The Battle of the Washita: The Sheridan-Custer Indian Campaign of 1867-69 by Stan Hoig (1976-05-03)

Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer was victorious in only one engagement against the American Indians€”the Battle of the Washita. Eight years before the Little Bighorn, Custer marched his men through heavy snows to attack a village of Cheyenne Indians under Chief Black Kettle, the most peaceful of the Cheyenne leaders. The Indians did not consider themselves to be at war and were taken by surprise by the dawn attack. Over one hundred men, women, and children were killed and eight hundred horses shot. Was the massacre justified? History has tended to take Custer's word for it, but the facts behind the event may speak differently. It must be left to the conscience of the reader to decide which is commemorated by the marker erected on the site of the battle: a great victory for Custer or a tragedy for the Cheyennes.€œWith much evidence of exhaustive research, this volume is an unusually well-written and engrossing account. It makes every effort to mainta