H. G. Wells and the culminating ape Book

I anticipated perusing this book for a long while, but after reading through it, I became somewhat disappointed. It's a good read, yes; but, in my opinion, it lacks some indefinable element that makes a book worth reading over and over again. The book is a fictional story about the Battle of the Little Bighorn. For the most part, the entire book is about events which actually occurred; however, the author takes some liberties with the characters' dialogue, conversations, and personal thoughts but, even then, these are all based upon historical accounts and research.

Historically speaking, the dramatic events that led up to the Little Bighorn battle, and the array of characters who took part in it, are as numerous as they are intriguing. The author does a fine job of portraying some of the key players who were involved in the legendary spectacle; nevertheless, it seems to me that he could have included a few more prominent individuals in his cast; or, at least, given them bigger roles. The same thing can be said about certain events. In his story, the author describes and mixes many noteworthy occurrences that took place prior to the fight, but he also leaves out a few renowned incidents that seemingly should have also been included.

Within the context of his tale, the writer unfortunately makes a few historical errors. For one reason or another, he tends to confuse General Terry with Colonel Gibbon. For instance, he has Terry uttering the famous lines, "Don't be greedy, Custer. Wait for us," when it was actually Col. Gibbon who said that to Custer. Too, in his footnotes the author states:

"No Hipbone was the Crows' name for General Alfred Terry, a very slender man. The Crows said that Terry was a 'man without hips,' and the name stuck."

'No Hipbone' was actually the sobriquet given to Colonel John Gibbon. The Indian scouts thought Gibbon walked funny; and he did - it was the result of severe wounds he received during the Civil War. Another error in the book crops up when the author refers to Fort Abraham Lincoln as being located in Nebraska. It's not, of course. The fort was (is) located in North Dakota. How a military historian and former U.S. cavalry officer messed that up defies the imagination.

Another part which disagreed with me takes place when the writer describes an exchange between Custer and Mitch Bouyer. The general and his scouts are on top of a steep promontory known as the 'Crow's Nest' located in the Wolf Mts. Bouyer is telling Custer about the huge Indian village in the distant valley, but Custer cannot see it. The author writes:

"General, if you don't find more damn Injuns in that valley than you ever saw together in your life, you can hang me!"
Custer cast a sideways glance at Bouyer and grinned. "It'd do a damned sight of good to hang you, wouldn't it?" The general nudged Lieutenant Varnum with an elbow, and the young cavalryman broke into a broad smile.

The lines above are based on actual eyewitness accounts; they really did occur. Eyewitness accounts also say that, at that moment, the dialogue between Custer and his scout was strained. For one thing, unless particularly perturbed, Custer rarely swore. In other words, Custer's actual reply to Bouyer's statement displayed some agitation; the general was keyed up because he couldn't see the village. Personally, I think this tension between Custer and Bouyer would have added some edginess and suspense to the plot, providing an indirect foreshadowing of the gloom and doom to come; yet, for all of that, the author decided to turn this uneasy conversation into one of lightheartedness and levity.

Overall, "A Road We Do Not Know" is a decent fictional account of Custer and the Battle of the Little Bighorn. It's not nearly as good as Michael Blake's, "Marching to Valhalla," but I liked it well enough. When you get down to it, however, the infamous showdown at the Little Bighorn doesn't need to be fictionalized; there's already enough drama in its historical records to satisfy even Shakespeare.