About the Book
History has a way of bestowing a more lasting immortality on important people who die at the height of their earthly achievements. Famous personalities who are cut down at the height of their fame leave people clamoring to know more about them. Books and songs are written about them. Pictorial mementoes and keepsakes are in demand. The celebrated military figure General George Armstrong Custer, whose life ended so abruptly, is no exception. Interest in him, and those associated with him, has never diminished with the passing time. Elizabeth Bacon Custer, George’s faithful wife, and more than two dozen women who lost their husbands at the Battle of Little Big Horn, fall into that category.
Elizabeth Bacon Custer set the social tone at Fort Lincoln, Nebraska, where she and twenty-five other women were living when their spouses perished in June 1876. She helped the ladies deal with the difficulties of life on the Plains; how to handle frostbite, how to treat heat prostration due to the suffocating amount of clothing, how to obtain water through holes cut in the ice of lakes or rivers, and how best to entertain themselves while waiting for their husbands to return from a campaign.
When a soldier left the fort, his wife never knew if he would return. Eliza Porter, wife of 1st Lieutenant Colonel I. Porter of Custer’s 7th Cavalry, described the last get-together Elizabeth Custer hosted for the officers and their families this way. “Here are those nice fellows gathered around the Custer’s table, all discussing the situation and all knowing they will never all come back. One leaves his watch and little fixings and says, ‘if one of those bullets gets me, send this to my wife waiting for me in Independence.’
One need not search any further to unearth the reason why “Boots and Saddles,” the call to battle written by Elizabeth Custer, struck terror into the hearts of Army wives. Each wondered if she would be widowed or if the role of widowhood would be forced upon her friends. After the men were assembled, they rode out proudly to the strains of “The Girl I Left Behind Me.”
In order to hide their tears and anxiety from their husbands, many wives did as Elizabeth Porter did; they refused to watch the column’s ride away from the fort. They preferred to say goodbye behind closed doors. Fear and weeping were private.
Nine months after the massacre at Custer’s Last Stand, Elizabeth Custer scheduled a reunion with the widows of the Little Big Horn. On June 25, 1887, the women met in Monroe, Michigan, to reflect on the events leading up to the battle, remember the loved ones that were killed, and share how they have been able to go on.
The widows got together every year for more than twenty years. In between reunions they corresponded with each other, exchanged photographs, and supported one another through the difficult times.
The never-before-seen materials that will be used to write the book entitled Elizabeth Custer and the Widows of the Little Big Horn will be provided by the curators of the Elizabeth Custer Library and Museum at Garryowen, Montana; an example of some of the historical materials that will be provided include letters between Elizabeth Custer and the other widows, letters to and from politicians and the widows supporting and criticizing General Custer, and agendas and pictures of the widows at the annual meetings.
There have been many books written about General George Custer and a handful have been penned about Elizabeth Bacon Custer, but there have been nothing written about the widows of the Last Stand. This will be a first.
About the Author :
Chris Enss is an author, scriptwriter and comedienne who has written for television and film, and performed on cruise ships and on stage. She has worked with award-winning musicians, writers, directors, producers, and as a screenwriter for Tricor Entertainment, but her passion is for telling the stories of the men and women who shaped the history and mythology of the American West. Some of the most famous names in history, not to mention film and popular culture, populate her books. She's written or co-written more than two dozen books for TwoDot. And she's also a licensed private detective.
