Custer Account A Surprising Find
One of the enduring legends of the Old West is that of Custer’s Last Stand.
No incident in American history has been more written about, sung about, argued over or portrayed on stage and in film than that military engagement one hot June day in 1876. And yet now comes even another book on the subject.
“With Custer on the Little Big Horn” (Viking, 206 pages, $27.95) is a memoir of the battle by excavalryman William O. Taylor. What sets his book apart from many of the histories is that Taylor, as the title suggests, actually was at the battle.
How did he survive? Well, as any Custer scholar will tell you, not everyone serving with Custer’s 7th Cavalry died. Shortly before he attacked a large encampment of several Indian tribes on the Little Big Horn River in southeastern Montana, Custer had split his command.
Many of those troops who didn’t accompany Custer personally, of whose number Taylor was a member, dug in along a high ridge overlooking the river. While they weathered the hot sun and continual Indian harassment, Custer and his followers were slaughtered several hilltops away.
Taylor, who served under Major Marcus Reno, later wrote, “The story of Custer’s Last Fight has ever had a strong and peculiar interest for many people. Poets have sung of it, artists have painted it, and writers have described it, and yet no white man saw it and lived to tell about it.”
That hasn’t, of course, stopped many writers from speculating about what happened and why. And these days, with more attention rightfully being paid by the culture at large to the stories of the men and women whom Custer was attacking, the fuller story of the “Last Stand” is at last emerging.
What’s surprising about Taylor’s book is that it remained unpublished for so long. While part of a much-publicized collection of Custer artifacts, Taylor’s personal papers weren’t discovered as a separate entity until museum consultant Greg Martin actually read them in 1994.
“This well-written manuscript detailed not only Taylor’s personal experiences in the battle, but a complete history of the event, providing facts and observations never before revealed,” Martin wrote for the book’s foreword. “Further investigation into the life of William O. Taylor and the origins of his manuscript convinced me that his story was of major significance and deserved wide attention.”
It turns out that Taylor wrote the manuscript in 1917. He died five years later at the age of 68.
He’d outlived Yellow Hair by 47 years.
A thrilling speaker
Ridley Pearson, author of “No Witnesses” and other suspense thrillers, will deliver the keynote speech at the 33rd annual meeting of the Idaho Writer’s League, which will be held Sept. 20-22 in Boise.
Other featured Idaho authors scheduled to appear include Clay Morgan, Robin Lee Hatcher, William C. Anderson, Judith Root and Rick Ardinger. For information on the event’s many workshops and other activities, send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to Peggy Staggs, 6000 Plantation Lane, Boise, ID 83703.
On the shelf
Carlos Schwantes, the prolific author and University of Idaho history professor, has another book out. “So Incredibly Idaho! Seven Landscapes That Define the Gem State” (University of Idaho Press, 146 pages, $49.95) is a virtual love letter to the state of Idaho.
“I am an Idahoan by conviction, not birth,” Schwantes writes. “Perhaps for that reason, during my years in Idaho I have become increasingly fascinated by what it means to put down roots in a place and how a sense of place relates to landscapes.”
That Schwantes can write comes as no surprise. But he proves to be a decent photographer, too, as many of the book’s color photos demonstrate.
The reader board
June E. Brussard, author of “Skinny Scotty,” will read from her book at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Auntie’s Bookstore, Main and Washington.
, DataTimes