Tenting on the Plains or General Custer in Kansas and Texas

I can not recommend this book more, Tenting on the Plains by Elizabeth Bacon Custer.....and no before you wrinkle your nose that it is a camping book....think of it more as what Little House on the Prairie should have been if it was interesting....and what Tom Sawyer and Hunk Finn would have been if Mark Twain was a good writer. This is a fabulous work, because it is first hand history of the wife of General Custer in the year after the Civil War. It is the excitement of times on a broad scale and the narrow joy of a married couple coping with life. It honestly is a conversation between Libby, the reader with literal colorful commentary by her black maid, Eliza. You will read how black history really was and not what is written now. You get to see women in all their supposed helplessness at times, but when a tragedy strikes time and again their real courage and strength comes out. I have yet to read anything from Libby whether it is her personal letters...to the absolutely heart wrenching account of the day she found out her family was slaughtered at the Little Big Horn which did not show one of the most charming and delightful personas ever to imprint upon the written word. So as Mrs. Dockter, my 5th grade teacher always read to us after noon recess....if you have children or grandchildren....read to them...and if you have grown children get them this book as it impressed me enough to recommend it. THIS BOOK SHOULD BE REQUIRED READING IN OUR SCHOOLS AS IT IS THAT WELL WRITTEN, MORAL, GOOD, INTERESTING and HISTORICAL.

I can not say enough good about this book.....for think of it more as what Little House on the Prairie should have been if it was interesting....and what Tom Sawyer and Hunk Finn would have been if Mark Twain was a good writer. I consider this a fabulous work, because it is first hand history of the wife of General Custer in the year after the Civil War. It is the excitement of times on a broad scale and the narrow joy of a married couple coping with life. It honestly is a conversation between Libby, the reader with literal colorful commentary by her black maid, Eliza. You will read how black history really was and not what is written now. You get to see women in all their supposed helplessness at times, but when a tragedy strikes time and again their real courage and strength comes out. I have yet to read anything from Libby whether it is her personal letters...to the absolutely heart wrenching account of the day she found out her family was slaughtered at the Little Big Horn which did not show one of the most charming and delightful personas ever to imprint upon the written word. So as Mrs. Dockter, my 5th grade teacher always read to us after noon recess....if you have children or grandchildren....read to them...and if you have grown children get them this book as it impressed me enough to recommend it. This book should be required in every school as a reading assignment along with Dickens and Irving.

Originally published in 1887, Tenting On The Plains is the highly recommended and well respected chronicle that Elizabeth Custer wrote describing a journey she took with her husband, General George A. Custer. The chronicle ranges from when General Custer left the Army of the Potomac in 1865 and traveled through Texas, New Orleans, and on to the western frontier. Elizabeth Custer's perspective and writings significantly helped magnify Custer's legend and fame in the eyes of the people at the time, and offers a unique view of the daily routine of life in the frontier military, as well as offering contemporary readers eye-opening descriptions of yesteryear actions, conflicts, and frontier history.