A Distant Bugle — Robert Vaughan

Captain Frank Sanders, an archivist in the War Department in the 1940's happens upon a fascinating file. It seems that there was a member of George Armstrong Custer's famed 7th U.S. Cavalry who did not perish in the bloody Battle of the Little Bighorn. Learning that one-time Custer adjutant Jack Shields is still alive at age 96, Captain Sanders sets out to see that he receives the Medal of Honor that was approved by Ulysses S. Grant but never awarded. Thus begins the story of Lieutenant Jack Shields, surviving officer of Custer's Last Stand in 1876, as veteran author and soldier Robert Vaughan takes us back in time to relieve a vital period in American history. Through the eyes of young Jack Shields and Flaire Baynard, the beautiful woman he loves, we are given a new perspective on the enigmatic, flamboyant Custer, his wife Libbie, his friends and family, subordinates and superiors. And as the banners wave, the horses shuffle nervously, and the bugle sounds "charge!" we are transported to the brink of the Little Bighorn River in South Montana, where Crazy Horse and some 4,000 Sioux warriors await us with bow and arrow, rifle and war club at the ready.....