A Complete Life of General George A. Custer, Volume 2: From Appomattox to the Little Big Horn

by Frederick Whittaker, Robert M. Utley (Introduction)

This first biography of General George A. Custer was published late in 1876, only months after the disaster at the Battle of the Little Big Horn. A Complete Life was the beginning of a legend, and Frderick Whittaker did more than anyone else except Libby Custer to make the flamboyant Boy General a permanent resident of the national consciousness. Quite aside from its contribution to the public image of Custer, this important book placed him and his associates against a concrete background of onrushing events. Drawing on newspaper reports and the general's own words, Whittaker captures the excitement of the era. Continuing the story of Custer from Volume 1, which dealt with his childhood in Ohio, cadetship at West Point, courtship of Elizabeth Bacon, and service as a cavalryman in the Civil War, Volume 2 takes Custer west to head up the newly created Seventh Cavalry and fight the Arapahoes, Cheyennes, Kiowas, and Sioux. Whittaker gives full scope to Custer's brushes with authority, his changeable relations with his troops, and his famous expeditions, ending with a memorable description of his last stand at the Little Big Horn in June 1876.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction

314 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1993

Reviews

[NDH · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wonder what Custer, wherever he is, thinks of all the adulation, the worship, heaped upon him by Whittaker. Even he must be embarrassed…
Nonetheless, this is a worthwhile read. I particularly liked Whittaker’s analysis of the last battle; Reno indecisive and inexperienced in fighting Indians to the point of cowardice, Benteen disobedient to the point of dereliction of duty. The two of them together more interested in saving their own skins than in doing their duty. The timeline particularly condemns the both of them. I’ll buy Whittaker’s version until I read a better explanation.
The Introduction is where I look for interesting insights, and Robert Utley’s is a bit of a disappointment in this regard. He does make one good point, to wit: “A star of the debunking school fashionable in the 1930s, Van de Water (who published in 1934 an anti-Custer diatribe, Glory Hunter) forged a bizarre Custer in every way the opposite of Whittaker’s…fully as unhistorical as Whittaker.”
I guess I’ll have to read Utley’s book on Custer to learn the truth, but I suppose that’s the point of the Introduction.

[Drpsychorat · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book reads somewhat like a dime novel. Making this book exciting mainly because he uses a lot of Custer’s own words. Exact details are lacking throughout if they interfere with the story. The author also takes poetic license with the facts and takes his anger out on some major figures in Custer’s life. It should be read however because it was the first biography of Custer written.