Product Description

In June of 1876, on a hill above a river called the Little Bighorn, George Armstrong Custer and all 210 men under his direct command were annihilated by 2,000 Sioux and Cheyenne. The news of this stunning defeat caused an uproar, and those involved promptly began to point fingers in order to avoid responsibility. Custer, who was conveniently dead, took the brunt of the blame. The truth, however was far more complex. A TERRIBLE GLORY is the first book to tell the entire story of this fascinating battle, and the first to call upon new findings of the last 25 years - which have changed how this event is perceived. It is also the first book to reveal the details of the cover-up - and unravel one of the greatest mysteries in military history. Scrupulously researched, A TERRIBLE GLORY will stand as a landmark work. Brimming with authentic detail and an unforgettable cast of characters - from Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse to Ulysses Grant and Custer himself - this is history with the sweep of a great novel.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #154798 in Books
• Published on: 2009-07-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 560 pages

Review
'In this labour of love, Donovan collects the multiple threads that led to the 1876 massacre at Little Big Horn... Exhaustive research, lively prose and fresh interpretation make for a valuable addition to literature on this otherwise well-trodden historical event' PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

About the Author
As a literary agent over the past 14 years, James Donovan has sold several bestselling nonfiction titles; previous to that he was a bookstore chain buyer and a trade book editor.

Customer Reviews

Is it the wind or Garryowen whispering through the buffalo grass?
"Come on. Big village. Be quick. Bring packs." - Custer's last communication before riding forth to a terrible glory.

Anyone of a certain age and cultural background, born and educated in the United States, is likely to know of George Armstrong Custer's last stand with his Seventh Cavalry against overwhelming numbers of Sioux and Cheyenne warriors in June, 1876. Who among us hasn't seen at least one of the several fanciful paintings of the event by various artists?

The core of A TERRIBLE GLORY is James Donovan's masterful and absorbing account of the Battle of the Little Bighorn. The book also includes a summary of Custer's military career and personal life prior to 1876, the personalities of the principal Native American leaders (primarily Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse), the tense post-Civil War relationship of the federal government and the U.S. Army with the Sioux, and the battle's aftermath, including the Army's 1879 Court of Inquiry into the Seventh's conduct of the engagement and Major Marcus Reno's performance in particular, the ultimate fates of the main characters in the drama, and the Massacre at Wounded Knee, which can be argued was the Seventh Cavalry's revenge for the Little Bighorn debacle.

Those chapters of A TERRIBLE GLORY concerned with the 1876 encounter place it in the context of that summer's three-pronged Army advance (Gibbon, Terry, Crook) on the tribes that were roaming the Montana and Wyoming territories outside the reservations. Then, for June 25-26, the narration comprises the three phases of the Battle: Reno's ill-starred attack on the south end of the Indian village, the annihilation of Custer and five of the Seventh's twelve companies, and the siege of the Reno-Benteen force dug in on their hill. In the prefatory Author's Notes section, Donovan is careful to point out that his accounts of the first and third phases are based on primary sources. The second phase, once Custer and his 210 men rode off down Medicine Tail Coulee, is reconstructed mainly from reasonable supposition and battlefield archeology since the eyewitness testimonies of the victorious Sioux and Cheyenne warriors are "sketchy and often contradictory". That said, the narrative of the clash as a whole flows seamlessly. Indeed, it's riveting.

The volume includes several useful maps, fourteen pages of photographs, and lengthy Notes and Bibliography sections.

A couple of years back, I had the great good fortune to gaze out from the summit of Last Stand Hill over the marker stones of Custer and his troopers set amidst the rippling buffalo grass. Was that a faint echo of "Garryowen", the Seventh Cavalry's official marching air, that I heard on the wind? Well, perhaps not, but only sounds from a radio in a car passing behind me. But, as the author closes his wonderful narrative:

"After the tourists have gone, the ridges and ravines overlooking the river below are still and eerie. Today, if one stands there alone as the wind sighs through the buffalo grass, it is hard not to believe that the spirits of the men who died there ... perform their own ghost dance: clasping hands in a circle, moving ever to the right ..."

After nearly six decades of life, I feel I've finally arrived at a proper understanding of what transpired on those hills in southeast Montana just to the east of Interstate 90 on two hot summer days nearly 133 years ago. A TERRIBLE GLORY is a superb volume worth the attention of any casual or serious student of the Battle of the Little Bighorn wishing to know its place in the context of that period of American history.

A Terrible Glory by James Donovan
I have to commend Mr. Donovan for his first rate telling of what most think of as "known history". In his spendid new book he gives a totaly different view and I think a more honest and balanced view of what may have happened on that fateful day. Not only is it well written and well researched it is packed full of known and little known facts of not only G.A.Custer, but of many of the men and officers who faught and died with him on that day. He has shared with all, (a thought I had many years ago) that the 7th was used as a "scapegoat" to cover up huge blunders in military incompitence and corruption. He hits the nail exactly on the head when he tells of how General Terry reported the fight and how he blamed Custer for the mistake. Custer may well have been brash, but he was not guilty of not considering his men first, and acting on the information he was given, by those he trusted. Well done Mr Donovan and thank you for a wonderful book.

The Ultimate Analysis of Custer & The Indian Wars
What drove Custer ? His relationship with fellow officers. What was life like in the cavalry ? What type of men enlisted in post Civil War army ? How do you fight an enemy who will only engage when terms are in his favour ? The politics of dealing with the "indian problem". A facinating and enthralling historical narrative - a must for anyone interested in this period of American history