Little Big Horn 1876: Custer's Last Stand (Praeger Illustrated Military History)

by Peter Panzieri, Peter Panzeri, Peter Panzeri Jr

Book Overview

Little Big Horn was the greatest, and the last, victory of the Native Americans over the United States military. Disobeying orders, George Armstrong Custer and the 7th Cavalry Regiment followed a trail to a large encampment of Indians. Without determining the numbers he faced, Custer split his command into three groups and attacked. The resulting chaos has passed into legend as the most infamous battle of the Indian Wars as Custer and more than half...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0275984559
• ISBN13: 9780275984557
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: Praeger Pub Text
• Length: 96 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.8" x 0.8" x 7.5"

Customer Reviews

Very Well Done

This is a series book from a collection outlining famous battles through history. Little Big Horn 1876...by Peter Panzeri delivers a thorough, well illustrated and tight description of what was known as Custer's Last Stand (before the PC police got a hold of this piece of the American experience). This book was written after wildfires burned the brush at Little Big Horn National Military Park. This is important to understand because the denudation of the landscape led to the exposure of many battle-era artifacts. The resulting archaeological work led to a better understanding of the battle and troop movements and dispositions. This book takes advantage of the new information. The author lays out very concisely the campaign plan, battle movements and likely (based on evidence) final disposition of Custer's troopers on and in the vicinity of Last Stand Hill. The full battle is portrayed with equal relevance given to the Reno/Benteen fight and defense five miles away from Custer. The splitting of Benteen and Reno's troopers as well as personality conflicts and vignettes on the major players on both the Indian and Cavalry sides are provided. The Indian side is well covered and I learned a lot about how and why the tribes gathered there as well as their war fighting tactics and practices that gave me a much fuller understanding of the battle than I had before. The 3-D maps showing troop movements are very well rendered. Having visited the battlefield, the 3-D presentation is important to understanding the battlefield. It is a very hilly area with major views obscured at many points and battle sounds cordoned off by hills and obstructions. The geography had a major impact on the fighting and outcome of this battle. This is a thin book, but well worth the cost. Its value is in a thorough rendering and illustration of the essentials of the battle. A great start to understanding "Custer's Last Stand."

Excellent review of the Little Big Horn

The maps, narrative and pictures provide a concise outline of the battle. It does not provide much detail, however, as to how the authors reached the conclusions they did regarding the movements of and how the battle unfolded for the regiments that were completely wiped out (ie. it does not address battlefield archeology to any degree). Nonetheless, it is an excellent overview and should be read in conjunction with books that do address the archeology.

Condensed but Accurate History But Maps Are Killer: 3-D

I spotted Panzieri's book while on a tour of the Little Big Horn in the hands of a tour attendee and I had to have a copy. The best and most unique thing about this book are the maps. Large color overall campaign maps in several stages but the ultimate are the 3 dimensional maps of different phases of the Little Big Horn battle. These color topographical maps not only give you positions of the combatants with time interval notations but the terrain features are excellent. If you have never been there, you will now appreciate the difficulty of the terrian, the high bluffs, the coulees (large drainages) Weir Point etc. which contributed to the difficulty in communications, the effects it had on visualizing the village and the advantages it gave the Native Americans. You can hold the several 2 page maps in your hands at the battlefield and have one of the best guides literally in hand. Also, the condensed history is excellent with a wealth of pictures and it pretty much follows Fox's theory as well as heavy contribution apparently by Gray's time sequence estimates. Fox's theory that Custer was still in the offensive mode which was why his battalion was split with one wing waiting for Benteen when all hell breaks loose does make sense. This is the best condensed version of the campaign but it's all about the maps, they are the best, particularly the 3-D battle maps. The maps alone are worth the purchase.

The Best on Custers Last Stand

This Book Gives all readers on Custer a good insight on the battle. Has very good maps to show the battle