by Tatjana Soli
AUTHOR’S NOTE
AS A EUROPEAN COME EARLY to the United States (read: age five), I have long had a fascination with the American West, both as myth and as reality. I believe it is as much a state of mind as a physical place. My mother told me that as a young girl she devoured the pulp fictions of Karl May, a German writer who never ventured outside of Europe but wrote adventure novels about the Old American West, featuring the characters Winnetou and Old Shatterhand. Although our current understanding of the time is more nuanced and sophisticated, it is still in many ways as romanticized and unrealistic. I can attest that on a recent visit to Colorado, I saw many galleries featuring depictions of a West that exists no longer. In rural areas wooden wagons were staged in open fields, and I even passed a teepee in a pasture that I used as a landmark to find my way home. The frontier was formative to our national character, and although it disappeared physically as a place with no boundaries, it is very much alive in our national psyche.
What I find even more interesting is the pendulum swing from the simplistic depictions of Indian warfare in the old Hollywood westerns to the opposite but equally false ones in more current books and films. I have to thank the balanced historical writings of both S. C. Gwynne and Peter Cozzens for this insight. We honor the past most when we depict it as accurately as possible without contorting it to contemporary mores. By doing this we allow ourselves to better understand our present.
This is a work of imagination, using as a starting point the life of General G. A. Custer and his wife, Libbie Bacon Custer, from the Civil War till the Battle of the Little Bighorn, or the Battle of the Greasy Grass. The writer Tim O’Brien says “stories are for joining the past to the future,” and that was very much my motivation for writing about this defining moment in our history. While trying to adhere to the historical facts of the period, I have given myself the fiction writer’s liberty of blending and mixing fact and fiction in order to serve the greater story truth. For instance, Libbie Custer was not present at Camp Supply to watch the parade of captives from the Battle of the Washita, or the Washita Massacre, but for my purposes her presence there was essential to the ongoing story of the Custer marriage. Golden Buffalo and Anne Cummins are imagined characters who are based on myriad sources: Lakota and Arikara narratives of the Little Bighorn for Golden Buffalo; captivity narratives for Anne’s story. The use of the numbered Removes as chapter headings comes from the Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson. I borrowed from many sources but particularly the story of getting caught in a buffalo stampede from the oral narrative in Pretty-shield by Frank Linderman. De Trobriand’s Military Life in Dakota colored forever my idea of being caught in a blizzard. Following are some of the sources that were instrumental in my research, not only for facts, but for immersion in time and place. For those looking for further reading on the history the book depicts, this may provide a beginning reading list. Although I believe literature by its nature is political in that it gives us empathy for those unlike ourselves, this is a novel and I do not pretend to be a historian. In trying to balance current sensibilities with historical realities, I have found wisdom in the following quote by Kate Atkinson: “Hindsight is indeed a wonderful thing but unfortunately it is unavailable to view in the midst of battle.”
