Review: Scott, Connor, Willey, They Died with Custer

[truepenny]

They Died With Custer: Soldiers’ Bones from the Battle of the Little Bighorn by Douglas D. Scott

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is a book about bones. Specifically, the bones of the men who died at the Little Bighorn in 1876. The authors, an archaeologist and two forensic scientists, are able to deduce quite a lot from the bones recovered during archaeologist excavations or discovered randomly on the battlefield. They identify five men (the identifications ranging from "well, it's a good guess" to 99.9% certainty), and they can tell a great deal about the troopers as a group: chronic lower back problems from horseback riding, terrible teeth, a variety of healed injuries that probably had to do with horses. (One of the archaeological studies quoted referred to "large mammal accidents," which I find charming.)

This book is full of tables and graphs and statistics and is drier than its punchy title would suggest. I found it fascinating, but . . . fair warning.



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