W. Graham – författare

“I have collected here, and offer in this volume, a great many bits of now scarce source material, from which you, the reader, may construct a mosaic of your own, appraising the value and proper placement of each item, should you wish to write a story of Custer’s Last Fight. It will probably be a better one than many heretofore written.” From the Custer MythFirsthand sources in The Custer Myth include:·Narratives of the Sioux, Cheyenne, Arikara, and Crow·Philo Clark’s 1877 battlefield survey·Statements and letters by scouts and other nonmilitary participants·The Benteen-Goldin letters·“Custer’s’ Last Battle,” the 1892 Century Magazine article by General Edward S. Godfrey·General Winfield Scott Edgerly’s 1881 statement about the battle·Military and literary records of Theodore W. Goldin

“The inquiry quickly developed into a broad investigation of the manner in which the battle was fought, and competent historians and students consider the record of its proceedings to be the chief and most important repository of authentic detailed information on the subject. The original official record, some 1,300 pages in length, was held in the confidential files of the Judge Advocate General’s Office until 1941, when it was turned over to the National Archives. In 1951 a verbatim edition of the official record, limited to 125 copies, was published by me. This volume is an abstract of that record.”The search for a scapegoat began almost immediately after news of the disaster at the Little Big Horn reached the press and public in the early summer of 1876. Custer’s partisans accused Captain Frederick W. Benteen, the senior captain, and Marcus A. Reno, the regiment’s second in command, of cowardice in their failure to go to Custer’s aid. Benteen was largely cleared in the public mind, but Reno was not.In

“Custer had been usually effective as an Indian fighter for several years… He was adept in bringing off surprise attacks that crushed and paralyzed resistance. Both his reputation and his experience as an Indian campaigner were second to none; and the Seventh Cavalry…was held one of the best regiments in the service. It was but natural, then, that when the regiment marched proudly away from the mouth of the Rosebud on its mission, Terry could and did feel confident that if he could but catch the recalcitrant braves of Sitting Bull between Custer and Gibbon, he would certainly crush and capture them; and if, perchance, Custer found them elsewhere than was expected, the Seventh Cavalry, under such a leader, would be more than equal to any emergency.” From the Story of the Little Big HornIn June 1876, General George A Custer was detailed to a column under General Alfred H. Terry. After being sent ahead of General George Crook at the Rosebud River, Custer and the Seventh Cavalry discovered a Souix encampment on