The honeymoon of Elizabeth Bacon and George Armstrong Custer was interrupted in 1864 by his call to duty with the Army of the Potomac. She begged to be allowed to go along, thus setting the pattern of her future life. From that time on, she accompanied General Custer on all of his major assignments, aside from the summer Indian campaigns--"the only woman," she said, "who always rode with the regiment."

Her story, told by herself, is an absorbing adventure. Moreover, there is a added bonus--a gentle, loving portrait of George Armstrong Custer, husband and man, by the person who knew...