The Benteen-Goldin Letters on Custer and His Last Battle

by John Melvin Carroll (Editor), Lorence F. Bjorklund (Illustrator)

The Benteen-Goldin Letters on Custer and His Last Battle, the original 1974 limited edition, edited and introduced by Carroll, is an important primary source for anyone interested in Custer. Two veterans of the Battle of the Little Big Horn exchanged a remarkable series of letters between the fall of 1891 and the summer of 1896. By that time they and everyone else who had been at the scene of Custer’s defeat were part of legend. Captain Frederick W. Benteen of the Seventh Cavalry made history on June 25 and 26, 1876, when he came to the rescue of Major Marcus A. Reno's command. Private Theodore W. Goldin was with Reno during the battle and later helped to bury Custer and his comrades. Benteen and Goldin had retired from the army when their correspondence—-rare for being be- tween an officer and an enlisted man—began. Benteen’s letters, collected by John M. Carroll, are an exciting record of the Battle of the Little Big Horn and the Sioux War with tantalizing (and sometimes malicious) views of Custer and his wife, Libby; Reno; Generals Miles and Terry; and others. Goldin's replies to Benteen are lost, but Carroll has supplied revealing letters from him to the historians E. A. Brininstool and Fred Dustin touching on the same events. Also included are two accounts of the Battle of the Little Big Horn by Benteen, discovered after his death in 1898.

Genres: History

312 pages, Hardcover

First published January 28, 1985

Reviews

[Robert Jeens · Rating 4 out of 5]

I guess most people know the story of Custer’s Last Stand. In 1876, Colonel George Custer rode his command of Seventh Cavalry soldiers directly into a Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho village of approximately 7,000 and was killed along with all the men who followed him. This battle was the biggest defeat suffered by the American army during the wars in which the United States conquered and displaced the Native American peoples from the American West.
And before I read this book, I didn’t know much more than that either. Actually, I just finished reading Dee Brown’s Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee and was scanning the American History section in the Yonsei University Library when I came across this volume. So I thought two things when I saw it: 1) I might learn more about the battle and 2) which professor ordered this for the library? I mean, it is a pretty obscure book for a university library in Seoul, South Korea.
And this book is pretty much as the title advertised. These are a series of letters from two survivors of the Battle of the Little Big Horn. Benteen had been a captain and Goldin had been an enlisted man. The letters were written years after the battle and, somewhat confusingly, although they corresponded, Goldin’s replies to Benteen are lost, so there are a series of letters from Benteen to Goldin and a series of letters from Goldin to other people. They are an excellent example of historical primary sources. They discuss what happened before, during and after the battle from the perspectives of the letter writers, from what they heard from others, and from searching the battlefield after the fighting was over. Not only that, but they are opinionated about other officers who were there, including Custer, and they contain example views on, for example, race relations in 19th Century USA, how the army was run and so on. It is important to note that some historians, including the editor of this volume, have questioned some of their judgements.
As for what I learned from reading this book, I have to say that you can skip over a lot of it if what you are concerned with is mainly the battle. There are a few long narratives and some important details but also a lot of repetition and irrelevancies. But the two most important things I will carry with me are this: Custer had 700 men under him, but 238 died. That is because Custer’s column was wiped out, but there was another column that attacked the village from another side. Most of the soldiers from that column escaped, including the two letter writers here. Benteen actually led three companies that reinforced that column and Goldin owes his life to the fact that he had been sent as a messenger by Custer to the aforesaid column. The other thing I learned is that those Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapahoe were on the Crow Reservation, who were their traditional enemies. The Crow asked the US Army to displace the Sioux and their allies and there were Crow fighting with Custer. Dee Brown doesn’t tell you that.
A casual student of the Old West does not need to spend a lot of time with this book, but it is a good example of primary source material and I am sure a good history professor could make good use of this with interested students.

[Drpsychorat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although this book gave several important insights and some good information about Custer and the Little Big Horn, I was somewhat disgusted with the unsubstantiated slander of Custer & others by Benteen. It seems to me to show more of Benteen‘s vindictive and hateful behavior more than Custer’s. Nonetheless, it continues to be an important & interesting historical collection.

[Alethea Hammer · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent source book of letters and accounts by eyewitnesses and survivors. Not an easy read because it consists mostly of letters.