Customer Reviews

Bugles in the Afternoon

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I bought and read this book when it first came out. I was 13 and never bought a book before. It was so good I have read thousands since and have a collection of about 400. I am now 77 years old and read about 2 to 3 a week. The book covers a Civil war officer who was discharged for assaulting a superior officer and fought the rest of the war under another name. Ten Years later he re-inlists in the 7th cavalry at Bismark North Dakota. As all Ernest Haycocks stories there is a love interest and a couple of subplots. The regiment is ordered to help in the extermination of the indians around the Little bighorn River. The events leading up and the battle are so well researched and written that this book was used later by non-fiction writers when writing of General George Armstrong Custer and the Battle Of The Little Big Horn. It has a great cast of hero's, villians and just plain old soldiers doing their duty. It might not be politicaly correct nowdays but it still is one hell of a great book. I have a old copy in my collection and will have to the day I die. I take it out and read it when I get tired of most of the trash that comes out now. Buy it used on Amazon, You will not be sorry

I really enjoyed this book. I try and read as much as I can about Custer's battle at the Little Big Horn, historic and fiction. I liked how this book told the story of this historic, tragic event from the view of the different people involved. I especially like the side told from the trooper's point of view. Most of course who had no idea what fate had in store for them!
I would recommend this book.

This may be an example of the Western novels popular over fifty years ago; it was first serialized in the weekly 'Saturday Evening Post'. It begins with the travels of Kern Shafter, a loner, to the Dakota Territory of 1875. He joins the U.S. Cavalry as a private, and is quickly promoted to sergeant. (He has a past that is slowly revealed.) Various historical facts are used for background. This story is about a search for happiness, and the obstacles that are overcome.

The author describes life in Fort Lincoln during the Indian wars on the Northern Plains. Chapter XIII describes what a journey during a blizzard would be like; Kern survives and meets unexpected visitors. The high point of this novel is Chapters XV through XXI: the ill-fated campaign against the Sioux and Cheyenne at the Little Big Horn river. Kern is wounded, but survives, as a member of Major Reno's command. The book ends with a promise of happiness for Kern. [Relevant to 1943 America?]

The reader can learn some facts about this military disaster. General Crook's forces suffered a defeat earlier, and could not continue to advance as part of the plan. Crook telegraphed Sheridan, but no warning was sent to Terry or Custer about the unexpected large force of Sioux and Cheyenne. A carefully planned campaign turned to disaster because of unforseen changes. Later, another campaign using converging columns worked against the Native Americans when there was no overwhelming concentration of these warriors fighting for their homeland.

Ernest Haycox was a prolific writer of Westerns, some of these were made into films. This novel concentrates on the common people, which may explain the popularity of Westerns then, and why they were forsaken since the 1950s.