THE GIRL I LEFT BEHIND ME1
I’m lonesome since I crossed the hill,
And o’er the moor and valley,
Such heavy thoughts my heart do fill,
Since parting with my Sally.
I’ll seek no more the fine and gay,
For each but does remind me,
How swift the hours did pass away,
With the girl I left behind me.
Oh, ne’er shall I forget the night,
The stars were bright above me,
And gently lent their silv’ry light
When first she vowed she loved me.
But now I’m bound for Brighton camp,
Kind Heav’n may favour find me,
And send me safely back again,
To the girl I left behind me.
The bee shall honey taste no more,
The dove becomes a ranger,
The dashing waves shall cease to roar,
Ere she’s to me a stranger,
The vows we’ve registered above,
Shall ever cheer and bind me,
In constancy to her I love,
The girl I left behind me.
—Samuel Lover, 1797–1868
BY RICHARD S. WHEELER FROM TOM DOHERTY ASSOCIATES
Aftershocks
An Obituary for Major Reno
Badlands
The Buffalo Commons
Cashbox
Eclipse
The Exile
Fool’s Coach
Goldfield
Masterson
Montana Hitch
Second Lives
Sierra
Sun Mountain
Where the River Runs
SAM FLINT
Flint’s Gift
Flint’s Truth
Flint’s Honor
SKYE’S WEST
Sun River
Bannack
Yellowstone
Bitterroot
Sundance
Wind River
Santa Fe
Rendezvous
Going Home
Dark Passage
Downriver
Deliverance
AUTHOR’S NOTES
THIS NOVEL RESTS HEAVILY ON THE SPLENDID NEW BIOGRAPHY OF Marcus Reno, In Custer’s Shadow: Major Marcus Reno, by Ronald H. Nichols. The work is balanced, exhaustive, and richly detailed. Much of the official material, largely army records, quoted directly or paraphrased in my novel is drawn from Mr. Nichols’ biography, and the rest is largely drawn from W. A. Graham’s abstract of the Reno Court of Inquiry.
Other valuable sources I consulted in the writing of this novel include The Custer Myth, by W. A. Graham, Custer and the Great Controversy, by Robert Utley, Reno and Apsaalooka Survive Custer, by Ottie W. Reno, The Battle of the Little Bighorn: A Comprehensive Study, by Jack Pennington, With Custer on the Little Bighorn, by William O. Taylor, Phil Sheridan and His Army, by Paul Andrew Hutton, Forty Miles a Day on Beans and Hay, by Don Rickey, Jr., Custer and the Little Bighorn, by Jim Donovan, The 1865 Customs of Service for Officers of the Army, by August V. Kautz, and Forts of the West, by Robert W. Frazer.
Joseph and Nadine Richler are fictional. All the rest are real people, depicted fictionally.
I am indebted to my editor, historian Dale L. Walker, for supplying me with copious material and ideas, which I found most valuable.
—Richard S. Wheeler
February 2003
Notes
1 The tune played at Fort Abraham Lincoln as the Seventh Cavalry marched toward destiny.
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this novel are either fictitious or are used fictitiously.
AN OBITUARY FOR MAJOR RENO
Copyright © 2004 by Richard S. Wheeler
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.
A Forge Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
www.tor-forge.com
Forge® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
Book design by Nicole de las Heras
eISBN 9781429940337
First eBook Edition : May 2011
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wheeler, Richard S.
An obituary for Major Reno / Richard S. Wheeler.—1st ed. p. cm.
“A Tom Doherty Associates book.”
ISBN 0-765-30708-1
EAN 978-0765-30708-8
1. Reno, Marcus A. (Marcus Albert), 1835–1889—Fiction. 2. Little Bighorn, Battle of the, Mont., 1876—Fiction. 3. Terminally ill—Fiction. 4. Journalists—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3573.H4345O23 2004
813.’54—dc22
2004050627
First Edition: December 2004