JULY 14: Custer Book Review 01
'The Summer of 1876' by Chris Wimmer
There are, easily, more than 100 non-fiction books written about George Armstrong Custer as well as books that feature him as a key character in historical events. While we can’t review all of them, Custer365 endeavors to provide insights into books we believe are worth your time.
This time around, it’s Chris Wimmer’s “The Summer of 1876: Outlaws, Lawmen, and Legends in The Season That Defined the American West.” Published by St. Martin’s Press and released in 2023, “Summer” focuses on three major events that occurred during the summer of the nation’s centennial celebration. One reviewer classified the era as “a key transition period in frontier colonialism.“
The main events are:
· Custer’s showdown with the Sioux and Plains Indian tribes at the Battle of Little Bighorn (June 15, 1876);
· Wild Bill Hickok’s murder during a card game at Saloon #10 in rowdy Deadwood, Dakota Territory (August 2, 1876); and
· The botched bank robbery attempt by the James-Younger gang at Northfield, Minnesota (September 7, 1876.)
Cameo appearances are made throughout the book by Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp, Calamity Jane and A.G. Spalding, a pitcher for the Chicago White Stockings of the National League in 1876. (Spalding co-founded, with his brother, a Chicago sporting goods store that eventually grew to become one of the country’s largest manufacturers of sports equipment.)
The strength of Wimmer’s book is how he weaves compelling stories about these icons and their backgrounds, along with snippets about other interesting characters of the West, together with all the facts you really need to know.
The Battle of Little Bighorn
The battle, for example, is recounted with ample facts about the lead up, the brutal combat between 7th Cavalry troopers and Indians (Lakota Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho) on June 25-26, and the aftermath when Custer’s superior officer, General Alfred Terry (head of the Dakota Column) and troops from the Montana Column come upon the grisly scene at Last Stand Hill.
Little Bighorn Battlefield in Montana Territory. (Credit: NPS)
Wimmer covers it all:
· How Custer’s Indian scouts first identified the massive numbers of Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho encamped on the Little Bighorn River (aka “The Greasy Grass” to the Sioux) on June 24;
· How Custer splits his force into three commands – Custer with five companies, Major Marcus Reno with three and Captain Frederick Benteen with three;
· A change in plans after some Sioux spotted the cavalry nearing the village on June 25 (Custer initially wanted to launch a “surprise” attack at dawn on Monday, July 26); and
· How Custer feared the Indians would disperse before he and his force could attack, so he set his forces in motion late in the day on Sunday, June 25; (Custer’s objective had been to reprise a strategy he’d used in prior skirmishes with Indian villages – rush their camp and capture large numbers of women and children, which would force the men (warriors) to capitulate.)
Wimmer takes you through all of the foibles and mistakes made by Custer, Reno and Benteen with smooth precision, but stops well short of bogging things down in a swamp of military minutiae.
James Butler Hickok
His focus on Wild Bill Hickok covers his days as a lawman in Midwest cow towns at a time when hundreds of thousands of cattle were driven to Wichita and Dodge City before being shipped east for slaughter. Wyatt Earp, Bat and Jim Masterson, and Hickok maintained law and order in these wild municipalities.
James Butler ‘Wild Bill’ Hickok. (Credit: Nat’l Portrait Gallery)
Hickok was noted for his ability to handle a pistol and for his marksmanship. But, he mistakenly shot and killed his deputy, Mike Williams, on Oct. 5, 1871 on the streets of Abilene, Kansas.
In July 1876, Hickok’s friend “Colorado” Charlie Utter, a teamster, picked up Hickok in Cheyenne, Wyoming Territory, and transported him by wagon train to Deadwood in the Black Hills. It was the new hotspot for gold prospecting.
For you fans of the HBO series, “Deadwood”, Wimmer includes all of the real-life sidekicks of Wild Bill’s that were featured on the show. Al Swearingen, a pimp and entertainment entrepreneur, did open and operate the Gem Theater, a notorious brothel in town. Seth Bullock and his business partner, Solomon Star, actually opened a hardware business in Deadwood in the summer of 1876 at the intersection of Main Street and Wall Street, about 150 feet from the front door of Saloon #10.
Jack McCall, 25, of Louisville, KY, was a wanderer of the West. On August 1, 1876, McCall played cards at Hickok’s table at Saloon #10 throughout the night and into the early morning hours of August 2. McCall lost hand after hand. Hickok, according to Wimmer, took pity on McCall and gave him some money for breakfast. McCall demonstrated his appreciation around 4:10 p.m. when he returned to the saloon and shot Wild Bill in the back of the head.
Hickok, according to Wimmer, was buried in Deadwood’s original cemetery under a tombstone commissioned by his friend, Charlie Utter. The epitaph on the slab read:
“Wild Bill J.B. Hickok, killed by the assassin Jack McCall in Deadwood, Black Hills, August 2nd, 1876. Pard, we will meet again in a happy hunting ground to part no more.
