Customer Reviews

Chief of Scouts

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Outside of the very slow and boring pace of the book, the characterizations did not hold my attention, but really, the subject matter was most outrageous. General Custer in reality sacrificed his military career to testify on behalf of the Indians (May 1876) when they were being ripped off by the corrupt administration of President Ulysses Grant. Custer's testimony forced the Sec. of War to resign in disgrace and exposed Grant's younger brother Orville in the corrupt Indian ring. As punishment, Grant removed Custer from command of the upcoming Indian Campaign. One of Custer's closest friends was his Indian Scout 'Bloody Knife' who died with Custer at his last battle. Custer is also believed (by the Lakota and the Cheyenne) to have married a Cheyenne woman who bore him a child. Hardly the actions of a man who hated Indians. If one is writing a book on historical fiction, you need to at least have your facts bearing some semblance to the truth. Custer was certainly not a part of the corrupt Indian Ring, nor was he sympathetic to them. On the contrary, he was very sympathetic to the plight of the Native Americans, once saying that if he were an indian, he would be fighting alongside them for their freedom, rather than living meekly on the confines of a reservation existing on handouts from the government.

Christopher Columbus Colt works as the civilian Chief of Scouts for the United States Army and has many adventures. This, his first, introduces him and places him at the command of Custer just before the Battle of the Little Big Horn (a.k.a. Custer's Last Stand). It's is easily read and quickly finished. May be good for summer reading, or for those times you have to read in short spurts. Never really grabbed my full attention, though.