"Very comprehensive and authoritative." --Robert M. Utley, author of Cavalier in Buckskin "Jeff Barnes has really done his research. . . . Highly recommended." --James Donovan, author of A Terrible Glory Guide to forts, military posts, battlefields, and other sites that interpret George Armstrong Custer's decade of operations on the Great Plains Locations in Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Montana Extended section on Little Bighorn Each entry includes directions, amenities, contact information, and recommended reading

"Anyone interested in the history of the West will enjoy this latest book by Jeff Barnes. He carefully examines the accounts of William F. 'Buffalo Bill' Cody's life--some true, some fictional, and others in between--and places them within the context of the Great Plains, and America as a whole, guiding readers to sites associated with Buffalo Bill and the momentous times in which he lived. It's an entertaining and helpful guide to both past and place." --Steve Friesen, director of the Buffalo Bill Museum • Guide to residences, forts, battlefields, and other sites that interpret Buffalo Bill's life on the Great Plains • Locations in Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Wyoming • Helpful maps pinpoint locations • Dozens of photographs from both past and present • Includes directions, visitor information, related sites, and recommended reading

A New York Times bestseller from the author of Band of Brothers: The biography of two fighters forever linked by history and the battle at Little Bighorn. On the sparkling morning of June 25, 1876, 611 men of the United States 7th Cavalry rode toward the banks of Little Bighorn in the Montana Territory, where three thousand Indians stood waiting for battle. The lives of two great warriors would soon be forever linked throughout history: Crazy Horse, leader of the Oglala Sioux, and General George Armstrong Custer. Both were men of aggression and supreme courage. Both became leaders in their societies at very early ages. Both were stripped of power, in disgrace, and worked to earn back the respect of their people. And to both of them, the unspoiled grandeur of the Great Plains of North America was an irresistible challenge. Their parallel lives would pave the way, in a manner unknown to either, for an inevitable clash between two nations fighting for possession of the open prairie.

A Field Guide to Custer's Camps: On the March to the Little Bighorn is an easy-to-use guide to understanding the route followed by George Armstrong Custer and his troops as they marched to their most famous battle. Maps, driving directions, and brief descriptions of each campsite allow the most casual travelers, the more serious hikers, bikers, historians, and history buffs to better appreciate the challenges faced by US soldiers serving on the northern plains in 1876.Much has been written about the battle, but little has been said about the route taken by the Dakota Column (including the 7th Cavalry) from Fort Abraham Lincoln to the Little Bighorn battlefield. By experiencing the landscape of western North Dakota and eastern Montana-much of it little changed since Custer's last days-a wider understanding of the battlefield decisions is revealed.A Field Guide to Custer's Camps reveals the logistical problems faced by a large column of troops moving across the northern plains, demonstrating how weather, distance, and individual personalities influence and often alter logistical plans. Many of the campsites are within just a few miles of Interstate 94 and offer the chance for a closer look at the North Dakota and Montana landscape.Don Weinell, a long-distance bicyclist, biked the trail described herein, keeping a log of his experiences and GPS locations, which inform the travel narrative for A Field Guide to Custer's Camps. Weinell's on-the-ground method of exploring history puts him in contact with the elements, the terrain, and the physical demands of cross-country travel. For readers not quite ready to don rain jackets, cold- and hot-weather wear, or snakebite kits, this field guide is the next best thing to following the trail in person.Featuring 2 fold-out maps, 77 full color maps and photographs, GPS coordinates, detailed instructions, and narrative sketches, this field guide takes you on the ground and back in history.

Custer’s Last Stand remains one of the most iconic events in American history and culture. Had Custer prevailed at the Little Bighhorn, the victory would have been noteworthy at the moment, worthy of a few newspaper headlines. In defeat, however tactically inconsequential in the larger conflict, Custer became legend. In Inventing Custer: The Making of an American Legend, Edward Caudill and Paul Ashdown bridge the gap between the Custer who lived and the one we’ve immortalized and mythologized into legend. While too many books about Custer treat the Civil War period only as a prelude to the Little Bighorn, Caudill and Ashdown present him as a product of the Civil War, Reconstruction Era, and the Plains Indian Wars. They explain how Custer became mythic, shaped by the press and changing sentiments toward American Indians, and show the many ways the myth has evolved and will continue to evolve as the United States continues to change.

The classic account of Custer\'s Last Stand that shattered themyth of the Little Bighorn and rewrote history books. This historic and personal work tells the Native American sideof Custer\'s fabled attack, poignantly revealing how disastrous theencounter was for the "victors," the last great gathering of PlainsIndians under the leadership of Sitting Bull.

On a hot summer day in 1876, George Armstrong Custer led the Seventh Cavalry to the most famous defeat in U.S. military history. Outnumbered and exhausted, the Seventh Cavalry lost more than half of its 400 men, and every soldier under Custer’s direct command was killed. It’s easy to understand why this tremendous defeat shocked the American public at the time. But with Custerology, Michael A. Elliott tackles the far more complicated question of why the battle still haunts the American imagination today. Weaving vivid historical accounts of Custer at Little Bighorn with contemporary commemorations that range from battle reenactments to the unfinished Crazy Horse memorial, Elliott reveals a Custer and a West whose legacies are still vigorously contested. He takes readers to each of the important places of Custer’s life, from his Civil War home in Michigan to the site of his famous demise, and introduces us to Native American activists, Park Service rangers, and devoted history buffs along the way. Elliott shows how Custer and the Indian Wars continue to be both a powerful symbol of America’s bloody past and a crucial key to understanding the nation’s multicultural present. “[Elliott] is an approachable guide as he takes readers to battlefields where Custer fought American Indians . . . to the Michigan town of Monroe that Custer called home after he moved there at age 10 . . . to the Black Hills of South Dakota where Custer led an expedition that gave birth to a gold rush."—Steve Weinberg, Atlanta Journal-Constitution “By ‘Custerology,’ Elliott means the historical interpretation and commemoration of Custer and the Indian Wars in which he fought not only by those who honor Custer but by those who celebrate the Native American resistance that defeated him. The purpose of this book is to show how Custer and the Little Bighorn can be and have been commemorated for such contradictory purposes.”—Library Journal “Michael Elliott’s Custerology is vivid, trenchant, engrossing, and important. The American soldier George Armstrong Custer has been the subject of very nearly incessant debate for almost a century and a half, and the debate is multicultural, multinational, and multimedia. Mr. Elliott's book provides by far the best overview, and no one interested in the long-haired soldier whom the Indians called Son of the Morning Star can afford to miss it.”—Larry McMurtry

Things that go bump in the night, disembodied voices, footsteps in an empty stairwell, an icy hand on your shoulder… let your imagination run wild as you read about North and South Dakota’s most extraordinary apparitions, sinister spooks, and bizarre beasts.

An up-to-date guide to the critical forts of the Indian campaigns of the late 19th century. Recounts the integral role of 51 forts during the decades of warfare with the Plains Indian tribes and tells of the posts fates after the Indian wars, providing narrative vignettes of incidents or points of historical importance. It also provides directions and visitor information for the following states: Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming.