Show pd t A I lI t lt f l Uh m pt c t r 1 f a as try s t t i If a Tom Tomu M terM u ter P Barry j I Ir r TT r rL a L J s by bourn C 4 v vr r f c o N y ya N 11 J Gen Geo A Custer 4 7 z i By ELMO MO SCOTT WATSON t i HIM It Is v ritten He followed 1 x all hIs da days s lie He was her hert heri t i devotee She gave gae hIm fn- fn faQ favor Q vor wIthheld from most men Inen and denIed her herself s hen hIs need of her heras nas as When desp rateb pur pur- suing he dIed on the heIghts abo aboe e Q the Little BIg Horn Glory the per per- perverse ii verse relented and gave eternal to hIs n me So begins pter ch cb pter one of a new non no It can cann told biography Fredet is F Van De Vater Waters 8 lory Hunter published recently by the Bobbs- Bobbs company The Glory Hunter was rge Armstrong Custer Lieutenant Colonel United States tes Cl Brevet General General ted States Army the Boy General with the then n Locks the Murat of the American 7 1 the good S sword Sord ord the hero the martyr Around his name has hns raged endless contra contro- for tor he nas as the kind of who seems have hare been capable of inspiring either the bit bit- bitt t hatred or the blindest lo lob atty alty ChIef among exemplars ot of the latter was of course his hise hise e e who was to de denote ote the rest of her life to ot of her husbands husband's memory Long be- be berf bere rf re hIs tragic death In 1876 there were those ho a had reason to hate him but chose to hold tongues After Atter that event there were whis- whis ot of suspicion but little It if any full voiced Elizabeth Izabeth Bacons Bacon's fifty odd y errs of at have bare enshrIned her husband In the folk lore America She proclaimed him hero and since was hIs men ho ho thought otherwise d their peace Last spring she dIed as did didE rn E S Godfrey another staunch defender of ofis rs r's name Therefore a no no It can be told dR can appear without gf giving pain to toese sac ese two honored devotees to a partly true end If 14 Indeed as the poet tells us the child Is t Ii ther Cher to the min then several se Incidents In the of at the boy who bras as born In New Rum Harrison county Ohl Ohio just 95 years ago December 5 1839 are significant ot of the man was to become When war with Mexico his father tather Emanuel Custer joined the i New Hew Rumley a militia company aid d provided hIs little son Autie pith fth a min V tore tare replIca ot of hIs uniform One day the young young- et amazed his father by lifting his arm In Imi l h lion ot of an older half brother nho ho had been beenIng ail lag Ing a pIece at school and declaIming In boyIsh treble My voice Is for war I h For the thet It t 80 30 years Custers Custer's voIce nas as to be beed ed for war war-to be heard In a wild shrill le hOoping In the forefront ot of a hundred cavalry The Custers were staunch stanch Jacksonian Demo Demo- 01 to tI even though theIr communIty was dom dom- I WhIg One day Emanuel Custer took hIs hist t ur year old son to the doctor to have a tooth ii ned fled As they left the office the boy gave a tOady body grin and apropos ot of nothing exclaimed ather you and me can lick Uck aU all the Whigs 4 ii Ohio In 1876 he felt the same way about t e Sioux In Montana and he dIed because of I at belief bellet belieff f When he was four years old a new brother red ved In the Custer Nevin howe J who Is ti orthy of mention If for no other reason than at he was so different from the rest He lived 1 b ad died In peace a farmer Thomas W Custer P eared on the scene In 1845 Boston Custer In 8 and Margaret Emma Custer In 1832 They 1 ally Tom Custer became the first hero hero- to send their older brother on his pur purt t ot of glory and they s ere to share In the end of hIs quest as as s as his halt half sister q IUs who In 1849 married Da David DaId Id Reed ot of Mon Mon- rIch bitch When she went to the little pioneer wn wa on the shores of at Lake MIchIgan she took lu title with her He lived there off and on for fore 1 e a next six or se seen en years and there he met If oe a girl Elizabeth Bacon horn s hom he was to marry 0 yeara later Returning to New again uster Custer took tooke e first step In Ws his glory seeking career Despite Cather fathers s strong Democratic principles and Ili ot of his sons son's actions Cue Cus- was not averse to asking a Republican con can canman man to get him an appointment to the Sited States Military academy at West Point nt at first Custer s us as so Importunate I hat t finally John A l the I aYe It to him and on n nl June 3 1857 he entered est Eat Point There he nas ns a 3 defiant to cadet fore er In trouble and as constantly a 11 the verge of more The Impartial voice the Academy records portrays George Arm deplore Custer as a slovenly enly soldier and n a le e student The approaching crisis ot of the Civil r resulted In the academy's five year course g Into four our and two cl classes es were donated Dated In 18 one 1801 one 1 In April and another In Inne aye