Colorado Charlie C.H. Utter”
McCall was tried and acquitted by a miner’s court hastily assembled in Deadwood on Aug. 3. Afterwards, he split on a horse allegedly provided by Al Swearingen. but was caught and tried a second time in Yankton (Dec. 4-6), was convicted of Hickok’s murder by a jury, and hanged on March 1, 1877.
The (Not-So) Great Northfield, Minn. Raid
Perhaps the most interesting story of the three key events in the book was how townspeople in Northfield, Minn., shot the hell out of the vaunted James-Younger gang on Sept. 7, 1876. The famous collection of outlaws was comprised of brothers Jesse and Frank James, and brothers Cole, Jim, John and Bob Younger. They were Confederate “bush whackers” in Missouri during the Civil War and eventually became the most feared, if not most successful, bank and train robbers in the country.
The outlaw Jesse James. (Credit: Library of Congress)
Their target in early September 1876 was the First National Bank of Northfield. It was selected, Wimmer explains, after the gang determined nearby cities were either too small (no banks) or too big (too many banks). Plus, the bank was deemed a particularly suitable target by the gang (all card-carrying ex-rebels) because two Union generals, Benjamin Butler and his son-in-law Adelbert Ames (a Civil War Medal of Honor winner, btw), were connected to First National Bank. (Talk about carrying a grudge.)
Using contemporary movies about Old West bank robberies as a reference, the bad guys usually ride up and enter the bank, threaten the bank manager, toss pile after pile of cash into burlap sacks, maybe fire a shot off into the ceiling, then ride off into the sunset. That did not happen that morning at First National Bank on Division Street.
The armed outlaws approached the bank on Sept. 7 and Bob Younger, Frank James and fellow gangster Charlie Pitts entered the bank. The five other gunmen – Jesse James, Cole and Jim Younger, Bill Chadwell (misidentified by some historians as Bill Stiles), and Clell Miller stayed outside for crowd control.
The James brothers couldn’t get the bank cashier, Joseph Heywood, to open the safe. He claimed it was on a time-lock and he couldn’t open it. The ticked-off robbers grabbed a few handfuls of cash and coins from teller’s drawers (Wimmer states the take was a mere $26.60 or $26.70 “depending on the story.”) And that’s what went right for the James-Younger Gang that day.
Fire bells rang throughout the town alerting everyone to the robbery. The owner of a hardware store near the bank handed out rifles and shotguns to townspeople, who, according to Wimmer, turned out to be crack shots. It was, as the author states, “an urban combat zone.”
When it was over:
· Bob Younger’s right elbow was shot to hell
· Jim Younger was shot in the shoulder
· Cole Younger was shot in the left hip
· Clell Miller was shot and killed by a 22-year-old medical student on leave from school
· Miller’s horse was gunned down and killed
· Bill Chadwell was shot in the heart and died
· Frank James and Charlie Pitts were shot in their right legs
· Jesse James was shot in the thigh as he escaped
· Jesse James shot bank employee Heywood in the head and killed him (Brad Pitt wouldn’t have done that!)
· One civilian, Nicolaus Gustafson, who stumbled out of a nearby bar drunk, was shot and died two days later
Wimmer follows with a fascinating recounting of efforts law enforcement took to track down the surviving gang members, who had no clue which roads led where in this foreign, heavily wooded land called Minnesota. The James brothers split off on their own, headed west, and eventually made their way south back to Missouri. The Youngers stuck together, but were slowed due to brother Bob’s severe injury. They were eventually cornered by a posse. Charlie Pitts was shot and killed, and the Youngers were taken into custody.
The Younger brothers were tried, convicted, and sentenced to life sentences to be served at the Minnesota Territorial Prison at Stillwater. Jesse and Frank James fled to Nashville, Tenn., where they spent the next three years unnoticed. Jesse formed a new gang after returning to Missouri. Unfortunately, one of the new gang members, Robert Ford, shot Jesse in the back of the head and killed him at his home on April 3, 1882.
Cole Younger, who was paroled in 1901, and Frank James ended up reconnecting and joining a traveling show in 1903. They still had some name recognition, because it was called "The Great Cole Younger and Frank James Historical Wild West Show." Frank James died on Feb. 18, 1915, and Cole Younger died on March 2, 1916. Both were age 72 when they expired.
Wrap-up
Wimmer’s book is full of facts and he tells stories in an easygoing, interesting manner that holds your attention throughout the ride.
It gets four out of five cavalry sabers from our review team.
The audio book is especially great to listen to while driving or when you’re just kicking back. Check out Chris’s podcast, “Legends of the Old West”, when you get a chance.
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