Mar 18, 2010 - Sale 2207

Sale 2207 - Lot 97

Price Realized: $ 570
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
CUSTER, GEORGE ARMSTRONG. Letter from the Secretary of War, Transmitting . . . a Report of the Expedition to the Black Hills. 9 pages. 8vo, disbound; lightly toned, minimal wear. 43rd Congress, 2nd Session, Senate Ex. Doc. 32. [Washington,] 26 February 1875

Additional Details

Custer's official August 1874 dispatches from his Black Hills expedition. Here Custer writes: "Gold has been found at several places . . . I have upon my table forty or fifty small particles of pure gold . . . most of it obtained to-day from one panful of earth." His second report elaborates: "It has not required an expert to find gold in the Black Hills, as men without former experience in mining have discovered it at an expense of but little time or labor." This news unsurprisingly launched a gold rush, and the resulting tensions with the Sioux led to Custer's death at Little Big Horn less than two years later. with--"Memorial of the Legislature of Dakota, Praying that the Black Hills of Dakota be Opened for Settlement, and the Indian Title to the Same be Extinguished." 2 pages. [Washington], 11 January 1875.