Marcus Reno is a pariah, a controversial figure accused of being responsible for the worst disaster ever to befall the army of the United States. Thirteen years past, he was one of George Armstrong Custer’s senior officers when Custer and over 200 men in his command were annihilated by Sioux and Cheyenne warriors above the Little Big Horn River in Montana Territory.Now, in the spring of 1889, Major Reno is dying and wants to tell the real story of the Custer battle and wants his honor–the most precious word in his vocabulary--restored.
Richard S. Wheeler, a master of the biographical novel, provides a brilliant reconstruction of the Custer battle and Marcus Reno’s subsequent courts martial for "conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman," and brings to life a tortured man searching for peace and respect.