Beadle's Dime Library No. 362

This Beadle dime novel, titled "Oath-Bound to Custer," by Col. Prentiss Ingraham, centers on a Western adventure involving Buffalo Bill and the historical context of Custer's Last Stand. The main narrative opens with Buffalo Bill as a stagecoach driver who cleverly outwits the bandit Bill Bevins by routing the gold shipment through a separate coach. Enraged at being deceived, Bevins captures Buffalo Bill and orders the stage—carrying trapped passengers including two ladies, an Eastern tenderfoot, and a Chinese passenger—to be driven recklessly down Breakneck Hill. The OCR is partially degraded at the story's conclusion, but Chapter Three introduces General Custer arriving on horseback across the prairie, trailed by mounted men. The text includes a historical testimonial from Lieutenant Colonel E.A. Carr validating Cody's scouting abilities and his role in frontier campaigns.