Elizabeth Bacon, the beautiful daughter of a wealthy judge in Monroe, Michigan, fell in love with a dashing local man in Union blue with a star on his shoulder and as he recovered from a wound in the autumn of 1863 they were engaged to be married.

Her fiance was George Armstrong Custer, grand-nephew of President George Washington (at least according to Dr. Lawrence Frost in his book "The Custer Album"). Custer, a native of Ohio, had been raised in Monroe and had graduated from the U. S. Military Academy at West Point in 1861. In June of 1863, he had been promoted to the temporary war rank of brigadier general of volunteers and given command of four regiments of cavalry known as "The Michigan Brigade."

At Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, a month later, the man the press called "The Boy General" because of his young age led his brigade in combat yelling "Come on you Wolverines!" As was his style, Custer rode at the head of his command in charge after charge.

Elizabeth, a woman of society, was about to take the ride of a lifetime with the man of her dreams. Married in February of 1864, she would follow him from encampments from Virginia to Texas to Kansas to Kentucky to North Dakota, and other stops along the way, over the next 12 years.

He called her "Libbie" and she called him "Autie." By all accounts, their's was a storybook marriage and they were madly in love with each other. When their 12-year marriage ended with his death in combat, Elizabeth Custer spent the next 57 years of her life defending the memory of her husband in books like her 1885 "Boots And Saddles."

When 36-year-old George Custer led the 7th Cavalry to destruction fighting Indians at the Little Big Horn River in Montana on June 25, 1876, Libbie lost five relatives in the battle. The limited communications of the time meant that the notification of the deaths of her husband, three brothers-in-laws and a nephew at the hands of Sioux and Cheyenne warriors did not reach Elizabeth Custer until July 5, 1876.

Mrs. Custer was one of 26 women widowed by their husbands' deaths in the battle. An unknown number of children lost their fathers. As word of the disaster made its way around Fort Abraham Lincoln in North Dakota, women cried and children screamed.

Despite suffering through the loss of five relatives in the fight, it became Elizabeth Custer's duty as the field commander's widow to comfort the widows and orphaned children at the fort.

Only after comforting others could Elizabeth begin comforting herself. She would have to leave the home at the fort she had shared with her husband and go elsewhere because she was no longer in the Army and her Army home was no longer her's.

Elizabeth was born April, 8, 1842 and was 34 years of age when she was widowed after only 12 years of marriage. The soldier's wife was left with a $5,000 insurance policy and little else when her husband was killed (a lieutenant colonel's pay at the time was only $2,000 a year, after all). His death also left her with a great deal of debt to be dealt with in an age when it was rare for a woman to work outside the home.

"Libbie" Custer spent the next 57 years as a widow who defined the image of her husband in the mind of her fellow Americans. She tolerated no one who would say anything negative about her husband. She made a living through writing articles and by writing three books: "Boots And Saddles, Or Life In Dakota With General Custer," "Tenting On The Plains" and "Following The Guidon".

Elizabeth Bacon Custer spent her final years in New York City. In 1877, a year after General Custer was killed, an Army detachment retrieved the bodies of most of Custer's dead officers from their resting places in Montana and moved them elsewhere for reburial.

George Armstrong Custer was buried for the final time at the U. S. Military Academy in West Point, New York, where he had begun his 25-year military career in 1861. Elizabeth Custer, who missed her husband every moment she lived after his death, was laid to rest beside him following her death in New York City on April 6, 1933, two days before her 91st birthday.

This book:

"Boots And Saddles" by Elizabeth Bacon Custer carried the subtitle of "Or, Life In Dakota With General Custer," but many a published edition over the years has been called simply "Boots And Saddles" when reprinted. The title, "Boots And Saddles," is taken from one of many bugle calls used by the horse mounted troops of the U. S. cavalry.

As Mrs. Custer's first book, "Boots And Saddles" first appeared in print in 1885 and was an instant best-seller. It wasn't the first book about her husband (her husband published his memoirs as "My Life On The Plains" in 1874 and books about his life came into print almost as soon as he died in 1876), but it remains one of the most interesting books on the subject ever written.

Elizabeth Custer dedicated the book to her husband, "the echo of whose voice has been my inspiration." In her preface to the book she states that "Boots And Saddles" was written with the "motive" of providing "a glimpse to civilians of garrison and camp life - about which they seem to have such a very imperfect knowledge."

