability to put guns that were found on the battlefield in participant's hands as they fought. Like THE STRATEGY OF DEFEAT, this is not a beginner's book. Once you have a basic understanding of the battle, "dig" into this one. There are several books dealing with the archaeological examinations at the battlefield but this one is the granddaddy of them all.

CUSTER IN '76: WALTER CAMP'S NOTES ON THE CUSTER FIGHT. Walter Camp was a researcher extraordinaire. He doggedly pursued the truth of the Battle of the Little Big Horn. He interviewed, and became friends with, actual battle participants. His notes are primary source material and cannot be valued high enough. There are several books that have been published that are based on his research. This is the first of those such books that I came across. This is as close as you can come to having the Little Big Horn battle participants telling you the story themselves. If you find a book based on the research of Walter Camp, snatch it up.


Well that's my list.

"What, no Jerome Greene?!" "What about the great books by Richard Hardorff?" "How can you have a list like that and leave off Utley?" "You're an idiot! Custer's Luck is the best Custer book of all time."

All valid questions and comments but it's my list. Make your own and send it to me. I'd love to see it. The hard part is narrowing it down to ten. The list also needs to be fluid. Each Custer book you read has the potential of disrupting your list.

Happy reading!