The End of the Civil War and Custer’s New Frontier

With the end of the Civil War sesquicentennial this April, publishers have kept bookstore shelves heavy with dozens of new volumes on the conflict, including Perry D. Jamieson’s comprehensive Spring 1865: The Closing Campaigns of the Civil War (University of Nebraska Press).

While Jamieson just touches on the role of brevet Maj. Gen. George A. Custer’s single-handed attempt to force the Confederate surrender at Appomattox, T.J. Stiles’ Custer’s Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America (Knopf, October) will undoubtedly provide greater detail on the brazen young officer’s actions the last days of the war.

The Pulitzer Prize winning author’s intimate biography of the controversial American icon should prove to be as provocative and ground breaking in interpretation as his award-winning biographies of Cornelius Vanderbilt and Jesse James.