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Custer at Gettysburg: A New Look at George Armstrong Custer versus Jeb Stuart in the Battle's Climactic Cavalry Charges
480
by Phillip Thomas Tucker
Phillip Thomas Tucker
Custer at Gettysburg: A New Look at George Armstrong Custer versus Jeb Stuart in the Battle's Climactic Cavalry Charges
480
by Phillip Thomas Tucker
Phillip Thomas Tucker
Hardcover
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Overview
George Armstrong Custer is famous for his fatal defeat at the Little Bighorn in 1876, but Custer’s baptism of fire came during the Civil War. After graduating last in the West Point class of 1861, Custer served from the First Battle of Bull Run (only a month after graduation) through Appomattox, where he witnessed the surrender. But Custer’s true rise to prominence began at Gettysburg in 1863.
On the eve of the Battle of Gettysburg, only twenty-three years old and barely two years removed from being the goat of his West Point class, Custer received promotion to brigadier general and command – his first direct field command – of the Michigan Cavalry Brigade, the “Wolverines.” Now that he held general rank, Custer felt comfortable wearing the distinctive, some said gaudy, uniform that helped skyrocket him into fame and legend. However flashy he may have been in style, Custer did not disappoint his superiors, who promoted him in a search for more aggressive cavalry officers. At approximately noon on July 3, 1863, Custer and his men heard enemy cannon fire: Stuart’s signal to Lee that he was ready for action. Thus began the melee that was East Cavalry Field at Gettysburg. Much back and forth preceded Custer’s career-defining action. An hour or two into the battle, after many of his cavalrymen had been reduced to hand-to-hand infantry-style fighting, Custer ordered a charge of one of his regiments and led it into action himself, screaming one of the battle’s most famous lines: “Come on, you Wolverines!” Around three o’clock, Stuart mounted a final charge, which mowed down Union cavalry – until it ran into Custer’s Wolverines, who stood firm, with Custer wielding a sword at their head, and broke the Confederates’ last attack.
In a book combining two popular subjects, Tucker recounts the story of Custer at Gettysburg with verve, shows how the Custer legend was born on the fields of the war’s most famous battle, and offers eye-opening new perspectives on Gettysburg’s overlooked cavalry battle.
On the eve of the Battle of Gettysburg, only twenty-three years old and barely two years removed from being the goat of his West Point class, Custer received promotion to brigadier general and command – his first direct field command – of the Michigan Cavalry Brigade, the “Wolverines.” Now that he held general rank, Custer felt comfortable wearing the distinctive, some said gaudy, uniform that helped skyrocket him into fame and legend. However flashy he may have been in style, Custer did not disappoint his superiors, who promoted him in a search for more aggressive cavalry officers. At approximately noon on July 3, 1863, Custer and his men heard enemy cannon fire: Stuart’s signal to Lee that he was ready for action. Thus began the melee that was East Cavalry Field at Gettysburg. Much back and forth preceded Custer’s career-defining action. An hour or two into the battle, after many of his cavalrymen had been reduced to hand-to-hand infantry-style fighting, Custer ordered a charge of one of his regiments and led it into action himself, screaming one of the battle’s most famous lines: “Come on, you Wolverines!” Around three o’clock, Stuart mounted a final charge, which mowed down Union cavalry – until it ran into Custer’s Wolverines, who stood firm, with Custer wielding a sword at their head, and broke the Confederates’ last attack.
In a book combining two popular subjects, Tucker recounts the story of Custer at Gettysburg with verve, shows how the Custer legend was born on the fields of the war’s most famous battle, and offers eye-opening new perspectives on Gettysburg’s overlooked cavalry battle.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780811738538 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Stackpole Books |
| Publication date: | 10/23/2019 |
| Pages: | 480 |
| Sales rank: | 450,455 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.40(d) |
About the Author
Phillip Thomas Tucker, Ph.D., has been recognized as "the Stephen King of History." Tucker has authored more than 70 groundbreaking books in history and more than 130 works, both books and scholarly articles, in total in the field of history. After earning a Ph.D. in History from St. Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri, in 1990, the author embarked upon a more than 20-year career with the Department of Defense primarily in Washington, D.C. Dr. Tucker has specialized on a wide variety of aspects of the American experience. He has focused heavily on some of the most iconic moments in the annals of American history, including books like Alexander Hamilton's Revolution, Death at the Little Bighorn, and How the Irish Won the American Revolution. In addition, the author has also written a great deal about the lives of remarkable African Americans and dynamic women of all colors, who deserve greater recognition for their outstanding courage and character at this late date. He has written four volumes of the groundbreaking Harriet Tubman Series and four volumes of the Cathy Williams Female Buffalo Soldier Series. Other books by one of America's most prolific authors include Mulan and the Modern Controversary and Exodus From the Alamo, The Anatomy of the Last Stand Myth. Tucker lives and writes full-time at his home in Central Florida.
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
1 One of the Youngest Generals in the Annals of American History 45
2 Chasing a Golden Dream in Pushing North 115
3 Young Custer's Greatest Challenge 159
4 Custer Audaciously Leads the Way with the 7th Michigan Cavalry 299
5 The Day's Greatest Crisis; Custer Leads the Charge of the 1st Michigan Cavalry 337
Epilogue 387
Notes 403
Index 439
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