OCR Text |
Show By ELMO SCOTT WATSON """"UNE 23 is the anniversary T I of a battle which will be J I forever famous in Ameri-imiiiii Ameri-imiiiii in 2 can history. It was not a v I battle upon which great is- J 1 sues' so far ns tne nte S3 ",e nat'on hung. In point of the number of combnt-f combnt-f 1 I ants engaged it was al-i(2 al-i(2 I most insignificant. It was iiiimTm mff D0t a Dattle 10 which the 7 student of military science will turn for lessons in tactics. It was an affair of a handful of United States cavalrymen pitted against an overwhelming over-whelming force of Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians, and if it has any particular Importance in American history. It is only because it marked the last outstanding success scored by the red man against the white. For this was the engagement officially offi-cially known as the battle of the Little Lit-tle Big Horn River, Mont., June 23, 1876, but familiar to most of us under the name of "Custer's Last Fight." Thereby is revealed the reason why this battle seems destined to be remembered re-membered when greater and more important im-portant military conflicts are long since forgotten. The reason centers around the naming personality of Gen. Georg- Armstrong Custer. "A brigadier general at twenty-three, a major general at twenty-five, a great Indian fighter at twenty-seven, he went to his death at thirty-seven, the immortal im-mortal hero of American youth, and the mystery and gallantry of his death will keep his name shining when all but a scant dozen of the great figures of American military history will be forgotten forever." So writes his latest biographer, Frazier Hunt, in the book "Custer," published by the Cosmopolitan Cos-mopolitan Eook corporation, and Hunt happily and aptly characterized this soldier as no other biographer has yet done when he uses as a sub-title for his book the phrase "The Last of the Cavaliers." For George Armstrong Custer was truly the last of the Cavaliers. He was born in 1SS9 and died in 1STG. There are men still living who saw him often and knew him well. But he does not belong in this period of recent re-cent American history. Among the be-whiskered, be-whiskered, black-hatted blue-oni-formed generals of the Union army, this boy general with his coat of black velvet, his wire-brimmed hat, his navy blue shirt with a broad collar adorned with gold stars and held together at the throat with a wide flowing scarlet scar-let necktie, his trousers stuck in great cavalry boots, and with his golden curls reaching to his shoulders, is sadly sad-ly out of place. More appropriately should he have led a charge against Cromwell's Roundheads and after routing rout-ing them received the thanks of that gay monarch. King Charles the Second, Sec-ond, or he should have been a follower of the fortunes of Bonnie Prince Charlie and ended his short career amid the flashing claymores at Cul-lodenmoor. Cul-lodenmoor. "A fighter of fighters and a soldier of soldiers, he was the beau sabrcur of the American army," one historian has called him. He was born of soldier sol-dier ancestry; he grew up surrounded by soldier traditions; he became a soldier sol-dier by choice and he died as a soldier sol-dier wocld choose to die. The Cus-ters Cus-ters were a fighting stock. His greatgrandfather great-grandfather had been a Hessian mercenary mer-cenary in the Revolutionary war. "He was a curly-haired blond giant who was fighting for the fun of it," writes Hunt. When the war was over and he, with his fellow Hessians, was paroled, he decided to settle down and grow up with the country. The family name of K lister was changed about the time this good-natured Saxon lighter moved from Pennsylvania to Maryland. Ills grandson, the blacksmith and farmer, Emmanuel Custer, felt the call of the frontier and migrated to Ohio, and here It was that the sturdy tow-headed boy was born In lS.'ICI. "War was In the air again. The fall of the Alamo down in San Antonio and the great stretch of country north of the Itio Grande owned by Mexico had burned Its way Into the hearts of the country. A bitter hatred was liar- 1 . x ing up against Mexico. Teaceful America was getting ready to have her regular one-war-per-generation conflict Even the backwoods settlements in Ohio were thrilled by the righteousness righteous-ness of one-sided patriotism. Silver-tongued Silver-tongued orators were making the little red brick schoolhouses and the white-framed white-framed churches fairly ring with "Remember "Re-member the Alamo!" "Emmanuel Custer joined the local militia, the 'New Rumley Invincihles' and so our future general, 'little Antie' which was the home manufactured manufac-tured nickname for Armstrong teased and teased, until his mother made him a uniform out of one of paw's suits and paw whittled out a gun for him. By the time the Mexican war came along in earnest, Autie was seven and could go through the old Scott manual of arms along with the best of them. "So it was that even in a backwater back-water of pioneer life this farmer boy grew up in a warm ' reflection of the thrilling atmosphere of war. He dreamed of being a drummer boy and marching with heroic old General Scott or General Taylor in the Mexican Mexi-can campaign. Farming was not for him the sabre and the musket were to be his tools." But his opportunity did not come for several years. A visit with relatives in Monroe, Mich., resulted In two years of schooling at an academy there, two years at a seminary, followed fol-lowed by a school teaching Joo back home in Ohio. Then came a chance to go to the United States Military academy acad-emy at West Point and when he was enrolled there in the spring of 1S37 he was at last