to hell with honor what was custers plan

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Start your review of To Hell with Honor: Custer and the Picayune Bighorn

On June 25, 1876, a Civil War hero and Indian fighter named George Custer was killed with 210 men of the 7th Cavalry in a battle with Lakota and Cheyenne warriors on a Montana hillside. In the grand scheme of American history, it was a relatively unimportant event. It did not change the end-result of American-Indian relations, or even modify its speed. Rather, it was 1 more brutal niggling fight at the finish of a brutal war against the Indians that'd been waged since English colonists started burni On June 25, 1876, a Civil War hero and Indian fighter named George Custer was killed with 210 men of the 7th Cavalry in a battle with Lakota and Cheyenne warriors on a Montana hillside. In the thousand scheme of American history, it was a relatively unimportant effect. It did not change the end-result of American-Indian relations, or fifty-fifty change its speed. Rather, information technology was one more cruel little fight at the terminate of a brutal war against the Indians that'd been waged since English colonists started burning Pequot villages in the 1600s.

Merely the legacy of the fight, known as Custer's Last Stand, has endured beyond all reason.

If yous look at my virtual bookshelf, yous'll see what hopefully amounts to a wide-array of selections, including classics (to show you I'm cultured), gimmicky fiction (to bear witness y'all my cultural velocity), trashy novels (to evidence you I'm not too cultured), and histories and biographies (because that's what I like to read when I'm non posturing on Goodreads). If anything stands out on my virtual bookshelf, though, it'due south that I accept a lot of Custer books.

Custer and the Boxing of the Niggling Large Horn is the thing I've chosen to be obsessed with in my life. I read about it, I think about it, I write near it, I lookout man documentaries and movies most information technology, and I ofttimes boss the dinner table with Custer-themed soliloquies. The boxes holding my childhood drawings are blimp with horrifyingly graphic crayon renderings of Custer's concluding moments (I'one thousand considering request my mom how I learned about evisceration at such a tender age). I once took my so-girlfriend-now-wife on an overnight bulldoze from Nebraska to Montana, so that we could exist first in line when the National Battlefield opened. Information technology's gotten to the signal where she is begging me to commencement fantasy football or take up fishing, if only to finish hearing my theories on the existence of the S Skirmish Line.

Why am I, and so many others, indelibly fascinated by this unmarried, long-ago event that barely rates a mention in Trivial Pursuit?

Well, funny you should ask.

I was merely talking about this with my wife at dinner the other day, as I was about to cease Larry Sklenar's To Hell With Honor. After my married woman had left the table to stop her meal elsewhere, it occurred to me that I honey reading and learning near the Niggling Big Horn because of the mystery.

Well-nigh history, yous come across, is consumed passively. If you read nearly Gettysburg or D-Day, y'all can sit down back and permit the information wash over you. We know, as well every bit can exist known (taking into account the obvious fact that humans are poor eyewitnesses, and there is no such matter as an objective historical truth), what happened during those events, and many more like them. We can larn effortlessly.

The Little Big Horn is different. Nosotros don't know exactly what happened. And sometimes, what we do know only adds to the confusion. Yet we have a wealth of clues that offer a tantalizing hope that someone can put all the pieces together. (And if that ever happened, I would be left learning how to put ships into bottles).

The raw materials of the Niggling Big Horn would make an excellent board game (Clue: White Civilization Expansionism Edition). Assemble all the prove and devise your own theory.

And at that place is a lot of evidence to chose from.

First, you take the surviving accounts from white soldiers and scouts. These are eyewitness testimonials from the men who rode with the surviving battalion of the 7th Cavalry (Custer had split his force into iii columns; his column was destroyed while two others remained relatively intact). Still, there's a twist (this is what makes the game then fun!): there is evidence that many of these white survivors were indulging in a cover-up, either to save their own careers or the accolade of the Regiment.

