By Gerald F. Kreyche

Just to glance at the title of this book could leave one ambiguous as to its general thrust. It could be that honor means nothing when the chips are down, or it could extol that virtue. The latter is the case, as this refreshing re-examination of the famous Little Big Horn Battle in June of 1976 leaves political correctness aside and "calls the shots" the way the author sees them.

His vision is clear as he was an experienced (now retired) analyst with the U.S. Department of Defense. The anti-war movement in the 60s muddled up most U.S. military endeavors, not the least of which was the defeat of Gen. George Armstrong Custer at Little Big Horn. Subsequently, revisionism of U.S. history in the American West hit the ground running and Custer, the Civil War hero, became in the Indian Wars, Custer the goat. This revisionism is not yet dead, but it needs to be killed. This book will go a long ways in furthering its demise.

Sklenar writes well and organizes his data to argue that Custer never disobeyed his orders from Gen. Alfred Terry, had a good battle plan for the event, and probably would have been successful against the huge camp of Sioux and Cheyenne, had he not been a victim of several factors over which he had no control.

Carefully, the author weaves his arguments and these provide a different and fascinating approach than do most Custer books. Sklenar takes out after Major Marcus Reno, Custer’s secundo, and never lets go his relentless grip on this man for whom the author virtually blames the defeat at the Little Big Horn. Reno was not an experienced Indian fighter as was Custer, was a heavy drinker, was generally disliked by his troops and regarded as having a cowardly streak. It was Reno who was given orders to charge the Indian camp and it was Reno who failed in that charge which set the scene for the cavalry disaster. For whatever reason, jealousy or resentment perhaps, Reno hated Custer and the latter’s nearly impeccable Civil War record.

But Reno was not alone in detesting Custer; Capt. Frederick Benteen, third in command, also hated Custer and sniped at him through the press. Reno and Benteen didn’t get along either, but found common cause in their anti-Custer views. Unlike Maj. Reno, though, Benteen was a brave man and genuine hero and his men respected him as their officer. Still, in this campaign, Benteen dawdled with the pack train, nursing a grudge that Custer hadn’t made him the front man in the attack. That pack train with its extra ammo and men could have made a difference, but Custer was dead before it arrived.

The attitudes of these two subordinates, according to Sklenar, had much to do with the Little Big Horn defeat. Sklenar calls them both "inveterate liars."

The author makes a careful examination of the principals in the battle and reworks the testimony given at the Court of Inquiry convened at Reno’s request. The army wanted to get out of this scandal and truth was of little concern. The recollections of witnesses in later years was equally garbled and contradictory. Sklenar works his way through these thickets although the details occasionally promote tedium.

This campaign revealed bureaucratic bungling, raw recruits, not enough horses for the cavalry, and shirkers who tried to get out of going with Custer. For these reasons Custer’s force was undermanned. Yet George Armstrong Custer, a great military genius, was also an ego-driven, if not arrogant man. Never was the adage more true, namely, "Those whom the gods would destroy, they first make proud."