1876 1st Ed. A Complete Life Of General George A Custer by Frederick Whittaker

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May 22, 2021

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• Lot Description
  Post Civil War
  Nice First Edition 1876-Dated Biography "A Complete Life Of General George A Custer" by Frederick Whittaker
  1876 First Edition Book, "A Complete Life Of General George A Custer" by Frederick Whittaker, published by Sheldon & Company, New York, Choice Very Fine.
  This historic Book was first published in 1876 by Sheldon & Company of New York being remarkably close in time to the June 1876 date of the Battle of the Little Bighorn (or Custer's Last Stand) where George Armstrong Custer and his men lost their lives. This is a substantial book that measures 9.25" x 6" and weighs over 3 pounds. It is bound in the original green cloth hardcovers with decorative horizontal borders in green cloth and highlighted with a vignette in gold gilt. The pages have pink speckled edges. This 687 page book has a Portrait of Gen. Custer as the frontispiece (with tissue guard), which is one of the first of 20 illustrations and maps. Occasionally illustrated with black & white reproductions of drawings and a frontispiece engraving by J.C. Buttre. The overall interior condition is excellent. Some trivial light wear and spotting on the front cover with some scrapes on the lower spine. The frontispiece has slight tone and occasional trivial faint spots appear on other illustrations with a few scattered fingerprints on what are otherwise crisp clean pages. Overall, the interior pages are clean and vivid.
  The author, Frederick Whittaker, was a Brevet Captain in the Sixth New York Veteran Cavalry. He clearly had much love for Custer and assigned the blame for his hero's demise on his officers. Marcus Reno (cowardice) and Frederick William Benteen (disobedience), and even President Grant (who hated Custer). Whittaker completed his book in advance of any military court of inquiry, instead relying on information gleaned from contemporary, but sometimes anonymous, sources. This biography did much to help create the mythology of Custer and the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Writing in the wake of Custer's Last Battle, Whittaker portrays Custer and his lieutenants as flawless and heroic. Libbie Custer then picked up the ball and ran with it in her adoring reminiscences. A scarce First Edition in choice quality.
  George Armstrong Custer (December 5, 1839 - June 25, 1876) was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the American Indian Wars.
  Custer graduated from West Point in 1861 at the bottom of his class, but as the Civil War was just starting, trained officers were in immediate demand. He worked closely with General George B. McClellan and the future General Alfred Pleasonton, both of whom recognized his qualities as a cavalry leader, and he was brevetted brigadier general of volunteers at age 23. Only a few days after his promotion, he fought at the Battle of Gettysburg, where he commanded the Michigan Cavalry Brigade and despite being outnumbered, defeated J. E. B. Stuart's attack at what is now known as the East Cavalry Field. In 1864, Custer served in the Overland Campaign and in Sheridan's army in the Shenandoah Valley, defeating Jubal Early at Cedar Creek. His division blocked the Army of Northern Virginia's final retreat and received the first flag of truce from the Confederates, and Custer was present at Robert E. Lee's surrender to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox.
  After the war, Custer was appointed a lieutenant colonel in the Regular Army and was sent west to fight in the Indian Wars. On June 25, 1876, while leading the 7th Cavalry Regiment at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in Montana Territory against a coalition of Native American tribes, he was killed along with all of the five companies he led after splitting the regiment into three battalions. This action became romanticized as "Custer's Last Stand".
  His dramatic end was as controversial as the rest of his career, and reaction to his life and career remains deeply divided. Custer's legend was partly of his own fabrication through his extensive journalism, and perhaps more through the energetic lobbying of his wife Elizabeth Bacon "Libbie" Custer throughout her long widowhood.
  Marcus Albert Reno (November 15, 1834 - March 30, 1889) was a United States career military officer who served in the American Civil War where he was a combatant in a number of major battles, and later under George Armstrong Custer in the Great Sioux War against the Lakota (Sioux) and Northern Cheyenne. Reno is most noted for his prominent role in the Battle of the Little Bighorn, where he failed to support Custer's position on the battlefield, remaining instead in a defensive formation with his troops about four miles away. This event has since been a long-standing subject of controversy regarding his command decisions in the course of one of the most infamous defeats in the history of the United States military.
  Frederick William Benteen (August 24, 1834 - June 22, 1898) was a military officer who first fought during the American Civil War. He was appointed to commanding ranks during the Indian Campaigns and Great Sioux War against the Lakota and Northern Cheyenne. Benteen is best known for being in command of a battalion (Companies D, H,& K) of the 7th U. S. Cavalry at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in late June, 1876.
  After scouting the area of the left flank as ordered, Captain Benteen received a note from his superior officer George Armstrong Custer ordering him to quickly bring up the ammunition packs and join him in Custer's surprise attack on a large Native American encampment. Benteen's failure to promptly comply with Custer's orders is one of the most controversial aspects of the famed battle. The fight resulted in the death of Custer and the complete annihilation of the five companies of cavalrymen which comprised Custer's detachment, but Benteen's relief of Major Marcus Reno's battalion may have saved them from annihilation.
  Benteen subsequently served in the U.S. Cavalry another 12 years, being both honored by promotion and disgraced with a conviction for drunkenness by a military tribunal. He retired for health reasons in 1888, and lived a further decade until his death by natural causes at age 63.
  
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