The Reno Court of Inquiry; The Chicago Times Account Vol. I. and Men With Custer; Biographies of the 7th Calvary, 25 June, 187

Fort Collins, CO: The Old Army Press, 1972. Two volumes. Limited edition, #135 of 250 copies, both volumes numbered #135. Large quartos in a slipcase. Frontispiece, [v]. iii. 476pp; frontispiece, xxxviii, 262pp, illus. Slipcase rubbed, cloth covered boards lightly soiled, spines faded, the receipt from the original purchase tipped onto the back pastedown of the first volume. One name underlined in Men With Custer, else internally clean and very good. Following the Custer massacre Major Marcus A. Reno was attacked by some for his failure to ride through thousands of armed and angry Indians and rejoin his commander. A court of inquiry was convened that determined that no judicial action was warranted. It was hardly a ringing endorsement of Reno's actions, and didn't answer the questions probed by the court, but the four weeks of testimony did bless posterity with a mountain of source material to illuminate and/or obfuscate the events that took place on the Little Bighorn. While the Army did not release the official record of the hearings, the Chicago Times presented its readers with an unofficial transcript that was fully as accurate as the one prepared by the court reporter. It is published here for the first time in book form in the first volume of this set. The second volume is a reference concerning the civilians, enlisted men, officers, Indian scouts and quartermaster employees who were in the Sioux campaign, or were members of the 7th Calvary in June, 1876, or were in the Little Bighorn fight,. It is a rather remarkable gathering of almost 800 biographies ranging in length from a few lines to a full page. Tal Luther has declared this a Custer High Spot (number 195) saying that it is, "...one of the most valuable books yet to appear," and that it "...shall probably remain the definitive work on this topic in years to come." Item #19420

Price: $800.00

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