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Did Custer Disobey?, Samuel W. Calhoun

Scholarly Articles

Of the many controversies surrounding the life and death of George Armstrong Custer, none has been more enduring than whether he disobeyed orders given him three days before the Battle of Little Big Horn. Some have argued that Custer willfully disregarded Brig. Gen. Alfred Terry's written instructions concerning his approach to the Little Big Horn Valley; others have said that the order gave Custer sufficient discretion to justify his actions.

Evan S. Connell, in his best-seller about Custer, Son of the Morning Star, writes that "[i]t is a matter of interpretation...[i]t depends, like the blind men describing an elephant, on …