. George Armstrong Custer
The son of a blacksmith, Emanuel Custer, George Armstrong Custer was born in New Rumley, Ohio, on 5 December, 1839, one of 5 children. Much of his young life was not spent in the family home however, and he was raised in large part by relatives in Monroe, Ohio. This fact aside, he had a fairly conventional upbringing. Known as Autie, because of a problem he had in pronouncing his middle name, he was a show-off, a notorious prankster, and something of a bully. Often in trouble he didn't perform well academically and though his father wanted him to join the clergy, a military career seemed a better option. So in 1857, he enrolled at the West Point Military Academy. He was not a good cadet and acquired a great many demerits and came close to expulsion on a number of occasions. When he graduated early in 1861, bottom of his class, he was fortunate that it coincided with the outbreak of the civil war otherwise a career of military obscurity would almost certainly have beckoned. In the controversy leading up to the civil war, Custer was very vocal in his support of the Southern cause. Most of his friends were from the south and he was a dedicated pro-slavery man and a lifelong Democrat. Still, he did not believe in the break up of the Union and when war ensued in April, 1861, he went with his State, and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S Cavalry. Fighting with the 3rd Michigan Brigade, known as the Wolverines, his war-time career was one of glory, self-publicity, and rapid promotion. He was involved in some of the most significant cavalry engagements of the war. He fought in General Philip Sheridan's Valley Campaign in the Shenandoah 1864-65, and was at Brandy Station, Yellow Tavern, Trevillian Station and Five Forks. Though he did the groundwork he was no tactical genius. His strategy in battle, for what it was worth, relied upon the headlong charge and trusting to luck, something he admitted himself. On 25 June, 1876, that luck would run out. Still, by April, 1865, he had risen to the temporary rank of Major-General, the youngest Major-General in American military history, he was just 25. Upon the conclusion of the war Custer was thrashing around for something to do. Reduced to his normal rank of Captain he considered a career in mining, the railways, and not for the last time, a career in politics, but the pull of the army was too strong. Earlier on 9 February, 1864, he had married Elizabeth Clift Bacon (Libby) who was to live onto 1933, long enough to see the movie They Died With Their Boots On, starring Errol Flynn, which charted the life of her husband, and of which she greatly approved. In 1867, Custer solicited President Andrew Johnson for a commission in General Winfield Scott Hancock's campaign against the Cheyenne, and it was in the Indian Wars that he was to find fame and become a part of American folklore. He was appointed officer in command of the newly-formed 7th Cavalry. He soon acquired a reputation as the great Indian fighter, though most of his battles were little more than massacres. For example, at the Battle of Washita River on 27 November, 1868, he claimed to have killed over 100 Cheyenne warriors, though in reality most of his victims were women and children. Custer was hated by the Indians, though they respected him as a formidable enemy, Yellow Hair was to them little more than a breaker of oaths and a murderer of children. Likewise, his troopers had no great love for their commanding officer. To them he was flashy and arrogant. Nevertheless, they admired his courage and revelled in the kudos he brought them. In 1873, he was sent to Dakota territory to protect the railway that was being built across Sioux land. On an expedition into the Black Hills he announced the discovery of gold. Black Elk, a Sioux Indian, said of him, " He (Custer) had no right to be there because that country was ours. They had said that the land there would be ours, as long as the grass should grow and the water flow. Later I found that Long Hair had found there much of the yellow metal that sends Waischus (white people) mad. Long Hair had told them about it with a voice that went everywhere. Later he got rubbed out for doing that." Custer was the consummate self-publicist and invited correspondents of the press to accompany him on all of his campaigns. He dressed to impress, with his wide brimmed slouch hat, tight olive coloured corduroy trousers, and black velvet jacket adorned with silver stars. His blonde hair,
scented with cinnamon, he wore long and in ringlets. By the time of his final campaign against the Sioux, however, he had taken to wearing buckskin and had had his thinning hair cut short. He had always had political ambitions and was flattered by the attention showered on him by the Democratic Party who may well have been grooming him as a future Presidential candidate. But he also had a reputation for being less than truthful and of bad-mouthing his fellow officers. On 15 March, 1876, he was summoned to Washington to testify in the case regarding the corruption scandal surrounding U.S Secretary of War William W. Belknap. In his testimony he was outspoken and accusatory and was very critical of President Grant's brother, Orville. As a result he was deemed to be partisan in his views and soon became the victim of a campaign of villification in the Republican press. Custer had hoped that he would be given command of the major military expedition being planned against the Sioux; but now the President would countenance no such thing. Indeed, he was against Custer's involvement at all. Custer tried to arrange a personal meeting with Grant to plead his case, but Grant refused, and it took considerable lobbying on the part of Custer's old military commander Phillip Sheridan and General William Tecumseh Sherman, who appreciated Custer's qualities, to get Custer back command of his old unit the 7th Cavalry. But it was General Alfred Terry who would command the expedition. Custer would later remark to an officer in Terry's command, William Ludlow, that he would "cut loose" from Terry, the first opportunity he got. Custer was determined to win the campaign single-handed. The plan was for three columns of the U.S Army led by Generals Alfred Terry, John Gibbon, and George Crook, some 6,000 men in total, to converge on the main Sioux village at the same time and launch a coordinated attack. Custer's 7th Cavalry were to form the main mounted unit, serve as reconaissance, and to be the first point of contact. On 17th May, 1876, the 7th Cavalry left Fort Lincoln for the Black Hills of Dakota. In the meantime, Sitting Bull, who had been a warrior and had fought in the Dakota War of 1862, Chief Red Cloud's successful war of 1865 to 1868, and had indeed fought alongside Crazy Horse, had become an important