It goes without saying that all mistakes, intentional or not, are mine.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Barnett, Louise, Touched by Fire (Bison Books, Oct. 2006)
Brown, Dee, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (Henry Holt, Jan. 1971)
Connell, Evan S., Son of the Morning Star (North Point Press, Oct. 1997)
Cozzens, Peter, The Earth Is Weeping (Knopf, Oct. 2016)
Custer, Elizabeth B., Boots and Saddles (Digital Scanning Inc., Dec. 1999)
________, Following the Guidon (University of Oklahoma Press, July 1976)
________, Tenting on the Plains (Palala Press, May 2016)
Custer, General George Armstrong, My Life on the Plains (University of Oklahoma Press, July 1976)
Day, Carl F., Tom Custer: Ride to Glory (University of Oklahoma Press, Feb. 2005)
De Trobriand, Philippe Régis, Military Life in Dakota, translated by Lucile M. Kane (University of Nebraska, May 1982)
Elliott, Michael, Custerology (University of Chicago Press, Oct. 2008)
Frankel, Glenn, The Searchers (Bloomsbury, Feb. 2014)
Greene, Jerome A., Washita (University of Oklahoma Press, Nov. 2014)
Gwynne, S. C., Empire of the Summer Moon (Scribner, May 2011)
Hardorff, Richard G., Washita Memories (University of Oklahoma Press, Oct. 2008)
________, editor, Lakota Recollections of the Custer Fight (University of Nebraska Press, March 1997)
Hoig, Stanley, The Battle of the Washita (Bison Books, Nov. 1979)
Jackson, Helen Hunt, A Century of Dishonor (Dover Publications, June 2003)
Kelly, Fanny, Narrative of My Captivity Among the Sioux Indians (Pomona Press, Jan. 2006)
Kelman, Ari, A Misplaced Massacre (Harvard University Press, Feb. 2013)
Leckie, Shirley A., Elizabeth Bacon Custer and the Making of a Myth (University of Oklahoma Press, Sept. 1998)
Libby, Orin G., The Arikara Narrative of Custer’s Campaign and the Battle of the Little Bighorn (University of Oklahoma Press, Sept. 1998)
Linderman, Frank B., Pretty-Shield: Medicine Woman of the Crows (Bison Books, Oct. 2003)
McLaughlin, James, My Friend the Indian (Wentworth Press, Aug. 2016)
Merington, Marguerite, The Custer Story (University of Nebraska Press, Sept. 1987)
Philbrick, Nathaniel, The Last Stand (Penguin Books, April 2011)
Rowlandson, Mary, Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson (Hard Press, Nov. 2006)
Silko, Leslie Marmon, Ceremony (Penguin Books, Dec. 2006)
Stiles, T. J., Custer’s Trials (Vintage, Oct. 2016)
Utley, Robert M., Cavalier in Buckskin (University of Oklahoma Press, 2001)
Wert, Jeffry D., Custer (Simon & Schuster, May 2015)
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
THE LITTLE BIGHORN BATTLEFIELD National Monument is a wonderful place for anyone interested in the time explored in this book. Simply walking the fields, scanning the horizon that still remains mostly empty, and coming across the stone markers where fallen soldiers and warriors were found is a powerful experience. The rangers’ talks made history come alive, and I sat through three of them in one day. As well, the Crow reenactment of the battle was an amazing experience of horsemanship.
Much gratitude to Henry Dunow, without whom this book would not have come into being. Thank you, Sarah Crichton, for being brilliant and a perfectionist. I appreciate all the efforts from everyone at FSG, especially Lottchen Shivers. A special thank you to Peter Cozzens for answering my endless questions, and to Kevin McIlvoy for asking the right questions at the right time.
I owe a big debt to Adrienne Brodeur, Aspen Words, and the Catto Shaw Foundation for giving me a “room of my own” at a critical juncture.
To my personal posse of family and friends, you keep me going with constant reasons to be inspired.
ILLUSTRATION CREDITS
Endpapers illustration: “Red Horse pictographic account of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, 1881.” National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution, manuscript 2367A, image 08569600.
Title page and chapter opening illustration: “Red Horse pictographic account of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, 1881.” National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution, manuscript 2367A, image 08568000 (detail).
“Portrait of Maj. Gen. (as of Apr. 15, 1865) George A. Custer, officer of the Federal Army.” January 4, 1865. Civil War Glass Negatives and Related Prints collection, Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress, reproduction number LC-DIG-cwpb-05341.
Libbie Bacon Custer (detail), from “Gen. and Mrs. George A. Custer,” ca. 1860–ca. 1865. Photographs Relating to the Civil War, 1921–1921 series,
Records of the Office of the Chief Signal Officer, 1860–1985, National Archives and Records Administration, 530596 111-BZ-102.
“Typical surface of the country underlain by the Ogallala formation of the High Plains of western Kansas. Buffalo wallow, shallow circular depression in the level surface, in foreground.” Haskell County, Kansas, 1897. U.S. Geological Survey/photograph by Willard Drake Johnson.
