Narcissist, Great Leader, Or Daring and Dumb?

Virile, striking when in uniform, blond haired and blue eyed, a son descended from German Palatinate Bavarians...  He was an ordinary-to-poor scholar, and through-out his life he sought fame, fortune, and the undying love and gratitude of all.  Sound familiar?  I'm not writing about the 45th President of the United States, believe it or not.  I'm writing about a man who became much more famous in death, due in large part to his untiring ubiquitous widow, Libbie.  I am writing about a man named George Amstrong Custer, who was known as "Autie" to his family and loved ones. The original family name was Kustar.
   Custer was born in New Rumley, Ohio on 5 December 1839.  In regular schooling he was always distracted, and was not in any sense a scholar.  In 1855 he attended a Normal School (a teaching college), and in 1856 he received his teaching certificate to instruct at grammar school level.  Teaching was too boring and mundane for young Custer, so he applied for entrance to West Point to become an Army officer and make his name in history.  At graduation in 1861, Custer's place was the class "Goat" - he had the lowest grades in everything, but he did graduate.  He was assigned to duty, upon graduation, as an aide to General George McClellan - and the American Civil War soon commenced.  Custer was given a cavalry assignment, and his boldness in battle brought rapid promotions.  At the age of 23, he was the youngest brigadier general in the United States (Union) Army.  While on furlough in 1863, he met and soon married Elizabeth "Libbie" Bacon, who played a significant role in shaping his career, and in perpetuating his memory.
   When the Civil War ended, young Brigadier General Custer was returned to the permanent rank of Captain. He and Libbie were stationed in Texas, where they stayed for several months.  In 1866, the US 7th Cavalry Regiment was created at Fort Riley, Kansas, and Custer was transferred and promoted to Lieutenant Colonel of that ill-fated cavalry unit, which he commanded until his death.  Serving under Major General Winfield Hancock, Custer would see his first fighting experience in the west against Native Americans.  Supposedly, the 1867 campaign was to begin peace negotiations with the Southern Cheyenne and Kiowa who lived along the Arkansas River.  While he scarcely saw combat during his Kansas and Nebraska campaign, Custer began learning "the nuances of Indian fighting."
   At the end of the campaign, instead of staying with the troops at Fort Wallace, as ordered, he left the Fort and journeyed to Fort Riley to see and spend time with his wife.  Custer was court martialed at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas for being AWOL (away without leave), having abandoned his troops for his wife.  He was also charged with conduct to the prejudice of good order and military discipline, as well as for ordering deserters shot without trial, and refusing them medical attention afterwards.  Lt Col Custer was found guilty of all charges.  He was sentenced to one year of suspension from the US Army without pay, and with no acknowledgment of his rank.
   In 1868 General Philip Sheridan replaced Winfield Hancock, and he soon arranged for George A. Custer's reinstatement. Conflicts between the Cheyenne and white homesteaders were raging at that time.  The US Army dispatched the 7th Cavalry in a winter campaign, which culminated at the Washita River in Oklahoma on 27 November 1868.  At dawn, the 7th Cavalry attacked a sleeping village of Southern Cheyenne led by Chief Black Kettle.  Warriors, women, children, the elderly, and all Indian ponies and dogs were massacred.  Some sources state that Custer and his men were ordered to spare all but the warriors; but everyone was killed, including Chief Black Kettle and his wife.  After this mission, he was once again in trouble with authorities for leaving the field without searching for a missing reconnaissance unit that had been ambushed and slain.
    During the next six years, Custer wrote and published his autobiography, My Life On the Plains, in which he attempted to justify his actions. In 1874 he violated a US government treaty signed in 1868 by taking an expedition into the Native Americans' sacred Black Hills in South Dakota and Wyoming.  He and his expedition found gold - and joyously announced the discovery to the nation.  The gold rush that followed created intense Native hostility that precipitated the decision to confine all northern Plains Native Americans on reservations that the US Government would choose.  In 1875, President Ulysses Grant's administration attempted to buy the Black Hills region from the Sioux tribes.  When the Sioux refused to sell their sacred land, they were ordered to report to appointed reservations by the end of January 1876. Winter conditions made it impossible for the tribes to comply.  Grant's administration labeled the Natives as "hostiles" and tasked the US Army to round them up and bring them in.  Custer was to command an expedition planned for the spring, part of a three-pronged attack.  Custer's cavalry was to go west from Fort Abraham Lincoln, near present day Mandan, North Dakota; troops under Colonel John Gibbon were to travel east from Fort Ellis, near present day Bozeman, Montana; and a force under the command of General George Crook was to march north from Fort Fetterman, near present day Douglas, Wyoming.
   But Custer was sent back to Washington, DC to testify before a hearing on graft in Grant's government.  It delayed his participation, and he defied an order from President Grant.  He was finally allowed to join the campaign, but only with Custer being under the command of General Terry.
    This set up the fatal meeting on 25 June 1876 along a river in South Dakota....

   Throughout his career, George A. Custer exhibited a reckless temperament that kept him in constant trouble with his superior officers.  His courage has rarely been questioned.  In life he was a flamboyant man who attracted ardent admirers and severe critics; it has been the same in death.
 


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