Why I read the book: I read Gray's Custer's Last Campaign several years ago. He went into extrordinary detail about the Battle of the Little Big Horn, a minute by minute account that should have been deadly boring but was, in fact, fascinating. I thought this book on the entire campaign would be equally interesting.

Brief Summary: The Sioux were promised the Black Hills for a permanent reservation, but when gold was discovered, miners came in droves. President Grant had to make a choice: move the Sioux to another reservation or battle the miners. He decided to move the Sioux — and they weren't happy about it. They refused to stay where they were told, so they were declared hostiles.

The army was sent to gather them in and subdue them. General Crook, from the south, and General Terry from the north sent out regiments of calvary to find the Sioux camp. This proved difficult. There were several skirmishes, a few battles and a lot of wandering around the prairie looking for signs.

When George A. Custer was sent out with the 7th Cavalry, he was opperating as the bottom hinge in a circling campaign. But he got to the Sioux camp before Terry's force was in place, and there were a lot more Sioux than anyone expected. His force was wiped out, and the Sioux took off again.

Terry and Crook wandered around for the rest of the summer without finding more than a small band of Sioux here and there. When winter hit and the tribe was starving, they went back to the reservations on their own and were forced to sign "treaties" giving up the Black Hills and several other rights.

What I liked about the book: I've read several books on Custer's battle, so it was good to put it in the context of the entire campaign. Gray gets into minutia about campaigning in the west that I hadn't heard before, and much of it was fascinating. The book also had some of the best maps I've ever seen in a history book, with each troop movement clearly marked.

What I didn't like about the book: The same attention to detail that made Custer's Last Campaign so fun to read almost killed this book. Minute-by-minute accounts of battles are more interesting than minute-by-minute accounts of sitting in camp or transporting supplies.

Most interesting quote: Gray does a good job of showing that the fight between Indians and Whites wasn't racial but cultural. He says, Our real object is to expose the utter incompatibilities of the two cultures. They could not possibly exist in the same place at the same time. Put simply, one cannot live by the chase in another's fenced corn patch.

Recommendation: I gave it a 6. If you're interested in the Battle of The Little Big Horn, you might find this informative. Otherwise, it's not for you.