Taken from George Armstrong Custer's own writings, An Autobiography of General Custer is the true story of one of the most praised, most despised, but surely most remembered American military heroes. Indeed, few figures in our history werein their own time, as well as in our ownso wildly cheered and so roundly hated.
Custers narration takes us from just after the Civil War, when, having gained a reputation as a bold and inventive leader of the cavalry, Custer was given command of an expedition to help subjugate the Native Peoples of the Great Plains and to force them onto reservations. His story touches on his own court martial and subsequent reinstatement to command. It ends shortly before he embarks upon the campaign that would eventually lead to the Battle of the Little Bighorn and Custers Last Stand. As Custer was unable to write about his most famous battle, the Autobiography concludes with an 1880s newspaper account of an interview with Sitting Bull himself after his escape to Canada, in which the great Chief looks back on the battle and offers his own point of view.
In the evenings, on post and during his various leaves, Custer would sit at the dining room table with his beloved wife, Libby, and together they would compose the various stories of his exploits that would eventually become the book My Life on the Plains, which was a bestseller in its time, and from which this autobiography is largely taken.
Skyhorse Publishing, along with our Arcade, Good Books, Sports Publishing, and Yucca imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs. Our list includes biographies on well-known historical figures like Benjamin Franklin, Nelson Mandela, and Alexander Graham Bell, as well as villains from history, such as Heinrich Himmler, John Wayne Gacy, and O. J. Simpson. We have also published survivor stories of World War II, memoirs about overcoming adversity, first-hand tales of adventure, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.