Archaeology, History and Custer's Last Battle - Little Bighorn Reexamined (Hardcover)

The myth of "Custer's Last Stand" has been perpetuated and reinforced for over a century. Now, using both innovative and standard archaeological techniques combined with historical documents and Indian eyewitness accounts, Richard Allan Fox Jr replays the Custer battle in detail with surprising results. Through bullets, spent cartridges, and other material data, Fox identifies combat positions and tracks soldiers and Indians across the battle-field. Guided by the history beneath our feet, and listening to the previously ignored Indian testimonies, he reveals scenes of panic and collapse and, ultimately, a story of the Custer battle quite different from the fatalistic versions of history. According to Fox, the five companies of the Seventh Cavalry entered the fray in good order, following planned strategies and displaying tactical stability. It was the sudden disintegration of this cohesion that caused the troopers' defeat. The end came quickly, unexpectedly, and largely amid terror and disarray. Archaeological evidences show that there was no determined fighting and little firearm resistance. The last soldiers to be killed had rushed from Custer Hill. The Custer Battle is the centrepiece of this book, but archaeology is the showcase. Fox shows that archaeology represents a different way of knowing about the past, independent of history, a complementary approach to the past equal to conventional historical investigations. Wherever a past event has left physical traces, archaeology provides a behavioural skeleton that can be clothed by the tapestry of history. In "Archaeology, History and Custer's Last Battle", Fox presents the full story of this battle - soundly constructed and fully dressed.