Crossing the Plains with Custer
by Paul Horsted with Ernest Grafe and Jon Nelson
Custer, SD: Golden Valley Press, 2009, 330 pages
Hardcover, $75.00; Softcover $45.00
In 2002 Paul Horsted authored with Ernest Grafe a remarkable volume (Exploring with Custer) that offered a new and colorful perspective on the 1874 Black Hills Expedition. This most significant event in the military career of George Armstrong Custer and the Indian Wars on the northern plains would be a catalyst for the Battle of the Little Big Horn.
Of particular importance were the photographs by William Illingworth that showed in detail the places and people explored by the 7th Cavalry in the mysterious Black Hills. Horsted and Grafe not only reproduced these photos but they also showed the same spots as they are today. Regardless of previous attempts, their excellent photographs and detailed text offered the ultimate guide to scholar and student of the expedition.
Now Crossing the Plains with Custer constitutes a companion volume. This time Horsted details the expedition’s route from Fort Abraham Lincoln, Dakota Territory to the Black Hills and its return to that post.
The text is basically a day-to-day journal of the expedition utilizing the accounts and diaries of participants such as Lieut. James Calhoun, Pvt. Theodore Ewert and other commentators ranging from Elizabeth Custer to the newspaper reporters who accompanied the column. Of special interest are portions of the previously unpublished journal of William A. Petran, who served as a teamster.
The striking photography detailing each aspect of the march makes the journey come alive and demonstrates how little the area has changed since 1874. Coupled with the original photographs by Illingworth the book is a visual delight.
One of the most desired and rarest first-edition books in a Custer library is the Report of a Reconnaissance of the Black Hills of Dakota made in the summer of 1874, the official report of Capt. William Ludlow, the chief engineer of the expedition. The author reproduces both the Ludlow maps and contemporary road maps that make it easy to follow Custer’s trail to and from the Black Hills. He also pauses throughout the text to provide explanatory sidebars on topics ranging from Boots and Saddles to “How prairie fires start?”
The book also includes an excellent overview of the Black Hills Expedition by Jon Nelson and a summary of the column’s July 20-August 15 march in the Hills by Ernest Grafe. A section details artifacts from the expedition and describes how the column was outfitted.
Finally there is a helpful roster of the expedition’s officers and men, noting those who also served and died at Little Bighorn. The book publishes for the first time the official roster of all the Indian scouts located in the National Archives.
This is one of the beautiful books on the Custer story produced in recent years. It can be both a valuable resource for the student and an enjoyable experience for the casual reader who likes striking photography and historic travel journals.
As with Exploring with Custer this volume will serve the test of time as a definitive study of the Black Hills Expedition and the ultimate road to Little Bighorn and destiny.
Rev. Vincent A. Heier