William O. Taylor's Work

Reno's contingent of 112 men snap off from Custer's force shortly before the attack on the cause general, and were themselves pinned d receive in a passage of arms with the Sioux in which they were hard outnumbered. Reno's group was, however, reinforced by Captains Benteen and McDougal and after thirty-six hours they were protruding by the arrival of Generals Terry and Gibbon. It was at the time of their alleviation that Reno's troops first learned that Custer's command had been completely unmake only a short distance away. Taylor was among the soldiers assigned to burial duty at the fatal site. Shortly after this Taylor's health failed, "like that of other troopers who suffered from the severity and hardship of the campaign," and he authoritative his discharge in January 1877 (Martin x-xi). Taylor returned to the East coast and settled at Orange, Massachusetts where he worked as a metal buff for thirty days -- while maintaining his interest in " desire facts and answers to the growing controversy" surrounding Custer's defeat (Martin xi).

Taylor corresponded with participants in the battle and with Elizabeth B. Custer. He also collected relics of the event and compiled extensive records of nebs in newspapers, journals, and books. Throughout his later life Taylor worked on his memoir as well. The manuscript was completed in 1917 but Taylor was unable to specify a publisher in the remaining five years of his l

Taylor was a scrupulous nonprofessional historian who was moved by the fact that so " much valuable data" had been lost with the deaths of the majority of the men who had participated in the campaign. He was also affected by the lack of at first hand accounts of the Battle of the Little Bighorn -- with the single exception of a man who "lacked sharing in the opening of the battle by Major Reno"(2). Taylor states that he exercised due care to present no record that was not confirmed by his own figure or, at least, conformed to his "general knowledge of the matter"--including the Indians' stories, as link to James McLaughlin (2). He earnestly sought to present what seemed to him to be the most accurate or likely accounts along with his own memories of events.

He also strove to "do justice to the Indians" in his account of the origins of the Indian war of 1876. His summaries of the preceding campaigns and their origins do stress the taint of the army and the regime in repeatedly breaking its agreements with the inherent American groups (7). Taylor also agreed with the notion that the disaster at the Little Bighorn was due in part to the enmity, "if much(prenominal) it may be called," of President Grant toward Custer, which resulted in the stop of the 1876 campaign that "allow[ed] the Indians more time to consolidate their forces" (11). He lays great stress, however, on the opinion that Custer's humiliation at the hands of the government led, inevitably in a man of Custer's character, to his desire "to have got the greatest of risks to redeem himself" (11).

But in addition to his agreement for the dead an underlying strand in Taylor's memoir helps account for the impression that the Seventh Cavalry was inadequately prepared for the encounter. This is his eleemosynary but restrained admiration for the Indians against whom the Seventh Cavalry fought. pen in the early twentieth century, when these battles were long over, Taylor admits the procedural injustices perpetuated a
Order your essay at Orderessay and get a 100% original and high-quality custom paper within the required time frame.