With Custer on the Little Bighorn
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With Custer on the Little Bighorn is a recently discovered memoir by William O. Taylor (1855-1923), a trooper who served in the Seventh Cavalry in the campaign against the Sioux and the Northern Cheyenne in the Dakota Territory in 1876. He participated in the general Battle of the Little Bighorn and his is one of the very few accounts by survivors of any part of that event. Although Taylor was not, of course, a survivor of Custer's fight, in which all the troopers were killed, he participated in a nearby, simultaneous fight in which his group was in as much danger but was reinforced at the last minute and was able to keep its attackers at bay until relief arrived. Aside from its interest as an account of a battle so similar to Custer's, Taylor's text offers a fascinating glimpse of an ordinary soldier's experience in the Seventh Cavalry and the reflections of one whose interest in Custer's last stand remained vital throughout his life. Taylor was born in Canandaigua, New York in 1855 and enlisted in the army at the age of seventeen at Fort Troy in New York. After a short course of training he was assigned to Lieutenant Colonel (formerly General) George A. Custer's command in the Seventh Cavalry and participated in all of Custer's expeditions in Yellowstone (1873) and the Black Hills (1874). The entire Seventh Cavalry took part in the expedition against the Indians that began from Fort Abraham Lincoln on June 22, 1876. On June 25, the day the Battle of the Little Big
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d, inevitably in a man of Custer's character, to his desire "to take the greatest of risks to redeem himself" (11).
While Taylor's observations regarding the distribution of blame are very even-handed his contributions are still the opinion of an observer. His firsthand account of the battle in which he took part has far greater value for those who wish to understand the experience of Custer and his men because, as Taylor himself notes, the truly terrible aspect of the annihilation of Custer's force is the realization by the soldiers that any hope of victory or rescue had run out. At a certain point each man had to be more or less sure that he was about to die. Taylor's own account of his share in the Battle of the Little Bighorn gives some of the flavor of that situation.
Taylor's account of the approach to the battle and the course of the long stand against the Indians is detailed and exact. As he proceeds he carefully compares his memory with other accounts that varied in some details. He notes, for example, that according to other versions a small number of Indians were seen by Reno's approaching group but adds, "as to that I can not say, personally I did not see any of them" (35). He is skillful at describing the mo
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Approximate Word count = 1886
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)
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