Great Story

"The Little Bighorn was a great story for two main reasons: the magnitude of the defeat and the death of Custer. Furthermore, the circumstances of the battle and Custer's career were controversial, a main characteristic of any good story. . . . Like many of those with outsize personalities, Custer attracted devoted friends but equally bitter enemies in his lifetime, and the fantastic nature of his death has carried the same debate forward among historians and Custer buffs who are sometimes called Custerphiles or Custerphobes, depending on their perspective. Both camps find his life endlessly fascinating, and with good reason, for it includes the highs and lows of a real American character" (James E. Mueller, Shooting Arrows and Slinging Mud: Custer, the Press, and the Little Bighorn, 11).