Boots and Saddles: Or Life in Dakota With General Custer [Paperback]

Elizabeth B. Custer (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0879280069 | ISBN-13: 978-0879280062 | Publication Date: June 1969

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. This text refers to the Bibliobazaar edition.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“This is a warmly human, first-hand account of the hardships, disappointments, fun and flattery, joys, and heartaches of women who accompanied their military husbands across the sage, up turbulent rivers, over the badlands of Dakota into the far reaches of the Western frontier, during the Indian troubles of the mid-1870s.”—Montana: The Magazine of Western History

(Montana: The Magazine of Western History ) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Louise Barnett is a professor of American studies at Rutgers University and the author of numerous books, including Touched by Fire: The Life, Death, and Mythic Afterlife of George Armstrong Custer, available in a Bison Books edition, and Atrocity and American Military Justice in Southeast Asia.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 307 pages
• Publisher: Corner House Pub (June 1969)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0879280069
• ISBN-13: 978-0879280062
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,635,010 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Rose Colored Glasses' AND "Little Life on the Priairie", June 27, 2001

By 

CriminalJusticeteacherdotcom "CJTeacher" (TN) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: "Boots and Saddles" Or, Life in Dakota With General Custer (Paperback)

Althought the opinions of Custer and life with the calvary are viewed through (very) rosy glasses, Mrs. G.A. Custer is a witty and prolific writer. She also gives little-known insight into everyday happenings in life on the prairie and how women survived the journey. Particularly interesting are the dynamics of relationships between women when living literally in the middle of nowhere, surviving the harshest of climates, with few friends, the same friends, for extended times. Also interesting is the relationship between people of color and the white soldiers. Custer is an enigma, and readers should read this book but also others ("Son of the Morning Star" is the best thus far) to get a glimpse at the man. Libby Custer falls into poetic verse at times, but this can be refreshing - there are not many writings of women in these times available.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Following the Guidon!, January 16, 2006

By 

Rory Coker (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: "Boots and Saddles" Or, Life in Dakota With General Custer (Paperback)

This is the first of three books George Armstrong Custer's widow Elizabeth Bacon Custer (EBC hereafter) wrote about her life with the General. It begins with Custer and the 7th being assigned to North Dakota, and ends with the expedition which led to the Battle of the Little Bighorn. EBC is a good writer within the limitations of the "style" of 1880s-1890s nonfiction. One has to allow for the fact that for her, G. A. Custer was the tallest, strongest, smartest, wittiest, bravest and most omnicompetent man alive. [It's worth pointing out that she often also describes all the troopers riding with Custer as "physically perfect, absolutely splendid specimens of manhood in its prime."] Also following the style of the period, EBC almost entirely omits the names of those she writes about. But otherwise her word-portrait of the life of an officer's wife in the utter desolation of the frontier forts during the Plains Indian Wars is effective, vivid and often moving.

There are so many good stories here I don't want to spoil any by hinting at them. The most famous is EBC's account of "Old Nash," a Mexican laundress who earned several small fortunes with her expert sewing and tailoring, was much sought-after as a marriage partner despite her dark complexion and broad shoulders, and who turned out to be the best midwife around... despite....

A few of the many things that impressed me with EBC's powers of observations--- When the great chiefs and warriors of the plains came to visit Custer, she noted that they (contrary to modern stereotype) were physically almost completely undeveloped, with geek-like pipestem arms... and she understood the reason: that males among the Plains indians did essentially no physical labor whatsoever. Another fine passage involves the relationship between Custer and his favorite indian scout, the famous Bloody Knife. According to EBC Bloody Knife was relentlessly sarcastic concerning the skills and abilities of white men, and Custer in particular. When on a hunting expedition with Custer, Bloody Knife would keep up a running narrative of belitting remarks concerning Custer's unfamiliarity with and incompetence with firearms. As soon as Custer got off a good shot, Bloody Knife would fall silent and express his admiration with a brief smile, which Custer obviously treasured far more than many sentences of insincere and overdone flattery. It reminds me a bit of a comment supposedly made by Wyatt Earp about his great friend Doc Holliday: "He can always make me laugh!"

There is no gossip about Custer's notoriously poor relations with many of the other officers and men of the 7th Cavalry. EBC defends this by saying that Custer deliberately did not tell her of feuds and enemies, because he wanted her as hostess to treat all members of the 7th with equal courtesy. However, this excuse is contradicted within the book by extracts from letters written to her by Custer, which refer to feuds and enemies in ways that would have made no sense if EBC were not fully informed,

Recommended for anyone curious about the life of Cavalry officers, troopers and their families on the "rim of empire" in the 1870s.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautifully written book, March 29, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: "Boots and Saddles" Or, Life in Dakota With General Custer (Paperback)

There are so few well written and personally lived books about the people of the northern great plains, but this is one of them. Mrs. Custer gives intimate details of life in the cavalry and the Dakotas of a time now gone.
She tells of blizzards, heat, insects, dangers and people in a most readable way that draws the reader in. This is a special book that speaks to the plainsman's heart.