"That much maligned man General George Armstrong Custer - about whom more nonsense has been written by people who know nothing about him than has been written about any man in history - was another. Secretary of War William Belknap (later dismissed from office) had been appointing political friends of his as Indian agents, and they were robbing the Indians, starving them, and taking every advantage. Custer objected, but a lowly Lieutenant Colonel (Custer's actual rank) got nowhere by complaining to the Secretary of War, and later they contrived an excuse for a court martial.
Custer saw the Indians being mistreated and in his book, My Life on the Plains, said that if he were an Indian he would be fighting.
How many Indians were present at the Little Big Horn we will never know. Their number has been estimated at between two thousand to nine thousand. Logic was completely on Custer's side. The Indians had never been able to field a large force because of the supply problem. When so many Indians came into an area, the game fled the country, so whatever food the Indian had he had to bring with him. For the same reason he could not stay long in the field.
A fact often missed is that just a few miles south and a few days earlier, General George Crook, another of our most successful Indian fighters, had made the same mistake.
In the bitter Battle of the Rosebud, often overlooked because of the drama of the Custer massacre, Crook was fought to a standstill by many of the same Indians. Had it not been for the protests of Frank Grouard, Crook's chief of scouts, and the fact he was down to eight rounds of ammunition per man, Crook may have pursued the Sioux down the canyon of the Rosebud into an even worse trap than Custer's, where he would have lost three times the men.
Knowing the Indian problems with supply, neither Crook on June 17 or Custer on June 25 was willing to believe that such a large force was in the field." - Louis L' Amour
That's a perspective I had not seen before. I bring it up now both because I'm currently reading the book but also because today is Medal of Honor Day and one of the few people who actually won two Medals of Honor was Custer's brother Thomas Custer who also killed at the Little Big Horn. Sadly, like many. my perception of George Armstrong Custer is largely colored by his portrayal in Dustin Hoffman's Little Big Man.
G.A. Custer rose in rank quickly and, more tellingly, kept his rank after the war. The massing of so many Indian braves had never been seen. Not even Tecumseh led so many braves (and their British allies) into a single battle. (This has all been well recorded since the time of the event, but largely forgotten and erased by Hollyweird depictions.)
ReplyDeleteNot to mention Custer fighting JEB Stuart to a standstill at Gettysburg - which can be argued that won the battle for the North as much as Little Round Top but lesser known or discussed
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