Tenting on the Plains; Or, General Custer in Kansas and Texas

In the aftermath of the Civil War, a young wife embarks on a journey into the American frontier, documenting the chaos, camaraderie, and uncertainty that await her family in the lawless lands of Kansas and Texas. Elizabeth Bacon Custer writes not as a general's wife observing from afar, but as an active participant in her husband's military world, one who shares tents with soldiers, endures brutal frontier conditions, and forms deep bonds with the men under Custer's command. The narrative opens with a wrenching farewell from the Army of the Potomac, where Libbie witnesses the raw emotion between her husband and his men, establishing the intimate tone that defines the entire account. As the couple travels westward, she captures the peculiar mix of adventure and dread that defined post-war frontier life: the joy of discharged soldiers boarding trains, the anxiety of entering a territory where law bends to circumstance, and the quiet moments between campaigns where military families forged communities bound by shared hardship. This is neither a military history nor a simple travelogue, but a woman's unflinching account of building a life on the margins of American civilization, where every sunset brings both relief and the nagging question of what tomorrow might demand.