The Little Bighorn: A History from Both Sides of the River

A complete single-volume account of the Battle of the Little Bighorn assembled for the general reader — told, deliberately and in full, from both sides of the river. On June 25, 1876, Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer led five companies of the 7th U.S. Cavalry into the valley of the Little Bighorn River and never came out. Within an hour, all 210 men were dead . The worst defeat the United States Army ever suffered at the hands of Plains warriors, and the beginning of the end for the way of life those warriors had gathered to defend.This book does not tell that story from one side. It tells the whole story: the broken treaties and the gold rush that started the war; Custer's brutal apprenticeship at the Washita; the extensive biographies of every officer who rode into the valley — Reno, Benteen, Keogh, Calhoun, Cooke, Weir — set against the equally detailed lives of the men who defeated them, Gall and Crazy Horse chief among them; Sitting Bull's Sun Dance vision that gave a fractured coalition of bands the confidence to stand and fight; and an hour-by-hour reconstruction of the battle itself, built from military reports, the 1879 Reno Court of Inquiry, and more than a century of painstakingly gathered Lakota and Cheyenne testimony. Drawing on the latest archaeological research ,including the landmark battlefield excavations that followed the 1983 grass fire ,this book challenges the myths that have surrounded the Battle of the Little Bighorn for a century and a half, while giving full and fair weight to the eyewitnesses on both sides whose accounts have too often been ignored, dismissed, or simply never asked for.

Inside, you'll find:

Full biographies of every major officer and warrior, including George and Tom Custer, Myles Keogh, James Calhoun, Gall, Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, and Bloody Knife

A detailed, hour-by-hour battle reconstruction — Reno's charge, Benteen's ride, the Calhoun Hill stand, and Custer's final minutes on Last Stand Hill

The contested questions historians still argue over: Did Custer see Reno's retreat? Could Benteen have saved him? How did Custer actually die?

The treaty violations, the Black Hills gold rush, and the political decisions in Washington that made the war all but inevitable.

The battle's long aftermath — the Reno Court of Inquiry, Elizabeth Custer's decades-long campaign to shape her husband's legacy, and the war's true final chapter at Wounded Knee.

Historic photographs, period paintings, and battlefield maps throughout the book.

Whether you're a lifelong student of the Indian Wars or coming to this story for the first time, The Little Bighorn: A History from Both Sides of the River offers the fullest, fairest, and most detailed account available — a history built to be read by both sides, and to do justice to both.