Sioux Holy Man. He wanted to form a united front to oppose the white aggressor and had gathered those Indians, Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapahoe, who had refused to join Red Cloud on the Reservation. On the eve of the Battle of the Little Bighorn he'd had a vision. He drew what he had seen, many dead white soldiers. The Indians he said were to have a great and bloody victory. "The whites, he said, had wanted war and we will give it to them." On 26 June, Custer's Crow Indian scouts reported that they had found the main Sioux encampment. The intention was for all three columns to converge on the 26th but General Gibbon's column had been delayed by an Indian attack at the Rosebud River. It was a heaven sent opportunity for Custer to finish the job on his own and he wasn't inclined to pass it up. He was reported as saying, " Hurrah boys, we've got them! We'll finish them up and return to our station." Custer's total strength was approximately 650 men. He immediately split them into three groups. One group under Captain Frederick Benteen, would take up position south of the encampment to cut off any route of escape. Another under Major Marcus Reno would attack the southern end of the encampment, while Custer with the third group would attack from the north. It was Major Reno's Brigade that began the attack but he was repulsed by Cheyenne and Sioux warriors. He tried to take up a skirmish line on the edge of the encampment but under heavy gunfire was forced into a full-bloodied retreat and crossing the Bighorn River, where he suffered heavy casualties, took up a defensive position in nearby woods where he was besieged by the Indians. It now seemed to dawn on Custer the scale of the task he had embarked upon and he sent his Italian bugler, Giovanni Martini, with an urgent message for Captain Benteen, which read, " Come on, big village, be quick, bring packs." Custer now seemed to get lost in the terrain. Chief Gall of the Hunkpapa Sioux, perceiving Custer's confusion now led his warriors, with Sitting Bull's exhortation to defend their families ringing in their ears, in a direct attack on Custer's force. Custer ordered his men to dismount and form skirmish lines but these were soon penetrated. He ordered his men to retreat and find the high ground but his force was becoming split. He and around 40 men managed to make it to what has become known as Last Stand Hill. He ordered that the horses be killed to create defensive barriers. In the meantime Crazy Horse, who had
earlier repulsed Major Reno's attack, had managed to outflank Custer thus cutting off any route of escape. Crazy Horse, a Lakota Sioux warrior of immense reputation, had become in 1865 a shirtwearer or war-leader. He had made his reputation in numerous engagements with the enemies of his people, the Crow, Shoshone, Arikara, Pawnee, and, of course, the white man. It was he, amongst others, who on 21 December, 1866, had lured Captain William Fetterman out of Fort Phil Kearney and into an ambush where all 80 men of Fetterman's command, including Fetterman himself, were killed. He had also led the attack on the Wagon Box that left 5 U.S soldiers dead, and had fought alongside Sitting Bull at the Battle of Arrow Creek. Several Indian witnesses of the battle remarked how " Crazy Horse was the bravest man I ever saw. " How he rode closest to the enemy constantly yelling encouragement to his warriors. Another stated that Crazy Horse was " the bravest man in the whole battle." Custer's position was by now desparate but so also was Major Reno's. He had been reinforced by Captain Benteen but now they both found themselves besieged. Benteen, who had received Custer's message had made no effort to come to his aid. Whether he could have done so is doubtful but the fact that he made no effort to do so is beyond doubt. This was in contravention of a direct order and though his intervention on behalf of Reno probably saved his unit from destruction, he was guilty of wilful disobedience. It was also well known that Custer and Benteen loathed one another. Benteen thought Custer a vainglorious liar and charlatan, whilst Custer believed Benteen to be little more than a drunken (Custer did not drink) libertine. Their mutual enmity had more than once almost led them to come to blows. Whatever the reason for Benteen's tardiness his failure to support Custer doomed his command. For by now all semblance of organised resistance had collapsed. Small groups of troopers bandied together and defended themselves as best they could, others threw away their weapons and fled for their lives only to be cut down by whooping warriors for there was nowhere to flee to. According to Indian sources it was all over in less than 30 minutes. Custer was last seen crawling on all fours, incapacitated and bleeding profusely from a chest wound. The Indians remained on the battlefield for sometime firing into the lifeless bodies and scalping and mutilating the dead. But not Custer's body which was stripped and cleaned but remained otherwise untouched. In the meantime, Reno and Benteen continued to be besieged and were only rescued by the arrival of General Gibbon's Column the following day. 204 men died with Custer including his brothers Tom and Boston Custer, his brother-in-law James Calhoun, and his nephew Henry Armstrong Reed. The only survivor of the Battle of the Bighorn was Captain Myles Keogh's horse, ironically named, Comanche. In total the 7th Cavalry lost 269 killed and 50 wounded that day. Indian casualties can only be an estimate. Indian success and delight in their great victory was short-lived. The always fragile unity of the tribes soon broke up and Sitting Bull was forced to flee with the Sioux to Canada. He returned to the United States in 1879, pledging to remain with his people on the reservation. But he was, in fact, to become a celebrity touring with Buffalo Bill Cody's travelling circus. On his retirement he returned to the reservation. In 1890, the authorities fearing that he would join the resurgent Indian Ghost Movement decided to pre-empt this possibility by putting him in custody. When Sitting Bull refused to cooperate in his arrest police manhandled him, outraged Sioux opened fire on them. In the gunfight that followed 8 policemen were killed and 7 Sioux, including Sitting Bull who was shot in the head. Crazy Horse tried to remain on the plains but was constantly chased and harried by the army. He fought his last major engagement with U.S forces at Wolf Mountain, Montana in early 1877. On 5 May, with his people starving, he surrendered, but he never reconciled himself to life on the reservation, and the authorities never fully trusted him. On 5 September, 1877, he was stabbed to death whilst resisiting arrest. He once said that " One does not sell the earth upon which people walk."