Terrible Glory

A Terrible Glory is a comprehensive account of events leading up to General George Armstrong Custer's unfortunate encounter with too many Indians in the Dakota territory on June 25, 1876 along a meandering stream called the Little Bighorn. Custer had been ordered to march his Seventh Cavalry down the Rosebud Creek and to join forces with another column that had been proceeding from the Montana territory. He had not been expressly forbidden (nor encouraged) to engage in combat with any non-treaty Indians. Badly underestimating the size of the band that his army eventually encountered, Custer advanced upon the hostiles. The furious battle lasted into the next day. The Seventh was decimated, the bodies of the fallen soldiers stripped and mutilated while their comrades watched in horror. Donovan's book also details the aftermath of the Little Bighorn debacle, the army's desperate attempts to make a scapegoat of Custer, and the trial of Major Marcus Reno, one of the commanders of the three units of the Seventh, who was drinking heavily and did nothing while Custer and his men were slaughtered (Reno later denied that he even heard any gunfire). A successful attempt to humanize a figure who has always been larger than life and a meticulous recreation of a particularly dark episode in the blood-soaked history of the West.

In June of 1876, on a hill above a winding river called "the Little Bighorn," George Armstrong Custer and all 210 men under his direct command were annihilated by nearly 2,000 Sioux and Cheyenne. This devastating loss caused an uproar, and public figures pointed 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 relate the entire story of this endlessly fascinating battle, and the first to call upon all the vital new forensic research of the past quarter century. It is also the first book to bring to light the details of the army cover-up--and unravel one of the greatest mysteries in US military history.

James Donovan is the author of the classic illustrated account of Custer's Last Stand, Custer and the Little Bighorn. He lives in Dallas.

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Distributor: Hachette Book Group USA
Publication Date: 05-14-2009
Pages: 560
Measurements: 8.25in X 5.5in X 1.75in X 1.21lb