Using Cheyenne and Arapaho accounts, Charles J. Brill tells the story of General George Armstrong Custer’s winter campaign on the southern plains in 1868-69, including his attack in Black Kettle’s village on the snowy backs of the Washita River. Brill’s searing account details the ruthlessness of the U.S. Army’s efforts to punish southern plains tribes for what they considered incessant raiding and depredation. Brill provides the Indian point of view as he follows Custer into a battle that remains controversial to the present day.
In a new foreword to this edition, Mark L. Gardner discusses the significance of Brill’s history-placing it in context with other Custer and Indian Wars studies-and its Value to scholars and general readers today. Gardner also provides an overview of the career of Oklahoma journalist Charles J. Brill, much of whose life has remained a mystery until now.
Charles J. Brill (1888-1956) was the author of Conquest of the Southern Plains, Brill's Outdoor Guide, and numerous newspaper and magazine articles.
Mark L. Gardner is the coeditor if The Mexican War Correspondence of Richard Smith Elliott (University of Oklahoma Press). A consultant to the National Park Service, he has written interpretive booklets for both Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument and Washita Battlefield National Historic Site.
