Custer's Luck (review)

104CIVIL WAR HISTORY A later chapter, "The New Vindication of the South," deals with the works of U. B. Phillips, Charles W. Ramsdell, and Frank L. Owsley. In his preface (p. xii) the author states that "wherever possible, I have tried to indicate what seems to me pertinent information about the backgrounds of the individuals discussed in this book," with the further implication that such information need not be considered as evidence of a biased interpretation. On p. 240, however, the author is deeply concerned over the possibility that "Southern-born historians, trained in the South, writing the history of the South at Southern universities, and using predominantly Southern sources, might become as "biased' in their own way as were the Outsiders' of whom they complained." There follows an examination of the "revisionist" view of a "repressible" conflict, centered around James G. Randall and Avery Craven, as opposed to such historians as D. L. Dumond and Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., who disagree with the "revisionists" with emphasis on the moral issue. The final summary is of what the author calls "the new nationalist tradition" developed by Allan Nevins, Bernard DeVoto, and others — an interpretation with which the author agrees. Competent historians are fully aware of subjective factors that influence interpretations of our history, and the author acquaints the reader with them. For those unfamiliar with the various explanations of the Civil War this book will be most useful. Specialists who have worked with primary and secondary sources for this period may not be fully satisfied with the work. The title certainly implies that it is a summary of the many interpretations of the Civil War and nothing more, but the criticism of certain historians entails the obligation to weigh carefully the historical evidence these historians have used and the validity of the questions they have asked and sought to answer. Randall and Craven, for example, are brushed aside with no effort made to explain what to them were important issues leading to controversy and war. There are. also, too many implications that Southern historians are more likely to be biased than those elsewhere, although this reviewer does not believe that such an effect was intended. All in all, however, this book brings a part of the controversy up to date, and the end of it is not in sight. Ralph B. Flanders New York, New York Custer's Luck. By Edgar I. Stewart. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. 1955. Pp. xvi, 522. $5.95.) custer had remarkable luck most of his life. This book is about his bad luck, the kind he was not used to. It is not — as the title might seem to indicate —a biography of the dashing Boy General. The work opens with a review of the vacillating, inept, and often dishonest policy of the United States government toward the Great Plains tribes, covering a period from about 1840 to 1876 in some detail. The rest of the book, and by far the larger part of it, is an account — in great detail and with extensive background information — of Book Reviews105 what happened in the Northwest from the beginning of 1876 to the middle of that year. The objective of United States policy toward the Indians during the 18401876 period was, of course, to strip the tribes of their rights and to free the white man from any fear of attack. To do this, it was apparently necessary to herd the Indians onto government agencies and then to defraud them. The Indians , quite naturally, resented this treatment and offered sporadic resistance. In 1876 the government decided to force a showdown with the bands of hostiles living away from the agencies by sending against them three columns of the army. It was agreed that the major problem of the campaign would be to prevent the Indians from running away and thus avoiding battle. On the morning of May 17th, to the strains of "The Girl I Left Behind," the last of the three army columns to take the field, the Dakota column, left Fort Abraham Lincoln and marched west to catch and chastise the Sioux. Originally, Custer was to have commanded this column. A month before, however , his...