Brazen Trumpet, Frederick W. Benteen and the Battle of the Little Big Horn

In the spring of 1876, the US Army was ordered to round up Sioux Indians who had left their reservation in Dakota Territory to join other Northern Plains Indians in southern Montana. By mid-June, General George A. Custer and his Seventh Cavalry Regiment had located a fresh Indian trail, and the Seventh went into fast pursuit. Late on a hot Sunday afternoon, Custer led five companies of the Regiment to their doom at the hands of the Indians he had so aggressively chased down. They died on high ground overlooking the Little Big Horn River and a large Indian encampment on its far floodplain. Custer supporters, in shock and disbelief, stung by the unacceptable possibility that Custer may have blundered, were convinced that the Civil War Boy General was abandoned to his fate by his subordinate commanders who despised him. Allegations soon flew that Captain Benteen tarried on the trail behind, disobeying a written order to come support Custer quickly. The question has since remained: Did Benteen truly linger on the trail and defy the order to promptly reinforce Custer and his outnumbered regiment in battle? In Brazen Trumpet, author Terrence J. Donovan takes a scientifically analytical look at the existing evidence and comes to a remarkable conclusion.