Mari Sandoz's account of the battle in which General George Armstrong Custer staked his life—and lost—reveals on every page the author's intimate knowledge of her subject. The character of the Sioux, the personality of Custer, the mixed emotions of Custer's men, the Plains landscape—all emerge with such clarity that the reader is transported in time to that spring of 1876, when the Army of the Plains began its fateful march toward the Yellowstone. The background of the tragedy is here: the history of bad blood and broken treaties between the Sioux Nation and the United States, the underlying reason for Custer's expedition and for the convocation of Indians on the Little Bighorn that particular year. The author's analysis of Custer's motives and political ambitions sheds new light on an old mystery and will be hotly disputed by the general's admirers.

"The book is a perfect mating of subject and author. . .and is probably the best account of the battle ever written. . . . Although it is written more from the white man's point of view than was the case in Crazy Horse, there is enough knowledgeable interpretation of the Indian outlook to give proper understanding to all that was transpiring. Buffs may disagree with some of Miss Sandoz's interpretations and conclusions, but to white man that is the basis of the continuing lure of the battle."—New York Times Book Review