No battle fought on American soil has been written about more than the 1876 Battle of the Little Bighorn, sometimes referred to as “Custer’s last stand.” Between the numerous books, film images and artistic depictions of the conflict (often romanticized and erroneous), one may wonder what new information could possibly justify yet another full-length treatise on the subject.
Historical writer Nathaniel Philbrick, author of the 2006 Pulitzer finalist Mayflower may not have uncovered any earth-shatteringly new evidence, but he has found enough to give readers a fresh look the battle, especially when combined with his own thought-provoking narrative skills. His recently published book is titled The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
Philbrick’s detailed, minute-by-minute approach lends itself especially to this type of historical event, without being monotonous. Using letters written by those involved, sometimes just a day or two before the battle, the author is able to paint fairly accurately the characters involved. In particular, Major Reno and Captain Benteen are shown in all their loathing of Custer.
Philbrick's The Last Stand Uses Eyewitness Indian Accounts, Letters From Soldiers
Philbrick also gives over much of the viewpoint to the Indians, which is not often the case with books on this particular conflict. Their vivid remembrances, some from the women and young people who watched the entire conflict from the massive Sioux-Cheyenne encampment, does as much to verify scholarship on the Little Bighorn as it does to contradict.
Two aspects of The Last Stand stand out from other books on the subject. One is Philbrick’s research and focus on The Far West, a steamboat piloted by legendary Grant Marsh, in support of the cavalry some miles up the Bighorn. It was the Far West’s return to Bismarck, North Dakota, laden with the casualties of battle, that shot the horrifying news of Custer’s defeat to a nation then celebrating its centennial.
Private Peter Thompson's Mysterious Custer Sighting
The other is Philbrick’s discussion of Private Peter Thompson, a soldier who survived the Little Bighorn. Having been granted the use of Thompson’s unpublished writings about the battle (which he began shortly upon return), Philbrick discovered perhaps the biggest mystery regarding that hot June afternoon in Eastern Montana in 1876.
According to Thompson, who’d been separated from his battalion early on the fight, he witnessed Custer standing alone near the bank of the river, not “leading” his own battalion as has been assumed. This claim alone raises any number of questions, but Philbrick has at least one possible answer, one left for the reader to discover.
Author Nathaniel Philbrick spent four years researching and visiting the site of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, and it shows in his detailed, mesmerizing book, The Last Stand. This is not just another book about Custer, it's required reading for anyone interested in American history, Custer, Sitting Bull, or government's treatment of Native Americans in the "opening of the west."
Philbrick, Nathaniel. The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn, 2010 Viking Press, 434 pages. ISBN: 978-1-01-19011-1
Dale Van Every - Dale Van Every is a freelance and fiction writer living in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He earned his Masters Degree in English Literature from ...
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