TENTING ON THE PLAINS OR General Custer in Kansas and Texas [ABRIDGED] (Paperback)

by Elizabeth, Bacon Custer (Author), Jane, R. Stewart (Introduction), Shirley, A. Leckie (Foreword) "GENERAL CUSTER was given scant time, after the last gun of the war was fired, to realize the blessings of peace..." (more)
Key Phrases: General Custer, Miss Libbie, Fort Riley (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
From the time of her husband's death at the Battle of the Little Big Horn until her own death fifty-seven years later, at the age of ninety, Mrs. George Armstrong Custer devoted herself to defending or embellishing her husband's reputation. This account, the second in Elizabeth's trilogy of her life with the General, focuses on the period immediately following the Civil War, when the Custers were stationed in Louisiana, Texas, and Kansas. She portrays the aftermath of the Civil War in Texas and life in Kansas while her husband took part in General Winfield Hancock's 1867 expedition against the Indians between the Arkansas and Platte rivers. Throughout, she provides detailed descriptions of an army officer's home life on the frontier during this major period of Indian unrest. This edition, an abridgment of the original 1887 edition, with an Introduction by Jane R. Stewart and a Foreword by Shirley A. Leckie, brings together in a single volume one of the most significant documents of the Old West, here made accessible to a new generation of readers.

From the Publisher
Digitally recreated from the first edition volume originally published in 1889. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 424 pages
• Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press; Abridged edition (July 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080612668X
• ISBN-13: 978-0806126685
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #412,913 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Can not say enough GOOD about this book!, June 20, 2005

By	starflakes "starflakes" (Drinkwater) - See all my reviews

I can not say enough good about this book.....for think of it more as what Little House on the Prairie should have been if it was interesting....and what Tom Sawyer and Hunk Finn would have been if Mark Twain was a good writer.

I consider this a fabulous work, because it is first hand history of the wife of General Custer in the year after the Civil War. It is the excitement of times on a broad scale and the narrow joy of a married couple coping with life.
It honestly is a conversation between Libby, the reader with literal colorful commentary by her black maid, Eliza.
You will read how black history really was and not what is written now.

You get to see women in all their supposed helplessness at times, but when a tragedy strikes time and again their real courage and strength comes out.

I have yet to read anything from Libby whether it is her personal letters...to the absolutely heart wrenching account of the day she found out her family was slaughtered at the Little Big Horn which did not show one of the most charming and delightful personas ever to imprint upon the written word.
So as Mrs. Dockter, my 5th grade teacher always read to us after noon recess....if you have children or grandchildren....read to them...and if you have grown children get them this book as it impressed me enough to recommend it.

This book should be required in every school as a reading assignment along with Dickens and Irving.