Custer and Company: Walter Camp's Notes on the Custer Fight [Paperback]

Bruce R. Liddic (Editor), Paul Harbaugh (Editor), Jack D. McDermott (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 1998

Walter M. Camp (1867–1925) was an indefatigable collector of Custeriana who set himself the intimidating task of interviewing every living survivor of the battle at the Little Bighorn. Unfortunately, with Camp’s death this information was scattered. This volume gathers his most important material, much of which was not previously available.

Custer and Company presents information on Sergeant John Henley, veteran trooper of the Seventh Cavalry, and a number of other Seventh Cavalrymen and frontiersmen, including interpreter Sam Bruguier; Camp’s research on various unsettled questions of the Little Bighorn fight; interviews with several surviving Indians and famed scout Luther North; and extensive information on the death of Crazy Horse.

Camp’s investigations illuminate several important questions that have dogged Custer research for generations.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Bruce Liddic lives in Syracuse, New York, and lectures on Custer topics. Paul Harbaugh is the author of a German-language study of the Lakotas. Introducing this Bison Books edition is John D. McDermott, a retired historian and administrator for the National Park Service and the Council on Historic Presevation. His latest book is A Guide to the Indian Wars of the West (Nebraska 1998).

Product Details

• Paperback: 182 pages
• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press (November 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0803263937
• ISBN-13: 978-0803263932
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,019,831 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interviews Add New Light on Several Topics, January 8, 2000

By 

Daniel Hurley (Chesapeake, VA.) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Custer and Company: Walter Camp's Notes on the Custer Fight (Paperback)

Reading Camp's intervies makes you wish he had a chance to write the definitive book on Custer and the LBH. The accounts are a little rambling because they are based on Camp's original notes. The interviews highlight conflicts between some of the notable but challengable LBH testimonies. The interviews also reveal information about the retreat from Weir Point, the mystery rider in C Company found miles from the battlefield on the Rosebud, first hand accounts of the death of Crazy Horse, information on "White hat" (Lt. Phillo Clark) and a virtual biography on Luther North who demonstrated great success utilizing Pawnee tribesmen as soildiers and scouts. The footnotes provided by the editors provide a terrific resource of information that more than adds to the Camp's notes, almost like having two books in one.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A superb and accurate account of the Little Big Horn events, March 22, 2000

By 

Ironmike (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Custer and Company: Walter Camp's Notes on the Custer Fight (Paperback)

One of the finest accounts of the Custer fight. I would recommend this book over most of the others. Mr. Camp sought out survivors and interviewed them, he sheds some fresh light on many of the confusing issues. And he details some very interesting items of the actual fight itself. Excellent and has a place of honor on my book shelf. Check it out, you won't be disappointed.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Caution: misleading title!, May 13, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Custer and Company: Walter Camp's Notes on the Custer Fight (Paperback)

This book has a misleading title. This is a small short book, and only a part of it is actually about the Little Bighorn (LBH) fight. Other parts of the book are interviews Camp conducted concerning the Yellowstone expedition, the Little Bighorn aftermath, the death of Crazy Horse, the Powder River expedition, and the Battle of Summit Springs. Do not buy this if you expect Walter Camp's complete notes on the Custer fight. Get Kenneth Hammer's "Custer in 76" if you want a far more complete set of LBH interviews strictly concerned with that subject. This book contains some of Camp's notes not included in Hammer's book.

This book is recommended however for its extensive highly informative footnotes. There are very nearly more footnotes than text, and therein is a wealth of information about the people and events in the 1866-78 era.