Bugles in the Afternoon

This historical novel, published in 1943, is set in Montana. It's an account of the devastating outcome for General George Custer's 7th Cavalry Regiment at the Battle of Little Bighorn. The background to the battle is described from the perspective of Lieutenant Kern Shafter and his one-time friend and now bitter adversary Edward Garnett. The high level of casualties due to the inept overconfidence of a general is viewed in the aftermath of the trench warfare of the First World War.

The author, Ernest Haycox (born 1 October 1899), grew up in Portland, Oregon. At the age of 16, he joined the army and served on the Mexican border in a campaign against the forces of Pancho Villa. When the United States entered the First World War, he went with the 162nd Infantry to the Western Front and served as a rifle instructor and military policeman. After the war, he studied journalism in the University of Oregon. From 1924 to 1926 he lived in New York City where he became deeply interested in the American Revolution. He made several trips to battlefields in New England and wrote eight stories and two novellas set during that era. Returning to Oregon in 1926, he decided to concentrated on writing Westerns. He went on to write more than 20 novels and numerous short stories. Several of his works were the basis of well-known films in this genre, most notable of which is Stagecoach.

Some of the scenes in the Battle of Little Bighorn resemble those of the trench warfare of the First World War:
“Bullets whipped by and scraped up flinty showers of earth. Shafter breathed from the bottom of his lungs; he heard men from the higher parapet call him forward. He reached the top and half turned to look behind him and at that moment he was struck hard in the body and he dropped to his hands and knees and was puzzled at his fall. He started to rise again and saw Lieutenant Edgerly striding toward him. He reached out for Edgerly’s hand but his own arm grew too heavy and fell back.”