While her "motives" certainly included creating an image of George Custer that she wanted to portray to counter critics like President Grant who blamed the disaster at the Little Big Horn on her husband, Elizabeth Custer's book succeeds far more in its presentation of what Army life was for a husband and wife on the plains of North America during the Indian wars.

She paints a portrait that completes the blank portions of the canvas of Army life that most of us know only through "western" movies. These were people who lived hard lives in 100-degree heat or below freezing weather at remote outposts in a world where the latest news came by messengers arriving weeks after the events happened.

Elizabeth's husband had fought in every major engagement of the Army of the Potomac during the Civil War, beginning with the First Battle of Bull Run in 1861. George's brother, Tom Custer, had enlisted at the age of 16 in 1861 and won the Congressional Medal of Honor twice during the Civil War --- the only Army soldier to get the award twice during that war.

George and Tom became officers of the newly formed 7th Cavalry Regiment in 1866, with Custer as lieutenant colonel and Tom as a lieutenant (eventually promoted to captain, he would die with his brother at the Little Big Horn). Elizabeth Custer and the two brothers would be inseparable during the next 10 years on the plains (with two years fighting the Ku Klux Klan in Kentucky, 1871-73).

For "Boots And Saddles," Elizabeth Custer decided to concentrate on her life from the time the Custers received orders to leave Kentucky for Bismarck in present-day North Dakota in the spring of 1873.

George Custer's playful nature with his wife and excitement with living is obvious in her description of Custer's reaction to getting the new assignment. She refers to the "hilarity" of the moment Custer celebrated the "change of station" news with a wild frolic about the house, tossing his wife "about the room" and playing practical jokes.

"After such participation in the celebration," she writes, "I was almost too tired with the laughter and fun to begin packing."

That seems to be the nature of what she loved about George Custer and his brother Tom --- they were men who acted like "wild boys" who loved to laugh and play (the brothers would collect rattlesnakes and put them in a crate in their tent, for instance, and then invite Libbie to "take a load off" and have a seat on the crate which then "rattled;" they would then collapse in laughter as Libbie flew off her seat).

Such are the tales of family life that appear throughout "Boots And Saddles."

Equally compelling are stories that would otherwise not have been recorded had Elizabeth Custer not noted them. Tales of winters so cold that soldiers on duty got frostbite on their hands and fingers that then had to be amputated --- all cared for in the Custers home by a worried Mrs. Custer.

"Their sufferings were intense, and I could not forgive myself for not having something with which to relieve them," she writes.

Elizabeth, when the danger wasn't too much, often rode with the troops when they left Fort Lincoln. She rode knowing that Custer had instructed his officers to shoot her if the time ever came that she might fall into Indian hands.

After long, tiring marches, she came to know the little things in a soldier's life. "I soon acquired the general's habit of sleeping readily," she writes, "...I learned the moment I was helped out of the saddle, to drop to the grass and fall asleep in a twinkling."

At home, the Custers loved animals. The general had horses and dogs he dearly loved, along with canaries, a pelican and a little field mouse he tamed. Elizabeth liked most of the "pets," but she only tolerated the field mouse, which resided on Custer's desk and would run up and down his arms when he sat at the desk.

Libbie also came to know the men of the 7th Cavalry, the average enlisted man. "A regiment is recruited from all classes and conditions of men," she writes. When men enlisted, they did so for various reasons, she discovered, and she calls the 7th Cavalry "a city of refuge" for many men with "histories" (some fleeing justice, some fleeing injustice, and some "outraged husbands" fleeing their wives).

She writes of writing letters home for men who couldn't write for themselves. She tells us her husband also cared about his men. "The general had to occasionally listen and arbitrate between husband and wife," she writes," ...in the same way he listened to whatever complaints the soldiers made."

To push home that her husband tried to make the lives of his troops better, she tells the story of men bringing cups of coffee fo the general and asking him to taste it to see if he found it acceptable. He apparently found the coffee to be unacceptable and ordered every company commander to visit the kitchens to be sure of "the wholesomeness of the food."

She details how the men of the 7th Cavalry asked the general if they could could build a building for "entertainment." He not only allowed them to do it, but insisted it be big enough for all the officers and men.

Plays were put on in that building by the troops, and Elizabeth says her husband attended every one, sometimes participating in the plays as an actor himself. She truly presents a different kind of general in George Custer with such tales.

She tells of dancing at balls (in great detail, I might add, from the chandeliers carved from "crackerbox boards" and filled with candles, to the dress uniforms of the troops). How handsome she found these men in uniform is obvious:

"The soldiers were a superb lot of men physically," she writes. "The outdoor life had developed them into perfect specimens of vigorous manhood."