Next, yous take the accounts from Indian participants. For years, these accounts weren't taken seriously, because we didn't similar what they were saying (Essentially, early on historians discounted whatsoever Indian sources who didn't verify the fact that Custer ascended to Sky on a golden equus caballus). In recent years, a lot more attention has been given these primary sources, the result beingness that Custer-fanatics accept even more things to fight most on various list serves. Indian accounts are both enlightening and maddening. While invaluable, they are hampered by cultural factors on both sides of the fence. The Indians, for instance, did not share the aforementioned time-concepts as the whites, and they oft incorporated their direct perceptions with hearsay they heard afterward. The whites, on the other hand, were often searching for answers to fit their theories. Thus, interviewer bias plays a big part in all the primary sources from the Lakota and the Cheyenne. To top all this off, all the questions and answers had to be filtered through an interpreter.

Also, there is the battlefield itself. The Little Big Horn is unique in that the casualties (at least the white cavalrymen) were cached where they fell. Today, when you become to the boxing site, you can look over the rolling bluffs and ridges and come across a white marble marker where each soldier died. Information technology doesn't accept a great deal of imagination to turn those markers into men, and to meet how the battle might have played out: some markers are still in skirmish formation, spaced iii feet apart; other markers are a confused muddle, where the men vicious in obvious retreat; and saddest nevertheless, you come across the solitary markers where, 135 years ago, someone died very alone. (Of course, the markers are imperfectly placed, and subject to controversy. At to the lowest degree one marble tablet, belonging to young Lieutenant James Sturgis, was erected without a torso. The only evidence of Sturgis's death was his bloody underwear, later found in the Indian village. His trunk was never recovered, but a marker was placed to soothe his female parent's visit to the battlefield).

Finally, there is the forensic show. Later a wildfire, an extensive archaeological survey was done on the battlefield, which recovered bullets and shell casings. This evidence gives an indication of what people were shooting at (the discovered bullets) and where people were shooting from (the discovered casings). Since we know what type of weapons the cavalry used, it is possible to distinguish between Indian positions and that of the cavalry. (The caveat, evidently, is that the battlefield had been extensively picked-over by millions of souvenir hunters for over a hundred years. In fact, the first fourth dimension I visited the battlefield, equally a youngster, you were withal allowed to walk off the asphalt paths without getting scolded).

At this point, y'all're probably wondering if I have a point. Well, I don't. I just honey talking near this stuff (this is what having dinner with me is like).

I approximate the point is this: To Hell With Honor isn't a Custer biography or a boxing narrative; rather, information technology takes a good long await at the various evidence I mentioned to a higher place, and it comes upwards with a new battle hypothesis. Sklenar hasn't unearthed any new evidence. Instead, he's taken a fresh wait at all the one-time evidence, highlighted disregarded statements, and placed these events within a new paradigm. I don't believe everything that he posits (some of it is quite a stretch) but I found his take plausible and imaginative. This book is a rare matter: a truly fresh interpretation of a well-worn tale.

Sklenar's theory centers on what is known to Custer buffs equally "the Lone Tepee." This tepee was located well outside the chief Indian village and housed an Indian who was mortally wounded at the Battle of the Rosebud. Sklenar argues that the Lonely Tepee was actually a satellite village with around fifty or and then inhabitants. These villagers had stayed behind with the wounded Indian while the principal torso of Indians had moved farther down the Little Big Horn Valley. When Custer saw this encampment, Sklenar argues, Custer attempted to set on information technology in society to capture hostages, which he would so apply to coerce the larger mass of Indians to surrender.

This initial sequence is really quite inspired. It explains why, shortly subsequently Custer had divided his command into 3 columns, two of those columns (Custer's and Major Reno's) came back together a short time later, at the Alone Tepee site. According to Sklenar, the two columns met because they were making a ii-pronged attack on the campsite. Sklenar has a lot of primary sources to eternalize his view, simply he also uses what he knows near Custer's tactics (at the Washita, Custer used captured women and children to prevent a counterattack) to make reasonable assumptions.

In one case we leave the Lonely Tepee, still, Sklenar'south example becomes a trivial less sure-handed. Indeed, I'g not really sure he describes a coherent, over-arching hypothesis for why Custer made the decisions he fabricated while attacking the main hamlet. Equally all-time I can tell, Sklenar seems to assert that Custer, faced with superior numbers, attempted to dazzle the Indians with some smoke-and-mirrors. He sent Reno down the valley to pin the Indians on one end, while Custer himself moved towards the other (with the implicit understanding that Benteen would also be on his way). When Custer realized that Helm Benteen, a noted Custer hater, wasn't coming, Sklenar argues that Custer divided his column again, in order to requite the impression that he had more troops. Finally, Sklenar seems to believe that Custer's terminal stand up took place in guild to draw the Indians from Major Reno's unpleasing command with the hope that Benteen would soon go far with reinforcements.

