John Ryan spent nearly 14 years between 1862 and 1876 in the U.S. Army, taking part in many of the most celebrated military encounters of that era. In January 1862 he marched off to war with the 28th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry regiment, which eventually became part of the famed Irish Brigade of Brig. Gen. Thomas Francis Meagher.

As a private with the 28th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment of the Irish Brigade, Ryan charged with his comrades at Second Bull Run, survived the fiery plains beneath Marye’s Heights at Fredericksburg and in the Wheatfield at Gettysburg, and was wounded three times on his 19th birthday, Aug. 25, 1864, at the Battle of Reams Station, Va., in the Petersburg Campaign. Later, he joined the 61st Massachusetts and saw more action at Petersburg, Va.

Discharged in July 1865, Ryan enlisted again in the Army in November 1866, this time in Company M of the 7th U.S. Cavalry. He would serve for 10 years alongside its legendary commander, Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer. With Custer, Ryan charged the Cheyenne village of Black Kettle at the Battle of the Washita in November 1868. After serving on the Plains in Kansas in the late 1860s and in South Carolina on Reconstruction duty in the early 1870s, he took part in the Yellowstone Expedition of 1873 and the Blacks Hill Expedition of 1874. But his last battle at the Little Big Horn in June 1876 would be what he would talk about and write about for 50 years after his final discharge. As First Sergeant of Company M, Ryan fought heroically in the valley and on the bluffs with the battalion under Maj. Marcus A. Reno. After his military service ended, he returned to his home town of Newton, Mass., where he joined the local police department. In the next 35 years, he rose through the ranks to retire as police captain, the second-ranking officer on the force.

"[Sandy] did a wonderful job. Books on the people of the 7th are rare and to see one is in itself a pleasure. But to see one this well done really makes me feel good. [The book] combined excellent research and "readability" into a fascinating account, and that is all too rare today or any day for that matter…. Can truthfully say this is by far the best book of any one individual of the 7th written…. A superb work."

Tom O’Neil,

Editor, LBHA Newsletter

Listen to what another reviewer wrote:

"It is not often that something appears which truly helps to shape and make clear our historical vision. Custer’s First Sergeant John Ryan is one of those exceptions…. This Ryan biography helps to place into perspective just what it was like to have served as an enlisted man during these important times of America’s past. Indeed, as one becomes engrossed in the reading of this work, one begins to get a feel for what it must have been to have known Ryan and to have listened to his story. The more the reader knows of the events that Ryan experienced, the more questions one would have liked to have asked Ryan. As I read this work, all of my questions were anticipated by Sandy and answered throughout the narrative. I came away from this work disappointed that it ended, but satisfied that Sandy did not leave anything out".

"I suspect that this work will soon be among the classics in Custeriana literature."

Jeff Broome

LBHA Newsletter

"As Custer’s first sergeant, John Ryan provides an unique opportunity for perspective on the life of a nineteenth-century noncommissioned officer, and even rarer, on a sergeant who served in the Seventh Cavalry under Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer. Ryan, one of Custer’s best noncommissioned officers, was an enlisted soldier who served 14 years in the United States Army, including ten years in the Seventh Cavalry, and Barnard, well known to students of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, has conducted an exhaustive study of his life….

"The author presents a vivid account of Ryan’s Civil War exploits using clear and easy to follow text, supported by historic photographs, and maps. The next two thirds of the book describes Ryan’s post Civil War years as a member of the Seventh Cavalry serving under Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer. Readers will appreciate the author’s painstaking research, and use of Ryan’s personal accounts, which add to the story….

This book is highly recommended for anyone interested in a rare enlisted man’s perspective of life in the Civil War and Custer’s Seventh Cavalry.

[This book is] well researched, fascinating to read, and are destined to take [its] rightful place as required reading on this fascinating chapter of nineteenth-century American history.

Gerard Baker