Robert Utley, former chief historian and Associate Director of the National park Service, is a serious student of the history of the American West of the 1800s.

His books are regular selections of various book clubs. He can also be seen on various History Channel programs, including "The Real West."

Studying Custer:

Utley has studied George Armstrong Custer's life and death in depth. He is among the most respected of historians concerning the Battle Of The Little Big Horn in June 1876.

His "Cavalier In Buckskin: George Armstrong Custer And The Western Military Frontier" is part of the University Of Oklahoma Press "Western Biographies" series.

The subject:

George Armstrong Custer, a brigidier general of Union volunteers at age 23 in 1863 (and a major general of volunteers two years later), is one of those people you either love or hate. There seems to be no middle ground about him with students of his life.

That he was a brave warrior there is no doubt. He fought in every battle of the Army Of The Potomac during the Civil War, 1861-65, receiving praise from his superiors and from his Confederate foes alike.

The description:

Utley's detailed look at Custer describes a man who wanted to stand out and be noticed; a youngster who knew that to get older officers and his troops to respect him that he must be easily identifiable on the field of battle.

As Utley describes his Civil War appearance, you get a feel for Custer's appearance that few authors have successfully captured:

"In bizarre costume Custer had no peer in the Union army. The broad collar of a blue sailor's shirt fell over a black velveteen jacket ornamented with two rows of of brass buttons and gold braid spangling the sleeves from cuff to elbow. Top boots with jangly spurs contained trousers of the same material seamed in twin gold stripes. A silver star perched on each shoulder and the low crown of his broad-brimmed hat. A scarlet necktie fell from his collar. A heavy sword, trophy of an early exploit, hung from his belt..."

Utley explains that Custer wasn't just a show-off and his outfit had a purpose:

"More than simple vanity motivated his eccentricity. He had a sure sense of what made effective military leadership and what gave a unit identity and espirit. He intended to be as conspicuous as possible, especially in combat, both to his own men and to the enemy..."

Inspiring the troops:

According to Utley, Custer took things further to inspire his men (keep in mind, 23-year-old brigidier generals did not exist in the Union army until Custer came along --- he was promoted from a regular Army captain to a general commanding volunteers just two years out of the West Point military academy, given command of four regiments known as "The Michigan Brigade" over older, senior officers, so gaining their respect was a necessary mission).

Custer designed a personal battle flag, carried by an orderly, to follow him so his men knew where he was at all times during a battle (asked by one officer where his command post would be, Custer said, "At the front of my men!"). He formed a brigade band that rode with the command into battle --- Utley relates that one officer remembered how the men came to react to what the band played: "At 'Yanke Doodle' every man's hand went to his saber. It was always the signal for a charge."

Did Custer inspire his men? Of course he did. They adopted red ties to match his. They grew their hair long to try to be like "Old Curley," as they called their long-haired commander.

Custer led them to victory after victory yelling "Come on, you Wolverines." He shared their dangers. They loved him.

The press adored him, too. They called him "The Boy General." When Confederate General J. E. B. Stuart's three brigades of cavalry threatened the Union rear at Gettysburg a mere week after his promotion to general, Custer led his single brigade against Stuart, forcing Stuart to retreat.

As proof of a commander who actually led his men rather than stay at some safe, rear command post, Utley notes that Custer had several horses shot from beneath him leading charges. Custer was also shot in the leg in September 1863, and was ordered to take 15 days off.

Back in the saddle:

Not being in combat was the thing Custer hated most, it seems. As Utley points out, Custer was back in the saddle, reporting to Virginia on October 8, greeted by his troops whose band played "Hail To The Chief" as he arrived.

Three days later, Custer again defeated Stuart's cavalry at Brandy Station. Utley quotes one of Custer's officers as saying of the boy general's performance:

"No soldier who saw him that day at Brandy Station ever questioned his right to wear a star, or all the gold lace he felt inclined to wear. He at once became a favorite in the Army of the Potomac."

The Custer romance:

Custer next had to get a judge, the father of the girl he had fallen in love with in Monroe, Michigan, to surrender his daughter to him. He succeeded and married Elizabeth Bacon Custer (he called her "Libbie" and she called him "Autie") in February 1864.

