Custer in ’76: Walter Camp’s Notes on the Custer Fight ed. by Kenneth Hammer

Abstract

Japanese woman) as protagonist, goes on too long, repeating the same sexual imagery. Still — it is a charming book. L. L. LEE, Western Washington State College 266 Western American Literature Custer in ’76: Walter Camp’s Notes on the Custer Fight. Edited by Kenneth Hammer. (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 1976. xiii -f303 pages, $10.95.) Americans continue to be fascinated with books about Custer and the saga of the western Indians, if the volume of such publications is a reliable indicator. Custer in ’76 is different from most in that it is a primary source book filled with interviews of many of the participants in the Battle of the Little Bighorn. It is a work of beauty with its fine photographs and clearly illustrated maps. Walter Camp, a civil engineer and railroad magazine editor, had hoped to write a history of Custer’s battle with the Sioux but, unfortunately, he died in 1925 before he could fulfill his dream. Prior to his death, Camp interviewed over two hundred survivors of the battle and scribbled their responses on cards and on backs of envelopes. He left this large collec­ tion of materials to his widow and in 1972 Brigham Young University officials obtained them for their library. The editor of Camp’s notes, Kenneth Hammer, has included material on various aspects of the Sioux battle of 1876. There are lists of Medal of Honor winners from the Little Bighorn battle, muster rolls of the 7th Cav­ alry, and names of Indian scouts and Indians who lost their lives in the battle. Hammer also included biographical material on Walter Camp and a speech he gave for the members of the Order of Indian Wars of the United States. The heart of the book concerns the interviews with 7th Cavalry officers and men, Indian scouts who served the army, Indians who fought against Custer, and miscellaneous people who were involved in some other capacity. These interviews, taken by this early practitioner of oral history, make a fine source collection for research scholars. It relates where people were during the battle and actions they took. Some interviewees expressed their feelings about key people in the battle or suggested how one officer felt about another officer. In general one receives a rather positive view of Custer. At the close of the book Camp gave a lengthy discussion concerning the orders that General Alfred Terry, Custer’s superior, gave to the Colonel before they split forces and Custer rode to his death. The author feels that Terry gave Custer the necessary flexibility he needed in his orders and that Reviews 267 Custer conducted himself properly in pushing the attack against the Indians. It would appear that Camp was rather one-sided in this evaluation and generally indicates his bias in favor of Custer. For researchers this book is a welcome addition to the several other source books on the battle now available (Graham — The Custer Myth and Overfield — Official Documents of the Little Bighorn). Although it is a book that will have limited appeal to a general audience, it will be greatly appre­ ciated by western buffs and Custer scholars. JOHN W. BAILEY, Carthage College Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. By Tom Robbins. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1976. 365 pages, $10.95 cloth; $4.95 paper.) Imagine Ken Kesey writing a novel to proclaim he is not a sexist; add the playfulness, the literary self-consciousness, and the philosophizing of John Barth; reduce cynicism and difficulty to the level of Richard Brautigan. And the result would be something akin to Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, a book which (like the author’s first novel, Another Roadside Attraction) seems geared for instant popularity. Tom Robbins comes out valiantly on the right side of many simple issues. He is in favor of women and whooping cranes, freedom and individuality, poetry and magic and humor and sex. He is opposed to vaginal deodorants, and is therefore in favor of the revolution which occurs on the Rubber Rose — a beauty ranch dedicated originally to internal cleanliness, and afterwards to the liberation of its cowgirl staff. Somewhat more idiosyncratically, he is opposed to the chauvinism of the Brain. The...