The Story of the Little Big Horn: Custer's Last Fight

By W.A. Graham

Book Overview

First published in 1926 and respected ever since for its measured view of the most famous battle in the American West, The Story of the Little Big Horn asks questions that are still being debated. What were the causes of the debacle that wiped out Custer's command? Was it due to lack of a definite battle plan? To lack of correct information about the number, organization, and equipment of the Indians? To Custer's hot-headedness and thirst for glory? To Reno's alleged cowardice? To Benteen's delay in providing reinforcement? In his factual but dramatic account, W. A. Graham suggests that an awesome concatenation of attitudes and circumstances ensured the defeat of the Seventh Cavalry. On that Sunday in June 1876, the Indians were simply better (though not braver) soldiers.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0803270267
• ISBN13: 9780803270268
• Release Date: September 1988
• Publisher: Bison Books
• Length: 284 Pages
• Weight: 0.78 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Classic exposition on the Battle of the Little Big Horn

This is one of the classic books on the Little Big Horn fight. The author, W.A. Graham, was a retired Army lawyer who spent his retirement in the study of the 1876 Sioux Campaigns. Graham is almost unique within the tightly knit universe of Little Big Horn scholarship. His training and career as a lawyer made him attempt to be as objective as possible in his gathering and assessment of the evidence he presents. Graham indulges in little, if any, of the polemics and special pleading which seems to characterize much writing about Little Big Horn. For that reason alone, this volume is recommended highly. While somewhat dated by more recent scholarship (this is a reprint of the 1941 Second Edition) it is a "must have" in the library of anyone interested in this famous battle of the Plains Indian Wars.