The Custer story becomes a great romance of two people totally devoted to each other, to the point that the soldier's wife often endured hardships to follow him to be close to him. Like all military wives (my father is retired Navy, so I saw my mother's face every time my father went to sea), she feared for her husband but knew he wouldn't be happy in any other profession.

Utley follows Custer through battle after battle in detail. By war's end, with Custer wearing a second general's star on each shoulder and two on his hat, as commander of the Third Cavalry Division, Custer was destroying Confederate General Robert E. Lee's retreating forces near Appomattox Court House in Virginia.

Brother Tom's Medals Of Honor:

It was during this campaign that Custer's brother, Tom (all of 20 years old), proved himself equally brave by winning two Congressional Medals Of Honor.

Tom won the first award by capturing a Confederate flag at Namozine Church. He won the second award (becoming the only Union soldier to win the honor twice during that war) charging alone through Confederate breastworks to seize a rebel battle flag --- the Confederate holding the flag shot Tom Custer through the cheeks on his face, then was killed by Tom, who then grabbed the flag and rode back to his brother's lines.

Family was important to George Custer. He cared for his parents and siblings in his native New Rumley, Ohio. He loved his wife and had his brother, Tom, placed on his general staff.

His troops were loved by him as well. They praised him for "Custer's Luck," the uncanny ability, seemingly, to win no matter what the odds. One of his regimental commanders, quoted by Utley, said of Custer:

"He was brave, alert, untiring, a hero in battle, relentless in pursuit of a beaten enemy..."

The end of the Civil War:

With the war's end, Custer's life, at age 25, changed. He was returned to his regular Army rank of captain (there was no more need for generals commanding volunteer units that were being mustered out of the service).

He was a soldier without a war. He was lost. He could be called upon, and given his temporary general's rank in a crisis (such as making sure Reconstruction of the former Confederate state of Texas went without problems, or pursuing the Ku Klux Klan), but for the most part he was a forgotten warrior, too young to retire and not trained for anything else in life.

He was offered the position of Adjutant General of the Mexican army under Juraez that was then fighting Maximillian. The job would pay $16,000 a year (twice his Civil War general's pay). But the U. S. Army refused to let him go.

That's how Custer wound up as lieutenant-colonel and field commander of the 7th U. S. Cavalry Regiment in July 1866 (for $2,000 a year).

The Indian Wars:

Utley takes us through those years, in detail, as well. Much like Vietnam, neither Custer nor his men agreed with their government, but they had a job to do: find the enemy (in this case, the American Indians) and destroy him.

Custer's wife later wrote that Custer called the Indians "the noble red man" and "the finest light cavalry in the world." She didn't understand his admiration for people trying to kill him in combat.

To the Indians, he became known as "Son Of The Morning Star" for attacking a Cheyenne village in Oklahoma in November 1868 --- he was the leader who attacked at dawn while his enemies slept, attacking across the snow while his band tried to play the regimental ballad, "Garry Owen" ("...wearever we go they dread the name of Garry Owen in glory..."), as their spit froze in their instruments.

"Squaw Killer":

The Cheyennes called him "Squaw Killer," as well, for that attack left 103 men, women and children dead. The battle divided the regiment into factions, as well, when Major Joel Elliott led 19-men shouting, "For a brevet (promotion) or a coffin," after a decoy party of Cheyennes.

Elliott's men didn't return. Custer's men grumbled that he should find them. As a previously undiscovered force of 4,000 hostiles from a series of villages down river moved against him, Custer made a bold move against them --- when the Indians withdrew to protect their villages, Custer turned his 800 men around and escaped without finding Elliott's troopers (the band playing "Ain't We Glad To Get Out Of The Wilderness").

Some men felt Custer had saved the regiment. Some blamed him for not discovering the large villages down river before attacking a small village. Some thought he was a coward. Some thought him a hero. And no one knew what had become of Elliott's men?

There is conjecture that Custer's men were so anti-fighting Indians that one of them shot Captain Louis Hamilton (grandson of Alexander Hamilton, one of George Washington's aide-de-camps in the American Revolution; Washington was Custer's grand uncle) while aiming at Custer. Hamilton fell from the saddle, a bullet apparently in the back of the head, while riding behind Custer.

