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82CIVIL WAR HISTORY graph is refreshing: "The United States was not indispensable to the formulation of French political demands. But the chance parallel between the test of democracy in the United States, and the rise of the French liberals to a position presaging greater activity in the government, meant that, given the concept that the United States represented, it was by far the easiest and the most useful example to utilize in a campaign aimed at concentrating the critical opinions of the opposition against the government of Napoleon III." One wonders whether such slim pickings warranted so much devoted labor. The inclusion of the copious footnotes at the end of each chapter is a nuisance. The biographical sketches at the end of the book are a most useful feature. Samuel Osgood Kent State University Favor the Bold—Custer: The Indian Fighter. By D. A. Kinsley. (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1968. Pp. xi, 241. $6.95.) "Boy General" George Armstrong Custer won a major generalcy by brevet in October , 1864, but on January 1, 1866, despite the recommendation of General Phil Sheridan that he be commissioned a full major general in the regular army, Custer was mustered out of the volunteer army and returned to his regular army rank of captain, 5th U.S. Cavalry. A post-war tour of duty in Texas thus ended, he went back east to cool his heels on military leave while looking and hoping for something better. It came on July 28, 1866, in the form of a commission as lieutenant colonel of the newly raised 7th U.S. Cavalry and assignment to Fort Riley in Kansas. Until his death at the Little Big Horn on June 25, 1876, the exciting and controversial life of "Autie" Custer is entwined with the Indian flighting adventures of the 7th Cavalry. Custer's political involvement made enemies. This was true of his membership in the National Union Party and his accompanying President Andrew Johnson on the "Swing Around the Circle" in 1866. His testimony before a Congressional committee helped expose the Belknap frauds in the War Department, but it cost him the command of the 7th Cavalry and his smarting from this treatment contributed to the rashness that led to the disaster of the Little Big Horn. But Custer also had partisans in high places. A year after he went to his post in Kansas he was court-martialed, found guilty of being absent without leave from his command, and suspended from rank and command for one year. Yet Phil Sheridan had him restored to rank and command before the year passed when he needed Custer for his famed winter campaign of 1868-69 in which Custer led the troops that massacred Black Kettle's followers at the "Battle" of the Washita. Later Custer was on Stanley's Yellowstone expedition, and he commanded the expedition that investigated rumors of gold in the Black Hills. Custer's beloved Elizabeth, or Libbie, usually was with her Autie at the military posts and when they were apart they wrote devotedly to each other. He recorded his version of military life on the plains in articles for Galaxie magazine, and Libbie published her memories of these experiences after Autie's death. Custer: The Indian Fighter is the second and concluding volume of D. A. Kinsley 's biography of Custer which began with Custer: The Civil War Years. Lacking reference notes and containing only a skimpy bibliography, the work obviously is intended for the general reader instead of the student of the Custer legend. Although the story leans heavily upon and is often told in long quotations from the writings of Autie and Libbie, it does excite interest. Whether Kinsley knows the vast Custer materials extant is not evident. Kinsley is extremely sympathetic to Custer, but he does not undo a veteran's characterization of his command: "He was a dare-devil, but most of the men didn't like him. He was too hard on the men & horses. He changed his mind too often. He was BOOK REVIEWS83 always right. He never conferred enough with his officers. When he got a notion, we had to go. . . ." Kinsley argues that in...

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