Review :
"Chris Enss and Howard Kazanjian's inspiring history title, The Widowed Ones, is about seven women who banded together to overcome their grief.Itis a compelling history text focused on women's experiences following the Battle of the Little Bighorn."-- "Foreword Clarion Reviews"
"Readers interested in 19th-century, women's and military history will be drawn into this thoroughly humane and sympathetic treatment of U.S. army widows."-- "Library Journal"
"The rigor of the scholarly research on display here is quite simply astonishing, as the authors seem to leave no stone unturned."--Kirkus Reviews
"This is a perspicacious study that not only captures these particular women's plights, but also an age in which independence for women came with extensive difficulties."--Kirkus Reviews
"Well-researched and dramatically conveyed historical account."--Kirkus Reviews
Exceptionally well written, organized and presented, "The Widowed Ones: Beyond the Battle of the LittleBighorn" is an ideal and unreservedly recommended addition to 19th Century American Biography supplemental studies curriculum.-- "Library Bookwatch/Midwest Book Review"
Women Writing the West Willa Cather Award Winner for Scholarly Nonfiction
America has a mythic story that is inhabited by giants, men like General George Armstrong Custer, Captain Thomas Ward Custer, and Lieutenant James Calhoun. They live large on the silver screen, in literature, and in the American imagination. We can all see them on Last Stand Hill, out of ammunition, their sabers drawn, knowing the end is coming. But there is another story--a story that has largely been ignored for over a century and a half. It's the powerful and heartrending tale of what happened to the wives they left behind after the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Hounded by the media and tormented by souvenir hunters, they were not allowed to move beyond the sorrow. Once or twice in a lifetime comes a meticulously researched book that so radically changes your understanding of a historical event it is as though the scales fall from your eyes and you actually see what happened for the first time. The Widowed Ones: Beyond the Battle of the Little Bighorn is that book.
Listen to the women's side of the story. We promise you will never be the same.--W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O'Neal Gear, New York Times bestselling authors of Dissolution and The Ice Orphan
The Widowed Ones is based on a highly original idea; it's an authentic look into the lives of those left behind after battle. In this case, it's the Battle of the Little Bighorn, and the main character, in this latest of Chris Enss's non-fiction books about women of the west, is Elizabeth Custer. Custer and the officers who fell during battle were dedicated soldiers. But they were also husbands and brothers, sons and fathers. When they died, they left an extraordinary gap in their wives' lives. There was no income. It was difficult for a woman to find a respectable job. There were children and aging parents to care for. There was the deep grief that each widow carried throughout her life.
The women in The Widowed Ones rode with their husbands into the frontier. They set about making homes in new territory. Elizabeth Custer often rode 70 and 80 miles per day with her husband, and she reveled in the adventure. Other wives chose to stay in camp.
These women had one thing in common--they each lost their partner in a polarizing battle. They formed, what we would call now, a support group. The women of the Widows' Circle met with each other, commiserated, and supported each other. Those who could not be present stayed in touch by telegraph and letter. They were the only ones who truly understood each other's situation. They were watched by a worldwide press. Their motto? "Once a widow, always cautious."
The Widowed Ones is exceptional in several ways, not the least of which is that every detail was carefully researched but it reads as if it were a novel. Very few non-fiction books are difficult for a reader to put down. This is one of those books.--Win and Meredith Blevins, Best Selling Authors of The Darkness Rolling and Moonlight Water
This reviewer owns countless books on Custer and the battle at the Little Big Horn. Some are well researched. Some are well written. Few enjoy both qualities. "The Widowed Ones" scores ten in both respects. It also presents an entirely new angle to the oft done subject matter. In other words, this is the best Custer book ever for the casual reader and the jaded western researcher. Bravo! Chris Enss. She, in collaboration with Howard Kazanjian and Chris Kortlander, gives a stunning and emotionally charged view of the women that were left behind after the historic loss of George Custer's command in 1876.
The book weaves its way through the devastation wrought upon Libby Custer and the widowed wives of the men that wore the blue of the 7th Cavalry. Enss and Kazanjian do a terrific job detailing the women's handling of loss; not only their husband's demise, but also the pain of official criticism aimed to besmirch their loved ones, and their grappling with getting on with their lives without any apparent means. The path Libby et. al. took is detailed in "The Widowed Ones", an insightful glimpse of how the survivors cope, or don't. Each reader can measure their grit and resolute devotion to their fallen husbands. It is a marvelous story. Enss and company have filled in a neglected hole in one of the West's greatest historical events. If you are restricted to one last book purchase, this is the one."-- "Arizona Daily Star"
