For your consideration is this Scarce First Edition of "Boots and Saddles" by Elizabeth Custer, 1885. Harper & Brothers, New York publisher. "Boots and Saddles or Life in Dakota with General Custer" With Portrait and Map. This is a wonderful narrative of the life of General Custer on the plains in the mid to late 1800s. The book was written as a dedication to her husband, General George Armstrong Custer, and chronicles their life together until his untimely death at the hands of the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho Indians at the Battle of the Little Bighorn (known to the Lakota and other Plains Indians as the Battle of the Greasy Grass), and commonly referred to as Custer's Last Stand in 1876. After President Ulysses S. Grant publicly blamed General Armstrong Custer for the disaster at Little Bighorn, Elizabeth Custer, the general?s wife, took on the role of his public defender. Beginning with "Boots and Saddles" in 1885, she would go on to publish a trilogy of autobiographical works about the life of her martyred husband, to include "Tenting on the Plains" (1887) and "Following the Guidon" (1890). As she writes in the Preface, ?One of the motives that have actuated me in recalling these simple annals of our daily life, has been to give a glimpse to civilians of garrison and camp life?about which they seem to have such a very imperfect knowledge?? Largely as a result of her books and decades of campaigning on his behalf, General Custer's legacy transformed into that of the brave fallen hero and the Battle of the Little Bighorn became the most important symbol of the American-Indian wars. "Boots and Saddles" covers the period just before the battle of the Little Bighorn, and was the first to include the portrait in addition to the expected contents of Native American Indians, Sioux and Dakota tribes, the Black Hills Expedition, the U.S. Army and Cavalry. This tan coloured cloth bound gold gilt stamped hardcover is in fair condition, scuffing noted to cover edges, front cover gilt is still bright. A gold gilt sunrise behind a mountain range dominates the front cover whilst a piece of sheet music is superimposed over a gold gilt bugle on the top right corner. The stamped sunrays are continued onto both the spine and rear cover. Some looseness exhibited on spine. Age tanning and slight foxing observed throughout intact pages, soiling on top edge. Measures 7.5"L x 5.25"W x 1"D, weight 1lb.*

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