Custer's Last Campaign: Mitch Boyer and the Little Bighorn Reconstructed

by John S. Gray and John Stephens Gray

Book Overview

'Easily the most significant book yet published on the Battle of the Little Bighorn."--Paul L. Hedren, Western Historical Quarterly "[Gray] has applied rigorous analysis as no previous historian has... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 080322138X
• ISBN13: 9780803221383
• Release Date: April 1991
• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Length: 446 Pages
• Weight: 1.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 5.5" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Fascinating Reconstruction of Custer's Stand

The reader becomes mesmerized and impressed by the thorough and meticulous process of constantly checking witness testimony with known topography and horse/walking/etc. mph rates, then time/motion studies with all possible data examined to see what plausible explanations can be more pushed forward as likely scenarios.At the center here is the infamous Indian scout, Mitch Boyer and the testimony of the young Curly, survivor with Custer. Amazing how the evidence Gray presents turns Custer 180o around from what is historically bantered, an aggressive disobiendent hawkish leader. Gray's reconstruction reveals soldier who emphasized and implemented what orders were given to him, to pin the Indians from left flank escape, and all the time awaiting Benteen's company and ammo train, which never arrived in time.Disappointed that no chronology chain here shown how the followup takes place to discover the battlefield. Possibly Gray's other books on this subject cover that.Remarkably well written, able to keep this reader's attention easily even with all the careful calculation checks, etc.

Magnificent scholarship!

Most historians would be happy, nay overjoyed, if they located a diary, a journal or a set of letters by a participant in some historical event. In tracing some relatively unimportant activities, Gray is not satisfied unless he can find three or four itineraries, four or five journals and diaries, and two or three sets of letters! Another reviewer commented that the writing of this book took 25 years! I can well believe it. With the well-known fallibility of eyewitnesses, this overwhelming mass of documentation is barely enough to allow Gray to sift event from confabulation.What we have here are two books in one. The first book, in 180 pages, traces the life and career of guide and translator Mitch Boyer. At first one might dismiss such a goal as impossible, but Gray is equal to the task, and Boyer emerges as a convincing, consistent and competent historical personage.The second book, in about 200 pages, uses what Gray calls "time-motion studies" to trace the troop movements from June 9, 1876 to and through the culminating Battle of the Little Bighorn. His "time-motion patterns" are what physicists call "world lines," with one space dimension as the vertical axis, and time as the horizontal axis. Where these diagrams indicate the interactions between a dozen separated groups they virtually amount to the classical equivalent of Feynman diagrams--- tools used by theoretical physicists to disentangle the various processes occurring in the realm where relativistic quantum physics hold sway.The Mitch Boyer connection between the first and second parts of the book occurs because Boyer was the only scout who chose to stay with and die with Custer's columns. Much of Gray's reconstruction of Custer's movements and strategy depends upon Gray's extraction, from the mass of confused interviews with Curley, the 17-year-old Indian scout who was the last to get away alive from Custer's troops, of a fairly consistent and highly plausible set of events. There is one place, at the book's end, where Gray's thought patterns betray him. With no documents to guide him, he chooses a completely absurd counterclockwise movement of Army forces, from Calhoun Ridge, to Custer Ridge, to Custer Hill (where Custer was found), on to the "South Skirmish Line" (where Mitch Boyer's body was found) and thence to the "West Perimeter," where the last survivors (Gray assumes) died. But this movement actually takes the troops TOWARD the river and the Indian camp, from which braves and even squaws were literally boiling, like thick clouds of hornets from a disturbed nest, in the last half of the battle! In this case, I think the reconstruction by Gregory F. Michno, based on a collation of a vast number of Indian accounts, is infinitely more plausible. It shows Custer's surviving companies driven roughly northwest, parallel to the river, along Battle Ridge to Custer Hill, with companies on Finley Ridge and Calhoun Hill being cut off and quickly destroyed, leading to a tr

A New Picture of Custer

I absolutely agree with the other reviewers on the quality of Gray's work--it is astounding. I would like to emphasize what I took away from the book: a new picture of G.A. Custer. For a hundred years it has been the "customary wisdom" that Custer, being a flamboyant, egocentric, arrogant commander, rushed into battle at the LBH because he wanted the glory of defeating the Sioux all to himself, and met his doom because his hubris blinded him to the Indians' superior forces. Part of this "customary wisdom" came with an implied view that this hubris was due to a belief in racial superiority of the white soldier vs. the Indian. As is so often the case, the "customary wisdom" is superficial, and when held up to rigorous analysis, proves wrong. Gray's trenchant logic make it clear that Custer was attempting to follow his orders from Terry, found himself in a battle situation that was not favorable, but due to the perception that the 7th Cavalry had been discovered, had no alternative but to attack. His battle plan was improvised at the moment, and was thwarted not because of Custer's hubris, or his false belief that his soldiers were fighting "only Indians", but for the reason many battles are lost: the failure of one of his unit commanders (Benteen) to follow orders and coordinate his actions with the actions of the remainder of Custer's command. I expect, however, that the old, comfortable, politically correct view of Custer will die hard, if at all--to some, logic means naught.

The Mystery of Mitch Boyer

For over 25 years, of his life, John Gray lived and breathed Mitch Boyer. Gray was driven to understand the scout who fell with Custer at the Little Bighorn. Gray spent that long writing the biography of Boyer and was almost on his last chapter when a monumental discovery was announced.One evening I was lucky to sit next to John Gray in an auditorium on the Colorado State University campus in Ft. Collins, Colorado. Gray lived in this town not far north of me. He and I met in 1981 and we were catching up on things. We were waiting for a presentation by Douglas Scott, archaeologist for the National Park Service, about the 1984 archaeological dig at Custer Battlefield. Scott presented an incredible story of artifacts found on the battlefield, human remains and what this data might mean to the story of Custer's Last Stand.Found near markers 33 and 34, along the Deep Ravine Trail, about 350 yards from Last Stand Hill were human remains including part of a jawbone, nasal cavity and eye orbit. Among the remains were found a mother-of-pearl button, soldier cartridges and warrior bullets. After extensive study of the remains, the forensic anthropologist determined that this person was of Caucasian-Mongoloid mix. The mother-of-pearl button suggested he was wearing civilian clothing. He was probably part of the Custer Battalion because of the solider cartridges and Indian bullets fired towards him. Only one person fit this picture, Mitch Boyer. Scott felt confident this was the case. After this announcement I turned to Gray and asked him how he felt now knowing Mitch Boyer was identified. Gray sat in awe and he said that now he could write the final chapter.I recommend this book for many reasons. Most importantly, this is the result of nearly a quarter of Gray's lifetime. Not only does one learn about Boyer's life and his fate at Little Bighorn, but one also gains an incredible understanding of where people were and when and how that all fits in the timeline of the battle. All this is told in the narrative with the assistance of well-designed tables. It's a very complicated timeline, however, Gray spells it out clearly. His research is impeccable and meticulous. This biography is a monumental work, one worth reading.

After reading this book, most of the mystery is gone.

This has to be one of the best books written on the subject of the "Battle of the Little Big Horn." Using time motion analysis of Custers journey up the Rosebud to the final "last stand" resolves many of the mysteries of Custers' Last Stand. Some of the speculations may be refutable but I haven't seen a better analysis. This book left me with a favorable impression of Custer as a leader and a general. He may have been seeking glory at the beginning of the campaign but he wasn't an idiot when it came to the actual fighting and generalship.