The battle was a decisive moment for Custer. It would haunt his remaining years with the regiment. People chose sides. His superiors called it a victory. The press called it a massacre of civilians.

Custer's hatred of U. S. policy:

That Custer hated United States policy towards Indians is well-documented. At 18, while at West Point, he had written a report critical of that policy. Three months before his death in March 1876, he testified against the administration of President Grant before Congress, stating, "If I were an Indian, I would follow Crazy Horse, rather than adhere to the confines of the reservation, there to be the blessed recipient of the so-called blessings of civilzation."

After the Oklahoma battle (Epinions will not allow me to print the name of the river because it considers the word to be an obscenity!), Custer fought Indians on the Yellowstone, peacefully explored the Black Hills (by his government's order, he violated treaties forbidding the white people on that sacred land; discovering gold there didn't help later events either), fought the Ku Klux Klan in several states (including Kentucky) and wound up dying at the Little Big Horn on Sunday, June 25, 1876, with every man from five of his regiment's 12 companies (the others survived the battle while fighting elsewhere on the battlefield).

"The real Custer"?:

Those stories are told in great depth as well. With his death, whoever the "real Custer" was (hero or villain) ceased to matter, according to Utley, for his death "transformed him into an enduring legend."

Perhaps Custer, as quoted by Utley, explained himself best when in 1867 he wrote: "In years long numbered with the past, when I was merging upon manhood, my every thought was ambitious --- not to be wealthy, not to be learned, but to be great. I desired to link my name with acts of men, and in such manner as to be a mark of honor, not only to the present but to future generations."

That Custer is buried with his wife (who died in 1933) beneath a monument in the cemetary at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York (where it was moved in 1877 from his place of death in Montana).

The book:

I can only hope that this long review, which I feel is a necessity with this book, can inspire people to seek this book out. The details of his final battle are not as gruesome as some other Custer books so this should be appropriate for readers aged 13 or older.

What Utley captures is Custer the man, better than most authors have in the past. A complex individual, able to send men to die in combat without questioning his decisions who also loved animals.

Custer had a huge assortment of dogs and other creatures as pets, yet enjoyed hunting; animals he hunted and killed, he stuffed as an amateur taxidermist and sent for display at museums in New York City.

To his wife, he was the love of her life, according to Utley, who notes she kept his memory alive in the 57 years she lived after his death by writing books about him and giving speeches, very unusual for a woman of her time. She lost not only her husband at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, but also three brothers-in-law (Captain Tom Custer and civilian Boston Custer, as well as Lieutenant James Calhoun, who was married to one of Custer's sisters) and a nephew (Harry Armstrong Reed).

That's the story Utley tells very well: Custer as soldier, brother, son, husband and author (Custer wrote for magazines and newspapers, as well as his autobiography, "My LIfe On The Plains," published in 1874). You will come as close to knowing Custer, the man, by the end of this book as is possible 126 years after his death. An intelligent and thoughtful read throughout.

The book includes more than 226 pages, with a preface, bibliography, index, numerous photos and maps. The book won the Western Heritage Wrangler Award for Outstanding Nonfiction Book in 1989.

You might also enjoy:

"Custer's Fall" by David Humphreys Miller: http://www.epinions.com/content_349631581828

"Boots And Saddles, Or, Life In Dakota With General Custer" by Elizabeth Bacon Custer (the general's wife is the author): http://www.epinions.com/content_185859411588

My review of a wonderful book by Bill and Jan Moeller, "Custer: A Photographic Biography," in which the authors take you to the important sites of Custer's life via 125 full color photographs and a well-written biography: http://www.epinions.com/content_172491902596

"The Little Bighorn Campaign" by Wayne Michael Sarf: http://www.epinions.com/content_115926404740

"Custer Victorious: The Civil War Battles Of General George Armstrong Custer" by Professor Gregory J. W. Urwin: http://www.epinions.com/content_25624088196

"Troopers With Custer" by E. A. Brinstool: http://www.epinions.com/content_166005935748

Recommended: Yes