One Crowded Hour

Summary

William Benet Sterling and his best friend Jacob (Jake) Brown, two Kansas farm boys, realize their dream of riding with the famed seventh cavalry joining the unit at Fort Abraham Lincoln. The two teenagers gallop headlong into battle with Major Reno and A company as they mount a breath-taking charge against the Sioux and Cheyenne village along the river. They live the terror of being forced back into a small grove of cottonwood trees helplessly watching wounded friends being butchered and brutalized. As the fighting builds to an impossible pitch, it becomes clear that the only way out of this killing box is to charge into the enemy and race for better cover. Three companies of cavalry blast out of flimsy cover and into the open valley. The Indians realize the advantage and turn the breakout into a buffalo chase. Troopers endure a running gun battle through the valley, across the Little Bighorn River, and up a coulee to a flat, but defensible portion of the rolling bluffs.

Over the next 36 hours the boys fight for their lives, and the lives of those around them as Indians occupy the heights. Death stalks every second they stay on that hill. When it becomes clear men are going to start dying of thirst they volunteer to be part of a water party that must sneak back down the coulee, dart across 300 yards of open ground that is defended by the enemy, fill canteens, and make it back up hill safely.

This book took two years to research and write in order to provide the most accurate account of all the battles in the Little Bighorn Valley. Aside from the two main characters every player in the story is accurate, including names, backgrounds, wounds, and participation in the battle. All operations in that battle have been included and written in detail.