The books are excellent although not what Harper would have produced but rather a synthesis of what he left behind with the closing chapter questionable as 'his' conclusion.
Google books - online purchase
The Fights on the Little Horn - 50 Years of Research Into Custer's Last StandThe Fights on the Little Horn Companion - Gordon Harper's Full Appendices and BibliographyRemarkable research and insight.
Link to one of the board's related topics. Also
TunkasilaQuoting example: Lt. George Wallace, G Co.:
Gordon Harper gives an astute and insightful analysis of Lt. Wallace's post battle report to Dept. HQ's on Jan. 27, 1877, published in his book The Fights on the Little Horn Companion: Gordon Harper's Full Appendices and Bibliography (Kindle Location 29925).:
SUMMATION OF WALLACE’S DISTANCES ITINERARY FOR THE MARCH UP THE ROSEBUD
22 June – marched two miles to the Rosebud and ten miles up the creek. Camped on the west side of the creek.
23 June – marched thirty-two miles in total and camped on the east side of the creek, north of Jim Town. Halted after nine miles to examine village site, another halt six miles later to check out the Teat Butte campsite, halted nine miles later at mouth of Greenleaf creek.
24 June – Marched twenty-five miles to Busby Bend camp. Crossed Lame Deer Creek. Crossed Muddy Creek and nooned just past it. Halted at H1500 to wait for Varnum. Started again at H1700 and reached Busby camp at H1945. Night march started at H2300 and the command crossed at the mouth of Thompson Creek, which is the best, if not the only, crossing in the area, then moved to Davis Creek and up that stream. The Crows were at the Crow’s Nest on the PM of the 24 [WMRH in Scott and McCoy], and returned at H2100 according to Wallace.
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So this is Wallace’s report - a bare bones outline of the marches of the 7th Cavalry from the camp on the Yellowstone near the mouth of the Rosebud to its rendezvous with destiny on the Little Horn. He records the marches as: 22 June - 12 miles, 23 June – 30 miles plus, 24 June – 28 miles, plus 24 June – 8 miles night march, although he also gives a figure of 6 miles. Wallace does not give the distance marched on the 25th, but it is almost exactly 14 miles from the divide to the Little Horn. Custer’s personal march to his field of action would have added about 4 miles to this amount. If we assume that Wallace’s numbers are correct and reference to topographical maps indicates that they are very accurate if not exact - and that his 8 and 6 mile figures are for two different march segments, which the maps confirm, then we can see that the worst-case mileage figure for the 24th is 36 miles, including the night march, and for the 25th it becomes 20 miles for the Custer battalions and a bit less for Reno.
Now compare these figures, which are accurate, with those quoted by General Terry, Major Reno and PresidentGrant, and the actual mileages as calculated from the maps:
6/22: WALLACE: 12 RENO: 12 TERRY: 12 GRANT: NA - ACTUAL: 12
6/23: WALLACE: 30 RENO: 35 TERRY: 33 GRANT: NA - ACTUAL: 32
6/24: WALLACE: 36 RENO: 55 TERRY: 28 GRANT: NA - ACTUAL: 36
6/25: WALLACE: 20 RENO: 23 TERRY: --- GRANT: 83 - ACTUAL: 20
Reno mentions the night march in his report, but does not give any mileage for it, saying that it lasted three hours and that the next stage also lasted three hours - to just over the divide. This would make a total mileage, allowing for a typical rate of march, of about twelve miles nearly exactly the same as Wallace gives- but the actual rate would probably have been a bit less, because of the darkness and the topography. It must be said that Reno, whatever his failings and whatever his attitude toward Custer, did not attempt to exaggerate the mileages marched. Perhaps he realized that Wallace’s figures would eventually give the lie to anything that anyone trumped up - provided, of course, attention were drawn to the true numbers.
marches would be “at first about thirty miles a day” (see his report of July 2, 1876) and he made no comment upon that rate of march, but in fact stated that he had made measurements and calculations based upon that rate (same report). Terry says that his plan called for marches of thirty miles a day. The actual distances covered were somewhat less than that on average and certainly not excessive on any particular day.
Terry, using Benteen’s numbers, adds about twenty miles to the total - all in the last two days - and Grant’s figure of eighty-three miles looks as if it had been plucked out of the blue. It is quite obvious that both overstatements were deliberately made in order to indict Custer for both rashness and disobedience. The context of both makes that unquestionable and it is revealing that these fictions were put forward when accurate information was available. It is more revealing that the men responsible for these false statements never saw fit to correct the impressions they created, but that would have taken some of the heat off the dead Custer’s reputation and perhaps led to a more critical examination and evaluation of the campaign and the fights on the Little Horn. That was definitely not desirable at the time, or even later, but it is interesting to note the lengths to which the detractors would go to maintain the myth of rapid and excessive marches and of worn-out men and horses.
Terry, Grant and Benteen were only the first. Fred Dustin, in The Custer Tragedy, gives his version of what Gibbon could have said -- [but never did say]: “Custer was thirty-six hours ahead of his schedule. He should have waited for us. He should not have overmarched his men and worn out his horses.” Dustin knew what the truth was, but still chose to perpetuate the myth. But then Dustin was more interested in clearing Reno’s name than in anything else, his protestations to the contrary notwithstanding.
Van de Water, in Glory Hunter, at least had the honesty to show his bias, but he was dishonest enough to foster the myth so: “Men who had marched all the day before and most of the night were too weary for many questions; too spent perhaps to see the paradox…” These were, in fact, the same men who had halted from 1 P.M. to 5 P.M. the previous day, and again from 7:45 P.M. until after 11 P.M. They had then halted for four and a half hours after a three hour march. They undoubtedly were tired, but hardly “too weary” or “too spent.” And they most definitely had not marched “all the day before and most of the night.”
Previous and subsequent writers picked out whatever figures they needed to put forward the particular case they were trying to make. Even supposedly neutral historians, such as Col. Wm. Graham, neglected to set the record straight - even though they most certainly knew the truth, or should have known it - and one must therefore question their motives. Like most of the myths surrounding the fights at the Little Horn, the one about worn-out horses and men was fostered solely to add weight to the evidence used to indict Custer. It was something that wasn’t necessary if the evidence existed, and not exactly history if it didn’t.
I'd forgotten what an ass you are. Consumed with your own smugness. You have no idea what Gordon Harper would have produced. I quote from one of his posts, ""Besides which, I might wind up selling the chapters on a stand-alone basis, since that is how I set up the book in the first place [and I might change something - I have made a couple of changes to the chapter in the past month or so, and several over the course of the past year]." So please, stop commenting on matters beyond your understanding.