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Custer Newspaper Collection. Full year

Currency:USD Category:Antiques Start Price:200.00 USD Estimated At:400.00 - 600.00 USD
Custer Newspaper Collection. Full year
Custer Newspaper Collection. Full year 1876 of newspaper, Democratic Register, Sing Sing (Ossining), N.Y., rich in Custer content. Including complete coverage of prelude to the Custer massacre, the battle itself, and the aftermath, with other Custer content. Large narrow folio, old marbled boards. Weekly. 12 x 19, 8 pp. ea. Custer is first seen in the issue of May 10, 1876, in a third-column item entitled, "Value of Discipline," prophetically quoting him on the confusion at 1st Bull Run. On May 31, a closely-set half-column article is ironically entitled, "The Truth of History - Custer on M'Clellan," on "Custer's greatest sin." In an astonishing circumstance, an article, "The Warriors of the Plains," appears the very week before news of the massacre, describing the Sioux who would clash with Custer. (The battle had actually already occurred, but took some two weeks to reach the East.) "The Sioux are probably in better fighting condition to-day than any other tribe of Indians in America... They have long expected a conflict with the whites, and with military sagacity have placed themselves on a war footing...The Indian chiefs...express great contempt for the fighting qualities of the soldiers, and speak of them in derision as squaws...." In the next issue, July 12, the lead story is, "The Terrible Slaughter - Who is Responsible?" "Somebody has blundered, and we fear that the administration of Pres. Grant has added another to its long list of fearful, if not wilfull, and guilty mistakes...It chills the blood...." Custer again appears in the same issue, in "Summary of News": "...The savages surrounded Custer's command on all sides, and although the little troop fought with the utmost desperation, they were all killed or wounded, including Custer, his two brothers, nephew and brother-in-law...." A third, and lengthy, article on same page describes the battle between Sitting Bull's Sioux and Gen. Crook. The next week, a brief item, "How Custer was Killed." On Aug. 2, three additional articles, "The Death of Custer": "Where was Custer?..." "After Rain-in-the-Face shot Gen. Custer he cut Custer's heart out, placed it on a pole, and paraded with it...." On Aug. 9, "How the Sioux Fight," mentioning Custer's mistaking tepees for a "family camp." On Aug. 16, long account of "The Little Big Horn Battle," a dramatic, detailed, blood-curdling narrative of a witness. In addition, a treasure trove of coverage of other events of the Gilded Age, scandals of Grant's Presidency, opening of Philadelphia Centennial Exposition (with six woodcuts), the hotly contested election of 1876, and more. Tilden was a local son - he later resided in a 99-room mansion in Yonkers - and he was supported vigorously. Subsequent issues contain further coverage of Indian massacres and the Indian Wars. Very first leaf of first Jan. issue lacking (and perhaps never present, as small-town papers are generally rare, and the few (or sole) surviving copies of a given issue are often imperfect); balance three leaves of first issue (only) shaken and chipped. Other issues with occasional and unobjectionable light staining or toning, but fine to very fine. Occasional neat check marks in old soft pencil beside news items of local interest, probably by a historical society indexer.