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    For the annals of the West are all the richer because once upon a time Orlando Scott Goff in a four-wheeled rig, drawn by a spotted pony, went jouncing over the rutted trails that led upriver.

—Elmo Scott Watson (1949)

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     Come along to once upon a summer at Fort Abraham Lincoln, Dakota Territory—one year before the Battle of the Little Bighorn. This study of two extraordinary historical photographs derives from a twelve-exposure set marking the post visit of a group of young people in June and July of 1875. Both images were taken by frontier photographer Orlando S. Goff on 2 July 1875 at a campsite along the Heart River during an overnight Fourth of July outing. The celebratory party consisted of General George Armstrong Custer and his wife Elizabeth, eight Seventh Cavalry officers, two accompanied by their wives and another by his fiancée, two infantry officers, two Army surgeons, four civilians, and two companies of troops—all serenaded by the Seventh Cavalry regimental band! Days earlier, lieutenants Tom Custer and W. W. Cooke specifically selected the picturesque site. Such historic occasion deserved documentation to record. So off on a rutted trail west of Fort Lincoln trotted Orlando Goff’s spotted pony drawing his four-wheeled rig full of photographic equipment. The story of the excursion is told through his photographs and narrated by garrison guest, sixteen-year-old Leonard Herbert Swett. In role of virtual frontier journalist, Swett shared his on-the-scene account in personal letters home to family. Through the magic of Goff’s images paired with Swett’s correspondence, the authors offer true tales behind the “shadows.” More than one mystery is solved, and previous inaccuracies corrected.

 

     Designed as a condensed edition of its broader work, Camping with Custer's Cavalry on the Heart River, concentrates solely on the two images documenting the overnight camping trip to Heart River, Dakota Territory. The larger pictorial book published simultaneously, A Summer with the Seventh Cavalry: The O. S. Goff Images examines all dozen photographs and places Goff’s set within context of the entire summer. Supported by primary source material—military and personal documents, records, newspaper articles—the full edition reveals fascinating facts and provides fresh insight into garrison society at old Fort Lincoln. Both books serve as pictorial introduction to a forthcoming documentary trilogy, Fates Change Horses.

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     Understandably, most studies on George Armstrong Custer’s Seventh U. S. Cavalry dwell on the Little Bighorn fights of June 1876. The tragic drama starring a sure-fire lieutenant colonel with sixteen commissioned officers and five companies of soldiers under his command, all slain to a man, continues to be discussed, dissected, and disputed to this day. During the Heart River outing, Goff’s camera focused on several personalities within the coterie of Custer family and friends. In several cases, a Goff exposure survived as an individual’s last photographic record. Camping with Custer’s Cavalry on the Heart River offers visual insight into the Custer clan’s final Fourth of July in garrison. During those halcyon hours, little but a fevered nightmare reckoned a near future when the fate of the famed Seventh Cavalry would change horses.