“Rath & Wright’s buffalo hide yard in 1878, showing 40,000 buffalo hides, Dodge City, Kansas.” Miscellaneous Photographs 1937–1940 series, Records of the National Park Service, National Archives and Records Administration, 520093 79-M-1B-3.
“Red Horse pictographic account of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, 1881.” National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution, manuscript 2367A, image 08569600 (detail).
“George Armstrong Custer, in uniform, seated with his wife, Elizabeth ‘Libbie’ Bacon Custer, and his brother, Thomas W. Custer, standing.” ca. January 3, 1865. Miscellaneous Items in High Demand collection, Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress, reproduction number LC-USZ62-114798.
O’Sullivan, Timothy H. “Falmouth, Va. Capt. George A. Custer and Gen. Alfred Pleasonton on horseback.” April 1863. Civil War Glass Negatives and Related Prints collection, Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress, reproduction number LC-DIG-cwpb-04041.
By Gaylord Soli.
“Here Custer Fell.” Rodman Wanamaker photograph collection relating to American Indians, 1908–1909 (NAA Photo Lot 64), National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution, INV 02510500.
ALSO BY TATJANA SOLI
The Last Good Paradise
The Forgetting Tree
The Lotus Eaters
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tatjana Soli is the bestselling author of The Lotus Eaters, The Forgetting Tree, and The Last Good Paradise. Her work has been awarded the UK’s James Tait Black Prize and been a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award. Her books have also been twice listed as a New York Times Notable Book. She lives on the Monterey Peninsula of California. You can sign up for email updates here.
Thank you for buying this
Farrar, Straus and Giroux ebook.
To receive special offers, bonus content,
and info on new releases and other great reads,
sign up for our newsletters.
Or visit us online at
us.macmillan.com/newslettersignup
For email updates on the author, click here.
CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Epigraph
The First Remove
Virginia, 1863
Libbie
Shenandoah Valley, 1864
The Second Remove
Libbie
The Third Remove
Libbie
Libbie
Appomattox Station, April 1865
The Fourth Remove
Kansas, 1867
Libbie
The Fifth Remove
The Sixth Remove
Smokey Hill River, 1867
Libbie
The Seventh Remove
Kansas, July 1867
Golden Buffalo
Libbie
Indian Territory, Antelope Hills, Washita River, November 1868
Golden Buffalo
The Eighth Remove
Libbie
Washita River Indian Territory, December 1868
The Ninth Remove
Libbie
Tom Custer
Indian Territory, Spring 1869
Tom Custer
Llano Estacado, the Palisaded Plain
Tom Custer
The Tenth Remove
Libbie
Libbie
The Eleventh Remove
The Twelfth Remove
Libbie
Black Hills, Dakota Territory, July 1874
Tom Custer
The Thirteenth Remove
Libbie
Libbie
New York City, Winter 1876
The Fourteenth Remove
The Fifteenth Remove
The Sixteenth Remove
Libbie
The Seventeenth Remove
The Badlands, June 1876
Golden Buffalo
Libbie
The Eighteenth Remove
Author’s Note
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Illustration Credits
Also by Tatjana Soli
About the Author
Copyright
Sarah Crichton Books
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
175 Varick Street, New York 10014
Copyright © 2018 by Tatjana Soli
All rights reserved
First edition, 2018
Owing to limitations of space, illustration credits appear here.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Soli, Tatjana, author.
Title: The Removes / Tatjana Soli.
Description: First edition. | New York: Sarah Crichton Books / Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018. | Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017052980 | ISBN 9780374249311 (hardcover)
Subjects: LCSH: Custer, Elizabeth Bacon, 1842–1933—Fiction. | Women—West (U.S.)—Fiction. | Frontier and pioneer life—Fiction. | Biographical fiction. | Historical fiction.
Classification: LCC PS3619.O43255 R46 2018 | DDC 813/.6—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017052980
Our e-books may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at 1-800-221-7945, extension 5442, or by e-mail at [email protected].
www.fsgbooks.com
www.twitter.com/fsgbooks • www.facebook.com/fsgbooks
eISBN: 9780374715977