started toward realizing his life's ambition. Custer's career at the academy was not an Impressive one. From the beginning be-ginning he was among the "Immortals," the ten lowest in scholarship (today they call them goats"). The first year he stood 58 In a class of OS. Ilis second sec-ond year he ranked 5-8 In a class of GO. In his third year he was No. 57 In a class of 57 and he was graduated No. 35 in a class of 35. But if Custer did not distinguish himself In his academic aca-demic work and was constantly acquiring ac-quiring demerits which more than onc-e brought 'him to the brink of dismissal from the academy, he was absorbing something of greater value than mere classroom knowledge, for, writes Hunt : It would be nlmost Impossible to overestimate whnt the four yenr at West Point had done for this blond-haired. blond-haired. smllinK, six-foot farmer boy from eastern Ohio. ltn fine traditions had sunk depp Into hla heart and mind Without his being In the least nwnre of It, the maKnifirerit spirit of the place reflected In the three words or Its motto Duty H on or Country had ffiven for him a tone, a resonance to the ancient business of arms. It was as if some one had taken him hy the hand to a hilltop and shown htm the Klory of mounted knlKhts In armor, ar-mor, solng forth to war, for honor, for renown, and for the battle's sake. In the very air of West point he breathed the very greatness of the sword. . . . It would not have been surprising If Custer had chosen to follow the fortunes for-tunes of the Confederacy, and to have added the color of his personality to the roll of Its cavalier leaders such as Jeb Stuart and John Morgan. Instead he chose to slick with the Union ami although lie failed to graduate with his class because at almost the last moment he had commuted a grave breach of rules which led lo his court-martial court-martial and his retention at (he ncail emy, finally he was ordered lo Washington Wash-ington for duly In the summer of l.N(!l. As n lieutenant In the Second cavalry cav-alry he saw action almost lininedl- V .T. "V 5 ately at the battle of Bull Run. And the next year as an officer in the Fiftn cavalry, to which he had been transferred, trans-ferred, he so distinguished himself on several occasions as to win a position on the staff of General MeClellan. Custer's career in the Civil war has been described as "meteoric" and a casual survey of It will show how apt the word Is. MeClellan at once promoted him to a captaincy. When MeClellan failed as commander of the Army of the Potomac and was removed, re-moved, Custer suffered his only eclipse of the war. But within a year he was on General Plcasonton's staff, distinguished dis-tinguished himself In a charge during a cavalry fight with Jeb Stuart and his gray horsemen, which resulted In the capture of a battle (lag and a hundred prisoners. The next day he aas recommended for promotion to the rank of brigadier general a brigadier general at twenty-three, the youngest in the Union army ! He was placed In command of the Michigan cavalry brigade of four regiments, regi-ments, much to the disgust of volunteer volun-teer colonels old enough to be his father veterans who raved and stormed at having placed over them that "Custer brat from Monroe, that kid general," that "d d whipper-snapper whipper-snapper from West Point." But on the third day on that terrible field at Gettysburg, this boy general not only welded bis brigade of Woverlnes to him with bonds of steel hut In a furious furi-ous cavalry hnftle defeated Jeb Stuart and his Confederates, who had hitherto hither-to been considered Invincible. He became be-came the Idol of his men. They bought bolts of red cloth and made flowing ties for themselves. They let their hair grow long In Imitation of his. "A wild boy named Custer" became famous fa-mous throughout the Union nrmy. A year later with more brilliant victories to his credit, Sheridan made him n major general nnd gave him command of the Third cavalry division. George Armstrong Custer, age twenty-five, was a major general with twelve rlgiments under his command, twelve regiments which Idolized him as had the three regiments of Wolverines. The story of Custer, the Indian fighter, Is too well known to need repetition repe-tition here. It Is Ihe story of one success suc-cess after another as leader of the Seventh ravalry, which still and for all time seems destined to be known ns "Custer's regiment," until Hint June day In 1 S7! when. In sight of the great Indian village strung along the Little lilg Horn, he made the fatal division of his forces nnd, trusting to the "Custer luck," which had carried him safely through a decade of warfare, ho rode Into battle for the last time. A filling epitaph to this last of the Cavaliers Cav-aliers may be found In these words of Hunt : To the millions of plain Amerlr.mB he Is remembered not as a roinrnander of a dasiilnn and victorious division of cavalry that captured 10.000 prisoners and (15 battle NaKM from a Kallant and stubborn foe, but as an Indian lltrhtor, who with a handful of troopers eleven years later ratleped to a tragic death. lie had fought I. co nnd .Stonewall .I.nkson. J'-b Stuart, nnd "the gnltant I'i'ltiam" m i ea I and remembered soldiers sol-diers but it was (lie nulled Sioux war. rlors of the plains who sent him to ll.-alhless 'lime. The Rods of battle have Ihelr own Insciulnble way of rnaidnK heroes. i-i . ,C'f N r fj r- KS3iaH32d(" y ' "i-'tv. 11 f - r - 1 Scene In Houston, Texas, where vast damage was done by flood waters of the Buffalo bayou. 2 Ramsay JIacDonald, Laborite, who became prime minister of Great Britain. S Express cruiser Mouette In which Colonel and Mrs. Lindbergh spent their honeymoon. |