As an introductory preview of the upcoming documentary trilogy, "Fates Change Horses," this special softcover edition examines two exposures captured by frontier photographer Orlando S. Goff along the Heart River in Dakota Territory during the summer of 1875. The authors look beyond Goff’s lens to provide a poignant personal account of George Armstrong Custer’s Seventh Cavalry’s last summer in garrison. Most studies on Custer’s Cavalry understandably 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 that last full summer, Goff’s camera focused on many within the renowned “Custer Clan” and captured a unique pictorial record. Supported and augmented by primary source material—military and personal documents, records, newspaper accounts—the images reveal fascinating stories, correct long-held errors, and provide fresh insight into Goff’s exposures. The series marked a historic visit to the fort by a group of young Chicagoans. Sixteen-year-old Leonard Herbert Swett, in the role of virtual frontier journalist, shared on-the-scene narration in personal letters. Recollections of Elizabeth Custer and pen voices of additional principals bring bygone days of the Dakota prairie to life. Little but a fevered nightmare reckoned a near future when the fate of a cavalry famed regiment and its celebrated commander would tragically change horses.