Reply #23: Here Is a Thumbnail Brief on Colonel Custer from a webpage named "Your Heroes Are Not Our Heroes"

[mikekohr]

http://www.brotherhooddays.com/HEROES.html#GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER:

GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER:
After graduating last in his class at West Point and setting a record for demerits and reprimands Custer quickly proved his willingness to please his superiors and to succeed at any cost. Rising quickly through the ranks, Custer became the youngest man ever to attain the rank of General. His reckless bravado resulted in many Civil War victories but at the cost of troops under his command suffering the highest casualty rate in the war. 35). 23).

One specific incident during the Civil War would provide particular insight into Custer's character. In 1864, General U.S. Grant issued an order that stated that any men fighting under the command of Confederate Colonel John S. Mosby that were captured, should be summarily executed. The order, relayed through Union General Phil Sheridan, was ignored by all but one of General Sheridan's subordinates, and that lone exception was General George Custer. Custer captured six of Colonel Mosby's men in September of 1864 and had them shot to death on the streets of Fort Royal, Virginia. 34). Soon after the end of the Civil War Custer's ruthless behavior and naked ambition would be brought to bear against the Plains People.

Anxious to prove himself an "Indian Fighter," Custer was given command of an army with which he scoured the states of Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma, hoping to engage any Indians that he might find. During this command Custer had deserters shot without benefit of hearings. This in-spite of the fact that Custer himself on numerous occasions deserted his command to be in the company of his wife or to go off on hunting expeditions. In September of 1867 Custer was court-martialed and convicted of abandoning his command and having deserters executed. He was sentenced to a one year suspension without pay for these crimes. http://leav-www.army.mil/history/custer.htm

Ten months later General Phil Sheridan reinstated Custer to command a campaign against the Southern Cheyenne in Oklahoma. Desperate for action that would redeem his honor, Custer came upon a peaceful camp of Southern Cheyenne camped along the Washita River, on November 28th, 1868.

This encampment was nearby an U.S. army outpost and under the leadership of the "Peace Chief, Black Kettle." The lodge of Black Kettle flew a large U.S. flag identifying the camp as a "friendly village." Black Kettle was given this flag by the United States government and told that as long as it flew over his lodge he and his people would be under the protection of the United States Army.

Custer's scouts identified this small camp circle as a friendly village and warned the general not to attack. Custer ignored his scouts and ordered any man shot that attempted to prevent his plans for attack the next morning. As Custer planned the attack on the village he did not conduct reconnaissance of the village and surrounding area .

The next morning, November 29th 1868, marching to his favorite tune "Gary Owen," Custer and his soldiers attacked the village. The 67 year old Black Kettle and his wife Medicine Women Later, walked toward the attacking cavalry, carrying a white flag and calling out for peace. Black Kettle and Medicine Woman Later were shot down and killed. Their bodies and the white flag were trampled under the hooves of the horses and into the bloody mud, as the Calvary advanced on the village.

Black Kettle, always a voice for peace and accommodation with the Whites, was to be betrayed in his trust a second time. First at the Massacre of Sand Creek when his people were butchered by the Methodist preacher John Chivington and a second and final time along the banks of the river known as the Washita. One-hundred and three Cheyenne people, died there along with Black Kettle and his wife. Ninety-two of the dead were women, children, and old people unable to flee the advance of Custer and his troops.

As the Cheyenne warriors fought a rear-guard action to protect the fleeing villagers, Custer ordered a contingent of 18 men under the command of Lt. Joel Elliot to cut off the escape route of the terrified villagers. The Cheyenne were running in the direction of the rest of the strung-out encampment of Cheyenne and Arapaho people. There were, unknown to Custer because of his lack of reconnaissance, over 6000 other Native People camped further downstream on the Washita this day.

Lt. Elliot and his men rode into the face of warriors riding down to investigate the sounds of gunfire coming from Black Kettle's camp. As the sounds from this ensuing battle made its way to Custer's position, Custer realized he was in grave danger. He abandoned his position and left Lt. Elliot and his men without support. Lt. Elliot and his men were all killed.

Custer skillfully manipulated the reporting of these facts and escaped responsibility for abandoning Lt. Elliot and his men. Custer was hailed as a hero for his actions . The fact that he had knowingly attacked a peaceful camp of Indian people and murdered over 100 Cheyenne men, women, and children, did little to tarnish the luster of his growing popularity with the American People. After the massacre at the Washita, Custer was mentioned as a possible candidate for President by the press and many prominent politicians.

In 1873, Colonel D.S. Stanley, Custer's superior officer on a surveying expedition along the Yellowstone, would write to his wife about Custer, " a cold-blooded, untruthful and unprincipled man .... universally despised by all the officers of his regiment." 35).

Colonel Custer would, three years later, confirm Stanley's assessment of him. Blinded by ambition he recklessly unleashed an uncoordinated attack on a gathering of Lakota, and Northern Cheyenne People on June 25th, 1876 at the place called the Greasy Grass. Remembering the lessons of Sand Creek and the Washita massacres, the Lakota, and Cheyenne, fought back. Custer's ambition and reckless actions led 267 soldiers, 34 Lakota and 7 Cheyenne People to their deaths that hot day in June.

Colonel Stanley would eventually rise on his merits to the rank of Brigadier General. But history seldom mentions the steady Colonel Stanley and all but forgets his prophetic assessment of Custer's character. Custer would in defeat, rise to mythic status in Western history and folklore of that of a gallant American hero, and defy in death an accounting of his life.

Elizabeth Bacon Custer, the Colonel's widow, devoted the rest of her life, to a largely successful attempt to rehabilitate the image of her late husband. She wrote of her efforts: "There will come a time when tradition and history are so intermingled that no one will be able to separate them." 51).
Mrs. Custer lived until 1933, and died just two days short of her 91st birthday. To quote Robert Paul Jordan, " ....she remained George Custer's greatest admirer, brooking no detractions, singing his praises in three books. She described their military life and adventures simply and clearly and with something less than the whole truth." 54).


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To view the 1876 Chicago Tribune's opinion of Colonel Custer and his actions at the Greasy Grass hit on the hyperlink below.


http://www.brotherhooddays.com/chicagotribune1.html