One soldier, in particular, caught her eye every time, of course. As she recalls him, she creates a marvelous picture of her man.

She tells us that George Armstrong Custer was nearly six feet tall and weighed 170 pounds. "His eyes were clear blue and deeply set," she writes, "his hair, short, wavy, and golden in tint. His mustache was long and tawny in color; his complexion was florid, except where his forehead was shaded by his hat, for the sun always burned his skin ruthlessly."

If you failed to notice that she considered him her Viking god, she adds, "He was the most agile, active man I ever knew, and so very strong and in such perfect physical condition that he rarely knew even an hour's indisposition."

Through such vivid descriptions we get to know Custer, his brothers, "Father Custer" (as the general's father was called), the troops, the scouts, the Indians and the frontier she encountered. Her details are vivid and create pictures in one's mind. Her stories take us through three years on the plains in "Boots And Saddles," including Custer's fight on the Yellowstone, his discovery of gold in the Black Hills and his final march to Little Big Horn.

Elizabeth Custer had a vivid eye for detail and a keen memory. When she sees the 7th Cavalry march from Fort Lincoln on its last campaign, she remembers the band playing "The Girl I Left Behind Me" and children of soldiers marching in columns to match the movements of their fathers on horseback, and crying wives waving to their men, many who wouldn't return alive (for half of the 7th Cavalry's 600 men died in the Battle of the Little Big Horn).

When they left, Elizabeth rode with Custer's sister Margaret (wife of Lieuenant James Calhoun, who would die in the coming battle) for the first day's march. In the book's final chapter, which she calls "Our Life's Last Chapter," Elizabeth gives a great retelling of May 17-18, 1876, as she saw her husband for the last time.

"At every bend of the road," she writes, "my husband glanced back to admire his men and could not refrain from constantly calling my attention to their appearance."

She had premonitions on the ride. She saw half the regiment reflected in a mirage in the sky as if they had entered heaven during the march and says she couldn't shake the feeling that some great disaster awaited them in the days ahead.

The morning of May 18, 1876, Elizabeth Custer tearfully waved goodbye to her husband. She says that before going out of sight, he took off his hat and waved to her from a distant hill, and she (and Margaret) then returned to the fort.

She goes on to tell of the happenings at the fort after her return. In the book's appendix, Elizabeth also shares "edited" letters she received from her husband between 1873 and 1876.

Among those letters is the last one Custer wrote her on June 22, 1876, three days before his death (it, of course, arrived after his death). In that letter Custer tried to reassure his wife, saying, "Do not be anxious about me... I hope to have a good report to send you by the next mail."

The book:

"Boots And Saddles" by Elizabeth Bacon Custer was first published in 1885 and has had many publishers over the years since. The edition reviewed here is from the University of Oklahoma Press and is a 276-plus-page paperback with an introduction by historian Jane R. Stewart.

This version contains three photos and a map (the original version was unillustrated). It is Volume 17 of "The Western Frontier Library" collection published by the University of Oklahoma Press.

Recommendation:

I highly recommend this wonderful book. Elizabeth Bacon Custer's "Boots And Saddles" is more than an autobiography of her life with George Armstrong Custer, it is a tale of military family life that anyone with a veteran in the family should find interesting and which civilians should find revealing. A military brat myself, I see that the lot of the military family has changed little from what it was in 1876.

I first read the book in high school in the 1970's. I found it fascinating then and even more so now (the greater my experiences in life, the more I can relate to this wonderful tale). It should have appeal to wives of military men and to history buffs as well.

Elizabeth Bacon Custer as a person comes across as a very humane character who experienced very unusual circumstances. Her father was a wealthy Michigan judge. Her mother had died when she was 12. Her romance with George Armstrong Custer is one of the most endearing love affairs I have ever read, but one with an unhappy ending.

The book represents a tale of survival, though, as Elizabeth Custer moves beyond the death of the love of her life to become an accomplished writer and a great success on her own.

"Boots And Saddles" represents a tale of the bravery and inspiring courage of Elizabeth Custer, both during her 12 years as an Army wife and during her 57 years as a soldiers' widow. As such, I highly recommend it to men and women of all ages.

