Cavalier In Buckskin Summary

The Historical Accounts of George Armstrong Custer The book Cavalier in Buckskin written by Robert M. Utley gave an interesting account of the life of George Armstrong Custer. The writer provided a vast amount of information citing from legitimate sources; written in a creative manor to draw the reader into the book. From the beginning (page 3-5) Mr. Utley starts the reader with the news of General Custer’s death with July 6, 1876 Tribune Extra and the New York Herald. Although mostly interesting, at times the writer gives a bit too much information such as details on officers (page46) that really did not have any real purpose from the reader’s point of view. These inclusions made the book a little too drug out and would cause the reader to lose interest. Most of the details were great as in
Utley’s book, the reader learns about Custer was born on December 5, 1839 in Rumley, Ohio and liked to refer to himself as “Autie” and had a half sister to whom he was close to. The reader also starts to see Custer was more into studies, more into fun, and yet he barely graduates from West Point thirty-forty of thirty-four classmates. From this point the writer informs the reader about Custer’s military career and Libbie (Elizabeth Bacon). The romance between the two of them added and interesting twist throughout the book. Custer appeared to be a very difficult man, driven, harsh, conflicted, and his wife was his softer side. It is in chapter 2 Custer starts his military career as a staff officer (page 18), which the reader learns he ditches his staff role to plunge into battle. Here is where we learn of his ability to remain calm, cool, and collective in battle. Custer himself discovers his attributes of battle and the reader will see him take risks, when he does not necessarily agrees with his orders (page 52,page172, page 180), which Mr. Utley shares this could have been what caused General Custer’s own demise (page