16. Building the legend
When Libbie Custer published Tenting on the Plains, which described in detail the campaigns led by Winfield Hancock in Kansas in 1867, she also became one of the first to chronicle the tensions between the United States and France over the French intervention in Mexico. Her husband’s actions during the wars against the Indians between Arkansas and the Platte rivers were described in terms which at times seemed critical of the army and its endless bureaucratic dithering. Custer is described as a ruthless enemy of the corrupt officials at the agencies which took advantage of the Indian tribes, both lining their pockets and endangering their charges.
Following the Guidon, which Libbie wrote using the letters written by Custer during the campaign which culminated at Washita Creek as references, describes the winter encampments and the military operations as well as her own life at a remote army post. Together with her earlier works, Libbie presented the sacrifices made by Army wives and families, one of the first writers to do so. Libbie was also one of the first to describe the adventures of Wild Bill Hickok and the other colorful army scouts and adventurers. She was a celebrated writer, yet she remained, for the most part, a recluse, refusing most callers, and maintaining the image of a widow devoted to her husband’s memory.