u ne Custer was In the latter group hIs stand b being eln fourth In n a class of thirty tour four o years rears of campal campaigning would turn West ai 01 nt s indifferent Into a sol soldier ler writes J tan tSan an he De Water his sub tS nce It would not change n Battle Dattle that reconstructed others sober n and l deepening their spIrits would only sharp sharp- Armsttong become k ong Custer He would e n Or Ore r a we weapon weon on terrIble to the enemy difficult ou teak eak superior to wield yet intrinsically he be heh h hp o had ad remain ln the raucous and reckless youngster defied his p u to clasp the hand of 4 4 x 4 4 ik 3 5 1 r i 4 t toy oy N Ny a y lea leaa leaY Y Custer Monument Gen y and Mrs Custer a political foe and had been the Academy's chronic Insurgent HIs nature was brIght and volatile yet durable past the power even of war warto warto to alter It was durIng these two years that the tradition tradItion tion of Custers luck began For nothing else but luck could have made hIm a brigadier general at the age of at twenty three the youngest In the army At least the hIstorians have never ne been able to find any good retson re ison why In 1862 he be should have been advanced from a first lieu lieu- lieutenancy tenancy In the FIrth Fifth cavalry ca aIry to the command ot of the Second brigade ot of the ThIrd dIvisIon rocket rocket- rocketing Ing past the ranks ot of captain major lieutenant colonel and colonel True he distinguished him him- himself self In a wild charge at Gettysburg but at least twice thereafter he narrowly escaped annihilation annihilation tion at the hands ot of that cavalry genIus In gray Jeb Stuart The appointment of Phil Sheridan as chief of at atthe the Union cavalry ca gave Custer hIs chance for tor fame It was SherIdan who overlooked Insubordinations insubordinations by Custer with unwonted charIty Here Bere sas as no strategIst but a tireless body and anda a mInd as hungry for war as a bent bow Custer was a u that Sheridan knew how to use nse He used him In the raids which devastated the Shenandoah valley shere here Custer seems to have bave learned willIngly enough the lessons of ruthless ness so necessary to those who engage In the dIrty busIness ot of making war By the spring of 1865 he had become a major major- general and It was Custer a luck agaIn which enabled him to be In at the death For It was Custer and hIs cavalry who swooped down upon Appomattox Station and slammed shut the door to I Lees Lee's es e's only avenue of retreat After Lees Lee's sur- sur surrender surrender render Custer Issued the oft quoted congratulatory congratulatory general order to his ThIrd dIvIsIon whose record he declared was unparalleled In the annals of war This Is more ornate but scarcely more acco- acco accurate rate than other battlefield proclamations says hIs bIographer whose calm analysIs of the ree rec- record ord shows that It was much less remarkable than the hero s would have us believe While admitting that Custer was a fair tacticIan and a smart disciplinarian and as physically valiant vallant a man as ever drew sword a summing up of the evidence lends leads Inevitably to the con con- conclusIon conclusion that George Armstrong Custer had few It if any of the qualities which make a really great commander and It Is doubtful It if he can be set do don n as an outstanding cavalry leader lelder In the same class with Stuart and Forrest of the Con Confederate Confederate federate army or SherIdan MerrItt and Torbert of the Union army HIs s e as a commander became even more apparent In his Indian fighting days than thanIn thanin In hIs Ch 11 sar nr career When he became lieu lieutenant tenant colonel of the newly organized Seventh cavalry ca and busied himself with moldIng that outfit Into what he believed a cavalry regIment should be the strict discipline which he en enforced forced and hIs callous disregard for the wel welfare welfare fare ot of his men brought hIm close to disaster In September 1867 he be was court at rort on seven charges the most serious being that he had deliberately disobeyed orders of his superior officer General Genera Hancock had deserted his command In the midst ot of hos- hos hostile tile Indian country to hurry to Fort Riley where which his be be- beloved the cholera was ra raging and from filled with leach lonell wrItIng letters loved Wife Ife was ness and terror and that he be had ordered some of his to shoot down without mercy de- de de- de deserters tram from the regiment Former Custer biographers have either Ignored martial but the this court or passed lightly 0 otter er fact remains that Custer was found fond guilty on charges suspended tram from rant rank and corn com all seven and hIs pay for that time for mand for a year had passed Sheridan felted But before the year overlooked Custer In Insubordination insubordination nho bo bad more than once subordination came to hIs rescue the battle of the Washita result was