Suffice it to say, I liked this volume. Simply that enjoyment comes with some major caveats. Start, this is a poorly written book. Sklenar is a former State Department employee who spent half dozen years researching Custer and going over the primary sources with a fresh eye. He should exist lauded for the mode in which he reinterprets events by taking those primary accounts and assessing them with educated assumptions based on the terrain, forensic evidence, Custer'due south personality, and standard 19th century cavalry doctrine. Despite all this, however, Sklenar is not a polished author. He writes passively, ploddingly, with occasionally tortured syntax and constant repetition. The pacing is atrocious. His style is dry out, workmanlike, without a hint of literary appetite to match his perspective-irresolute material. At that place were far too many times when I had to read a sentence twice to empathise its meaning. Ofttimes, his sentences were broken into ill-fitting clauses, and then by the time y'all accomplish the period, you've forgotten where you started.

Furthermore, there is a definite pro-Custer bias in To Hell With Honor. In a way, it'due south almost refreshing, since there have been so many other Custer books that accept gone the other style. Still, Sklenar's obvious amore for Custer clearly affects his ultimate conclusions.

The farther we follow George Custer down the valley, and the closer Custer comes to his doom, the less we know for certain. Appropriately, when Sklenar is talking most the Lone Tepee and Reno'southward aborted attack, he has a lot of evidence upon which to base his informed speculation. However, by the fourth dimension Custer and his men are surrounded and fighting for their lives, that information flow has slowed to a trickle. We know what the Indians said, and nosotros know what the archaeological surveys discovered, but nosotros don't know what Custer was thinking.

Sklenar, though, gives Custer every benefit of the dubiety. At times, this doesn't seem warranted. For instance, Sklenar's explanation for why Custer stopped and made a stand up is a scrap unconvincing. (Say what you will about Custer, but different Reno, he didn't retreat). He believes that Custer did this to assistance Reno. I recall it's a bit more likely, based on the various reported movements of Custer's troopers on Last Stand up Hill, that Custer was attempting to maintain an offensive posture, probing and prodding the main village until, quite unexpectedly, he institute himself under attack from several directions. This better explains the wide dispersal of his five companies, which fabricated a unified defense incommunicable.

The pro-Custer bias is bracingly evoked in Sklenar'south handling of what I like to phone call "the Custer Penis Puzzler." I suppose a bit of back story is in order. For years, the standard description of Custer's corpse was as follows: bullet wound in temple; bullet wound below the left chest; missing finger; not scalped; not mutilated. It was a very romantic, very Victorian description. Custer, it was said, had a grinning on his face. And though all the men around him had been stripped and hacked to $.25, Custer – lying in the center of a circle of dead horses – was pristine.

The story never made sense to me, or to many others (And by "many others" I am referring to a pocket-sized sect of people who intendance about things similar this. We're a lot of fun at cocktail parties!). A lot of Custer buffs assumed the story had been fabricated to protect Custer's sensitive wife, Libby. Recently, that suspicion was confirmed, when an old interview with Lieutenant Edward Godfrey turned upwards. Godfrey reported that an arrow had been inserted into Custer'south genitals, mail-mortem. Despite this evidence, which logically coincides with other reports of soldier mutilation, Sklenar is unconvinced. Without any explanation whatsoever (not even in the footnotes), he implies that Godfrey'southward recollection is a lie. A certain pro-Custer bias is ane thing; becoming the posthumous protector of the General'south junk is quite some other.

Quibbles aside, I establish To Hell With Laurels incredibly compelling. Only I wouldn't recommend it to anyone I know. Information technology is too dryly written, too narrowly focused, and far too reliant on prior cognition to be tackled past a Custer newbie. If you're just starting downward this road (and you should!), I'd suggest James Donovan's A Terrible Glory or Nathaniel Philbrick's The Final Stand up. Both of them are learned, erudite, and impressively lucid.

This book is of a different blazon. It was written by a Custer vitrify for a Custer buff. If yous've ever been yelled at for discussing Custer'south penis at the dinner table, To Hell With Honor is required reading.

