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Where The Rivers Ran Red

Where the Rivers Ran Red: The Indian Fights of George Armstrong Custer

By Michael N. Donahue

Book Review by Bob Reece, June 19, 2018


Full Disclosure: I first met Mike Donahue during the summer of 1986, and have followed his growth as a historian of this battle for that entire length of time. It is important the reader understand that I do not present this review of Donahue’s new book - Where the Rivers Ran Red: the Indian Fights of George Armstrong Custer - to make revenue or as hype. Neither is the case. I do not have the freedom of time to write reviews as a living since I do not make a penny from them. Instead, I provide reviews of books that I believe are important, and our readers should consider.


Over the last 45 years, we have witnessed most of the great books written about the Battle of Little Bighorn. As I wrote in the historiography essay, “The Custer Fight” in the 2015 edition of Willey Blackwell’s Companion to Custer and the Little Bighorn Campaign:

Several important factors contributed to the creation of these landmark pieces. First, the acceptance and inclusion of the Indian accounts into the interpretive narrative; after all, they were the survivors of the battle. Second, soldier accounts of the location of the Custer dead. Third, the archaeological surveys beginning in 1984 found thousands of battle-related artifacts. Finally, the discovery, study, and interpretation of historical photographs of the battlefield have lent a new perspective to the events when viewed through a modern, forensic eye.

Why start with works from the year 1973? Jerome A. Greene's Evidence and the Custer Enigma: a Reconstruction of Indian-Military History was published in that year. Greene made a valuable and original contribution to the battle story by being the first to interpret Indian accounts with artifact data discovered in the late 1940s and 50s. Evidence and the Custer Enigma transformed the Indian accounts, archaeological data, and the soldier testimonies into a rich narrative that remains timeless...
 

Mike Donahue’s newest book, Where the Rivers Ran Red: The Indian Fights of George Armstrong Custer is a rich narrative that incorporates all of those elements as established by Greene. In my lifetime, I have never waited as long and had such anticipation for a new release as I have this.

In essence, Where the Rivers Ran Red has been a work in progress for the last 45 years. Thirty of those years, Donahue has served as a seasonal Park Ranger interpreter at Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument where he spent his free time probing old dusty books, manuscripts, letters, periodicals, and photographs in the Monument’s basement archives and collections. Additionally, Donahue had a big advantage over most historians because he had access to walk, or ride a horse over the battlefield. He knows how long it takes to move from one point to another while walking, or riding. His field studies included timing these journeys (See Appendix 3 and 4 of this book). Further, Donahue understands the ravines and coulees of this battlefield; they are an important element to the understanding of how this battle might have progressed. Finally, he has studied countless numbers of historical maps of the battle as published in his last book, Drawing Battle Lines. These were maps produced by soldiers and warriors who fought each other in 1876. Donahue also has the luck of the Irish in finding never-before-published gold nuggets of information about Custer’s Last Stand.

As the years progressed, Donahue’s credibility as a researcher grew, enabling him to build critical contacts and friendships. Some of those friendships developed into great trust and resulted in gold nuggets. For example, Canadian and Friends of the Little Bighorn Battlefield member George Kush was generous to share some of the Cooke family letters with Donahue (Kush is writing the definitive biography about Custer's adjutant W.W. Cooke). These letters and the map studies enabled Donahue to establish a new path Custer took to Medicine Tail Coulee, as well as other gems.

Donahue protects no agenda. I admire his honest description of Custer's motives, tactical decisions, and mistakes. Ultimately, his purpose is for the reader to understand not only why Custer did what he did at the Little Bighorn, but how he came to his plan. That plan took eight years to develop, hence the book’s subtitle, The Indian Fights of George Armstrong Custer.

Custer would eventually learn that to be successful in battle against Indians, he could not fight them as he did against Confederates during the Civil War. Through the Battle of the Washita in 1868 to two engagements near the Yellowstone in 1873, Custer grasped the important use of terrain during battle. He would change the ratio of horse holders to horses (one holder per eight horses instead of four), which freed up more soldiers for the all important skirmish line. On the skirmish line, organized and well managed soldier fire in order to keep warriors out of range of their repeating rifles was imperative. The most effective way to attack an Indian village was by surprise and under cover of darkness. And most important, the indisputable strategy to impede the warriors from attack - and end the battle quickly - was to seize the noncombatants as early as possible.

Custer was not the only one learning over these eight years. Indian combatants learned how important it was to capture soldiers’ horses to cripple them. They understood how effective it could be to spread soldier lines thin, and patience in the use of terrain to overcome their adversary.

Donahue’s narrative of the Battle of the Little Bighorn consumes more than 2/3 of the book, and it is a tremendously rewarding read. The flow of the story is different from most narratives on this battle. Most books divide the storyline of the Battle of the Little Bighorn in the following order: Valley Fight, Hilltop Fight, and finally the Custer Fight. Donahue’s story unfolds as the battle transpired. This is a minor point, but it does make for a more suspenseful narrative. Donahue writes with clarity about strategy and implementation of that strategy, and successfully maps-out where companies moved and fought.

The soldiers who engaged these strategies were human beings – not just symbols on a map - and Donahue is at his most powerful when he ventures there. He sets the stage for the final moments on Last Stand Hill - with stirring and moving passages - as these men desperately fight for their lives. For me, pages 196 and 197 are two of the most beautiful and poignant renditions written about Custer's Last Stand. We experience powerful images of these men - who would never go home – about their lives before this fight, their loved ones back home, doubts about choices made, and some who experienced foreshadowing of their deaths. As the smoke clears and the gunfire lessen, we begin to hear the Indian women wail over their killed and wounded loved ones. Families transport them back to the village where they prepare them for their final voyage into the afterlife.

Through the somber clouds of screams, dust, and gunsmoke, Donahue transports us to a moment in time that is as close to real as we can experience. His battle is not about glory, but about important lessons learned, and the realization of lessons tragically ignored.

I read Where the Rivers Ran Red slowly to fully enjoy its visually striking narrative. Donahue inspires further reading. By the time I reached the chapter, "Nail the Box Up", I found myself surrounded by the Hardoff books, especially Battle Casualties 1 & 2, Brust's Where Custer Fell, Greene's Stricken Field, Graham’s Custer Myth, Donahue’s Drawing Battle Lines, and Scott's archaeological books. The experience of Where the Rivers Ran Red was the most fun I have had reading about this battle for some time.

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