Son of the Morning Star: Custer and the Little Bighorn - Softcover

"Impressive in its massive presentation of information . . . Son of the Morning Star makes good reading--its prose is elegant, its tone the voice of dry wit, its meandering narrative skillfully crafted. Mr. Connell is above all a storyteller, and the story he tells is vastly more complicated than who did what to whom on June 25, 1876." --Page Stenger, The New York Times Book Review "Son of the Morning Star leaves the reader astonished." --The Washington Post "A scintillating book, thoroughly researched and brilliantly constructed." --The Wall Street Journal

In "Son of the Morning Star," Mr. Connell explores deeply the personalities of Custer and the other federal and Indian leaders. Custer, seen by some as a hero, by others as the cause of the defeat, was an enigmatic and extravagant figure, fearless in battle and sentimental in repose. It is said that on first seeing through field glasses the more than four miles of Allied Indian camps, he exclaimed, "hurrah, boys, we've got them!" Disregarding a Cheyenne warning, Custer rode to his death--and led to death every man of the Seventh Cavalry who followed him. A foolish miscalculation ended the life of the man the Indians called "Son of the Morning Star." The story is told that after the battle a squaw drove a sewing awl through his ear and into his skull so that he might hear better in the next world.