Reviews of related books:

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

My review of "In Custer's Shadow: Major Marcus Reno" by Ronald H. Nichols, the story of a Civil War general who was George Custer's second-in-command at the Little Bighorn: http://www.epinions.com/content_244441386628
"Tom Custer: Ride To Glory" by Carl F. Day: http://www.epinions.com/content_238532333188

"Crazy Horse And Custer" By Stephen Ambrose: http://www.epinions.com/book-review-361F-969DBEF-38A5411E-bd3

"With Custer's Cavalry" by Katherine Gibson (wife of a 7th Cavalry officer): http://www.epinions.com/content_95035625092

"With Custer On The Little Bighorn" by Private William Taylor (who survived the battle with 7 companies of the 7th Cavalry fighting on a hilltop four miles from where Custer and 5 companies of the regiment were all killed): http://www.epinions.com/content_21219872388

"The Fetterman Massacre" by Dee Brown (in December 1866, Captain William Judd Fetterman led 80-men to their deaths at the hands of 2,000 Sioux and Cheyenne warriors in Wyoming in a battle very similar to the Custer battle)): http://www.epinions.com/content_39432130180

"The Custer Myth" by Col. W. A. Graham: http://www.epinions.com/content_123088506500

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

"The Custer Reader," edited by Paul Hutton: http://www.epinions.com/content_54692253316

"Custer's Last Campaign: Mitch Boyer And The Little Bighorn Reconstructed" by John S. Gray: http://www.epinions.com/book-review-4BA7-6355DFE-385F2E5F-prod2

"The Custer Album: A Pictorial Biography Of General George A. Custer" by Dr. Lawrence Frost: http://www.epinions.com/book-review-2A66-2208941-389299D0-bd3

"Cavalier In Bucksin" by Robert Utley, former chief historian of the National Park Service: http://www.epinions.com/content_64511708804

"Custer: A Photographic Biography" by Bill and Jan Moeller: http://www.epinions.com/content_172491902596

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

"Wild Life On The Plains And Horrors Of Indian Warfare" by various authors (includes George Custer's own autobiography, "My LIfe On The Plains"): http://www.epinions.com/content_137314733700

Movies of interest:

Movies related to the subject:

"They Died With Their Boots On" (1941) had an amazing cast: Errol Flynn as George Custer, Olivia De Havilland ("Gone With The Wind" star and two-time Oscar winner) as Elizabeth Bacon Custer, Hattie McDaniels (Academy Award winner for "Gone With The Wind"), Anthony Quinn (two-time Oscar winner) as Crazy Horse, Sidney Greenstreet ("Casablanca"), Arthur Kennedy (five-time Academy Award nominee), Gene Lockhart as Elizabeth Custer's father (Bob Cratchit in 1938"s "A Christmas Carol" and father of actress June Lockhart who starred in TV's "Lost In Space"), Charley Grapewin (Uncle Henry in "The Wizard Of Oz," Grandpa Joad in "The Grapes Of Wrath") as California Joe and Gig Young as Lt. Roberts (uncredited for his role in "They Died With Their Boots On," he went on to win an Oscar for "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?"): http://www.epinions.com/mvie-review-7A14-ED2BB21-387C5071-prod1

"Crazy Horse and Custer: The Untold Story" (a movie, now available on both VHS and DVD, drawn from the 1967 ABC-TV series, "Custer," starring Wayne Maunder as George Custer; the movie was originally released to European movie audiences as "The Legend Of Custer") --- so fictional that George Custer is presented as unmarried: http://www.epinions.com/content_43896376964

"The Legend Of Custer" contains two VHS tapes, one a movie "The Legend Of Custer" (taken from the 1967 fictional ABC series "Custer" starring Wayne Maunder and Slim Pickens) and the other tape a documentary of Custer: http://www.epinions.com/content_149577371268

"Tonka" starring Philip Carey as Captain Myles Keogh and Sal Mineo as an Indian --- this 1958 Disney film on VHS is mostly about Keogh's horse: http://www.epinions.com/content_58031312516

Personal interest as a Kentuckian:

The 7th Cavalry in Kentucky (Captain Myles Keogh and "I" Company were stationed 35 miles east of Louisville at Fort Bagdad, Ky.; other companies were in Elizabethtown (Custer's headquarters, 1871-73) and Louisville): http://www.lbha.org/2004/7inKentucky.pdf

On the web:

Little Big Horn Associates (historians, scientists, authors and Custer buffs): http://www.lbha.org/

Live webcam from "Last Stand Hill": http://www.nps.gov/libi/libicam.htm

Friends Of The Little Bighorn Battlefield (note: various organizations and authors refer to the battlefield variously as Little Big Horn or Little Bighorn): http://www.friendslittlebighorn.com/

Recommended: Yes