With Custer on the Little Bighorn: The First-and Only- Eyewitness Account Ever Written

By William O. Taylor

Book Overview

William O. Taylor (1851-1923), the only soldier to survive Custer's Last Stand, spent 30 years haunted by his experiences and writing this astonishing memoir. Fully annotated for the modern reader,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140255761
• ISBN13: 9780140255768
• Release Date: August 1997
• Publisher: Penguin Group
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.89 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 7.5" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Custer's Handicap

This book has many details never before revealed about the life of a cavalryman of the 19th century including their diet, clothing, equipment,tack, routines and personal observations at the time. Custer's group was a rag-tag bunch, worn out uniforms, green riders, out of shape horses, poor shots and several were intoxicated in order to calm their nerves. The first time Pvt. Taylor fired a pistol while mounted on a horse was during Reno's retreat.

An excellent first-person account

This is an excellent first-person account of events leading up to the Battle of the Little Bighorn thru to the burials afterward. The author served under Major Reno and his story added a lot to my understanding of what the soldiers experienced. I have visited the site of the Reno-Benteen Entrenchment and this book added a lot to my appreciation of what it was like to be surrounded by the Indians, awaiting one's own demise.