Custer's 7th Cavalry

School Library Journal

YA-A fresh account of the life of George A. Custer and the little-known circumstances that led to the Little Big Horn massacre. The book is unique in its abundant use of primary sources to document Custer's personal life, checkered military career, and final battle. Reedstrom's convincing and readable narrative describes the incidents of the famous debacle, which essentially occurred because of botched communications between Custer and Captain Frederick Benteen. Complementing the fast-paced text are many carefully selected letters, diary and journal entries, maps, and photographs, which mirror the realities of the hard lives of soldiers, women, and Indians. The author offers a fair retelling of the early-settlement atrocities that eventually led to the Little Big Horn campaign, and lucidly depicts the slaughter of pioneer families by renegade Cheyenne and Dakota tribes. This is a historical resource that will be heavily used by YAs interested in American military or Native American history.-Carol Beall, Immanuel Christian School, Springfield, VA

Booknews

An abridgement of Reedstrom's Bugles, Banners, and War Bonnets, on the Battle of the Little Big Horn, 1876. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)