edly used are cited by footnote, but in an abbreviated form that includes
the last name of the first author, a partial title, and the specific page
number; it closes with a parenthetical capital letter that identifies one of
four standard categories in the bibliography. Categories A (articles) and
B (books) are alphabetized by the last name of the first author, but the
entry there provides the names of all authors, full titles, name of periodi-
cal, publisher, date, and any other pertinent information. The footnote
thus keys to the bibliography, whose function is to enable interested
readers to find the source of the information for themselves. Categories G
(government documents) and M (manuscripts in other repositories) are
less extensive, but footnotes again identify the full entry to be found
there.

In the last two-thirds of the book, which covers the Gibbon and Custer
campaigns in 1876, a multitude of participant accounts are quoted re-
peatedly on nearly every page; these participants become quite familiar
characters. The lead-in to such quotations, in the text, includes the par-
ticipant's name, the type of evidence (diary, letter, narrative, interview,
etc.), and the specific page number (in parentheses), except that for
diaries the entry date replaces the page number. This text information
keys to one of two special categories in the bibliography. Categories X
( Gibbon's men) and Y ( Custer's men) are alphabetized by the participant's
name, and the entries give the type (and interviewer's name) and date.
The rest of the entry, like a footnote, gives the source in abbreviated form
and its standard category letter. In short, a thousand footnotes are re-
placed by special categories.

Another thousand footnotes are eliminated for Custer's men who gave
evidence at the Reno Court of Inquiry, held at Chicago in 1879, less than
three years after the battle. This evidence is cited in the text only, by the
name of the witness and the key words "testimony" or "testified," followed
by the specific page number in parentheses. Most such testimony is taken
from Reno Court of Inquiry (B), but it occasionally comes from Graham
Abstract of the Official Record (B), in which case the text reads "( Graham
Abstract, p. no.)."

-xviii-