The fought on November 17 1868 when Custer at attacked attacked of the Cheyenne chief the sleeping camp tacked Kettle killing that chief and slaughtering Black and children IndiscrimInately There and women reason to o believe that Black Kettle amI tiis people were no more hostile then than they had been when mem members rs of this same band sere Vr ere the of Colonel Chivington and hIs Colo- Colo Colorado Colorado rado troops at the Sand Creek massacre But SherIdan's orders were In effect to kill klU Indians and Custer didn't stop to find out whether the village Into whIch he charged that cold Novem ber morning was occupied by friendly or hostile Indians HIs tactIcs at the Washita were the same as those whIch brought dIsaster less than ten years later later-a division of hIs command and a headlong attack on an enemy whose numbers were unknown un- un unknown known But Bot he soon found that he had stirred up a hornets hornet's nest nest for Black Kettles Kettle's village was only one ot of several se eral along the Washita Threat Threat- Threatened Threatened ened by warrIors from the others Custer hastily wIthdrew even though Maj Joel Elliott and 19 men In his detachment were still unaccounted for LIeutenant Godfrey had reported hearIng sounds of firing which Indicated that Elliott was In distress But Custer dIsregarded this and marched away leavIng Elliott to hIs fate His hasty withdrawal Indicates that he had lost for tor the moment at least least his belief that the Seventh could ship hip all the IndIans on the plains But he lost somethIng else at the the Washita-the undIvIded faIth and admIration of the regIment and the confidence ot of some ot of his officers From that time on the Seventh cavalry ca was a regi- regi regiment meat ment divided against Itself Nor during the next eight years was Custer able to do anything which restored that shattered faith During the Yellowstone expedItion of 1873 1813 he had one run In sith Ith his superior officer General Stanley Manley and received a severe rebuke whIch caused Wm him to be good thereafter thereafter-at least least so sotar tar far as obeying orders was concerned But he dId rush Into one reckless fight wIth the Sioux Vr which nearly ended disastrously for him and whIch gave hIm a dangerous scorn for the SIoux as foemen HIs expedItion Into the Black Hills In 1874 1814 and his exaggerated reports of the rich rich- richness richness ness ot of the gold there brought him a fleeting moment ot of fame but thIs was soon overshadowed overshadowed owed by the disgrace whIch overtook hIm when he became embroiled In the Belknap scandaL Belknap President Grants Grant's secretary of at war was accused of graft gratt In connection with contracts at the army posts and Impeached by congress Custer talked too much claimed knowledge which he dId not have Summoned to Washington ton to testify he made n a sorry witness He was even f e rash as to e the tho President's dents dent's brother Orville Grant In charges whIch he be could not prove and to Insinuate guilty gumy knowl knowl- knowledge edge of frontIer graft by the President hImself Naturally Grant resented all this So Custer was not only deprived of the command ot of the expedition which was to be sent against the tho hostile Sioux from Fort Abraham Lincoln In North Dakota but was en ehen forbIdden to go with It it He Be made frenzied appeals to Sherman com mauder mander In chief of the army to Alfonso Altonso Taft Taft the new secretary ot of war and to Grant himself But none ot of them n and this time not even his frIend Sheridan could help him Finally he appealed to General Terry s bo ho was to command the expedition and It was Terry who succeeded In getting him restored to the head of hIs regi- regi regiment red went ment It will be seen later how Custer repaId that favor Chief among the points In the controversy that has raged about Custers Custer's defeat and death on the Little Big horn Is the question ot of whether or not he deliberately disobeyed ed Terrys Terry's orders orders therebY breaking uv up a plan ot of campaign against the Indians which might have e been successful Van De Waters Water's conclusIon Is that he did dellb deliberately disobey that he Intended from the first to swing clear ot of Terry and by winning a smashing vIctory over the tho Sioux to regain favor with hIs superiors So the Glory Hunter gam- gam bled and lost I When he lost Jost he brought death not only to himself but to more than others And among them were three of his own blood Capt Tom rom custer a troop commander In the Seventh Bos Bos- Boston ton Custer and AutIe Reed the son of his half sister I Lydia oho ho had been a second moth moth- mother mother er to him Another of the Custer clan whose Rte me was to be blighted by what took place on June 25 1876 was his sister Margaret Emma Custer the wife of James Jomes Calhoun who perished on the hill above the Little Big Horn tJ C by western Newspaper Union |