Custer*s Luck

Nearly everyone knows that Custer died at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. But what would have happened if Custer had prevailed that day, bringing the Indian Wars to a close? What if his success as a commander at the Little Bighorn had ushered in a new era in American politics, leading to his becoming President of the United States? With a twinkle in his eye, Robert Skimin has created perhaps his most imaginative and enjoyable book yet -- an alternative history of George Armstrong Custer that is as believable as it is provocative.

Custer wins the White House with help from James Gordon Bennett, Jr., publisher of the New York Herald. He dubs his presidency "The Great American Empire", and wastes no time rattling his saber in several directions: Canada, Panama, and the Spanish colonies. He appoints his brother Tom to the cabinet, and his youngest brother, Boston, is elected to Congress from California. In a rare show of disloyalty to his wife and first lady, Libbie, the concupiscent Custer has affairs with the English beauty Lillie Langtry -- who has moved to New York -- as well as the famous Washington socialite, Kate Chase Sprague. The president's popularity soars as his glamour and direct appeals to the American public create a mandate for military build up and an era of American imperialism.

Meanwhile, Custer's personal and political legacy haunts him in intriguing and perilous ways -- especially in the figure of the Sioux war leader, Red Elk, whose wife's death at the Little Bighorn must be avenged. Red Elk enrolls in the Carlisle Indian School to learn English and begins to stalk his enemy; he later volunteers for Seventh Regiment duty, disguising himself as a recruit fromCeylon. When Custer declares war on Spain, and gathers a Cuban expeditionary force in San Antonio with himself as commander, the stage is again set for Custer's moment of glory. For both friends and enemies of the man and his legacy, Robert Skimin skillfully delivers the final word on Custer's guilt and innocence, on his place in history, and on the unseen hand that guides the fate of famous men.