Libby Custer takes us back to the late 1860’s as we follow her husband, General George Armstrong Custer, and the Seventh Cavalry to Kansas and the Battle of the Washita River. In telling the story there is often reference to both the trumpet and the bugle. Their calls began each day with ‘Reveille’ and ended each day with ‘Taps’. They called the solders to mess, to the stables, to ‘Boots and Saddles’ or to mount, to march, to retreat. The ‘Guidon’, or the flags that told the soldiers with cloth, color and shape what the bugle and trumpet told them with sound, preceded the regiment during a march to battle or guided the company to the night’s camp. The Guidon was the first color flag that any mounted commander let fly in the field.
General Custer and his troopers marched for days on end through snow, mud and rain to wage war on Apache, Kiowa, Cheyenne, Comanche and Arapahoe Indian tribes. Mrs. Custer vividly describes camp life and introduces the reader to the brutal reality of fighting between the Indians and the ‘White Men’.
Digitally recreated from the original 1890 volume, complete with sixteen illustrations and musical scores that Custer’s troopers used to sing to the various trumpet and bugle calls.