...more than

I take non read many books of this subject just I accept always had a fascination for Custer and his demise at the Petty Bighorn. Overall I constitute that this book attempted to answer all the questions of what went wrong and who was at fault. I recollect the author did an admirable job in his attempts to reconstruct the events leading up the final boxing and the end of Custer and those troops of the 7th Cavalry who followed him.

I would agree that this would non accept been an easy task. A lot of conjectur

I have non read many books of this subject merely I accept always had a fascination for Custer and his demise at the Little Bighorn. Overall I plant that this book attempted to answer all the questions of what went wrong and who was at fault. I think the writer did an admirable job in his attempts to reconstruct the events leading up the final battle and the end of Custer and those troops of the seventh Cavalry who followed him.

I would hold that this would non take been an easy job. A lot of theorize and guess work had to be used to complete the puzzle and although the depth of research certainly shows, it withal may be a instance that we will actually never know what went wrong and why. The main trouble that I had with this book was information technology was a scrap dry and tended to drag. The narrative picked upwards the closer we got to the last boxing but reading nearly the events leading up to that point was slow.

I give the author much credit in putting forrard a decent scenario of what he believed happen and why. The research was excellent merely I would have liked a few more than maps although the few supplied were OK. If he could have livened up the story a bit more information technology would have been a five star volume. I would recommend this book to those who accept a desire to learn more about this nigh interesting upshot in American history.

...more

I idea this was a practiced read. Simply Sklenar is biased in favor of Custer and confronting Reno and Benteen. I am what they telephone call a Benteen man and I think that, at times, Sklenar is verging on the unfair in regard to what Benteen could do for Custer, especially once he came upon Reno'due south battered and disorganized command. While I think Sklenar gives Benteen both barrels, he does provide new a new viewpoint on the insight to Benteen's character, something I am always searching for. Read this, but be warn I thought this was a good read. But Sklenar is biased in favor of Custer and against Reno and Benteen. I am what they call a Benteen homo and I think that, at times, Sklenar is verging on the unfair in regard to what Benteen could do for Custer, especially one time he came upon Reno's battered and disorganized control. While I call up Sklenar gives Benteen both barrels, he does provide new a new viewpoint on the insight to Benteen's character, something I am e'er searching for. Read this, but exist warned it'southward fairly biased. ...more

Nov 30, 2017 Brian Burk rated it really liked it

I rad this a few years ago, but what I remember was that it was a adept read. I enjoyed learning more one of the almost historic battles and memorable characters in history. Fact filed and well written I felt like truly understood what went wrong and why.

Brian

I really enjoyed Larry Sklenar'due south TO HELL WITH Laurels and, wow, information technology puts a hefty corporeality of blame on Benteen and Reno, the two officers who led the other companies of the Seventh Calvary into the Lilliputian Large Horn, both of whom where given orders past Custer that they did non execute.
Sklenar's history of the battle resonated with what I had been thinking as I plowed through about thirty different books on Custer in the last half dozen months, everything from the Walter Camp, Libbie's memoirs, to Benteen's own let I really enjoyed Larry Sklenar'south TO HELL WITH HONOR and, wow, information technology puts a hefty amount of blame on Benteen and Reno, the two officers who led the other companies of the Seventh Calvary into the Petty Big Horn, both of whom where given orders by Custer that they did not execute.
Sklenar's history of the boxing resonated with what I had been thinking as I plowed through nigh 30 different books on Custer in the terminal half dozen months, everything from the Walter Camp, Libbie'southward memoirs, to Benteen's ain letters to his married woman (University of Athens archives, Georgia), bios written well-nigh Benteen (Harvest of Arid Regrets, Custer's Thorn), too as those written virtually Reno (In Custer's Shadow), and of course the Reno Enquiry.
I HIGHLY recommend this book if you are willing to delve deep into the Little Big Horn story, and desire to get lost in the nuances and details (like I am). It was refreshing to read something that defended Custer with solid references to his pretty stellar by military career, and minutely combed through all of the discrepancies of the Reno Court Of Inquiry. ...more

I call up the author spent the whole book trying to lay the arraign for the defeat on Reno and beenteen. While these 2 officers failed in their own right, Custer was not without fault for the results if the battle.