George Armstrong Custer: Difference between revisions

{{use mdy dates|date=July 20212024}}

| commands = [[Michigan Brigade|Michigan Cavalry Brigade]]<br />3rd Cavalry Division<br />2nd Cavalry Division<br />[[7th U.S. Cavalry|7th U.S. Cavalry Regiment]]

Custer graduated from [[United States Military Academy|West Point]] and, though characterized as an inept for having been last in his graduating class, actually finished 34th out of a starting class of 108 candidates.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ambrose |first1=Stephen E. |title=Crazy Horse and Custer: The Parallel Lives of Two American Warriors |date=1996 |publisher=First Anchor |pages=Chapter 6}}</ref> Following graduation, he worked closely with General [[George B. McClellan]] and the future General [[Alfred Pleasonton]], both of whom recognized his ability as a cavalry leader. He was promoted to [[Brigadier general (United States)|brigadier general]] of volunteers aged 23. Only a few days afterwards, he fought at the [[Battle of Gettysburg]], where he commanded the [[Michigan Brigade]]. Despite being outnumbered, Custer defeated [[J. E. B. Stuart]]'s attack at [[Battle of Gettysburg, third day cavalry battles|East Cavalry Field]].

Several individuals claimed responsibility for killing Custer, including [[White Bull (Native American)|White Bull]] of the [[Miniconjou]]s, [[Rain-in-the-Face]], Flat Lip, and Brave Bear.<ref>Dee Brown, ''Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee'', Vintage, 1991, {{ISBN|978-0-09-952640-7}}, p.296-297.</ref> In June 2005, at a public meeting, Northern Cheyenne storytellers said that according to their oral tradition, [[Buffalo Calf Road Woman]], a Northern Cheyenne [[heroine]] of the [[Battle of the Rosebud]], struck the final blow against Custer, which knocked him off his horse before he died. She hit him with a club-like instrument.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://mentalfloss.com/article/502013/retrobituaries-buffalo-calf-road-woman-custers-final-foe|title=Retrobituaries: Buffalo Calf Road Woman, Custer's Final Foe|date=2017-06-22|website=mentalfloss.com|language=en|access-date=2019-03-21}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/article_fcf44c96-cfb6-56f4-9c57-062e944350ce.html|first=Martin J. |last=Kidston|title=Northern Cheyenne break vow of silence|publisher=Helenair.com|date=June 28, 2005|access-date=October 23, 2009}}</ref>

A contrasting version of Custer's death is suggested by the testimony of an Oglala named Joseph White Cow Bull, according to novelist and Custer biographer Evan Connell. He says that Joseph White Bull stated he had shot a rider wearing a buckskin jacket and big hat at the riverside when the soldiers first approached the village from the east. The initial force facing the soldiers, according to this version, was quite small (possibly as few as four warriors) yet challenged Custer's command. The rider who was hit had shouted orders that prompted the soldiers to attack and was next to a rider who bore a flag, but when the buckskin-clad rider fell off his horse after being shot, many of the attackers reined up. The allegation that the buckskin-clad officer was Custer, if accurate, might explain the supposed rapid disintegration of Custer's forces.<ref>Connell (1984), pp. 413–414.</ref> However, several other officers of the Seventh, including [[William W. Cooke|William Cooke]], [[Thomas Custer|Tom Custer]] and William Sturgis, were also dressed in buckskin on the day of the battle, and the fact that each of the non-mutilation wounds to George Custer's body (a bullet wound below the heart and a shot to the left temple) would have been instantly fatal casts doubt on his being wounded or killed at the ford, more than a mile from where his body was found.<ref>Wert, 1996, p. 355.</ref> The circumstances are, however, consistent with [[David Humphreys Miller]]'s suggestion that Custer's attendantssubordinates would not have left his dead body behind to be desecrated.<ref>[[David Humphreys Miller]], ''Custer's Fall: The Indian Side of the Story''. University of Nebraska Press, 1985.</ref>

The bodies of Custer and his brother Tom were wrapped in canvas and blankets, then buried in a shallow grave, covered by the basket from a [[travois]] held in place by rocks. When soldiers returned a year later, the brothers' grave had been scavenged by animals and the bones scattered. "Not more than a double handful of small bones were picked up."<ref>Richard Hardoff, ''The Custer Battle Casualties: Burials, Exhumations, and Reinterments''. (El Segundo, CA: Upton and Sons, 1989, {{ISBN|0912783141}}), pp. 25, 45.</ref> Custer was reinterred with full [[Military funeralfunerals in the United States|military honors]] at [[West Point Cemetery]] on October 10, 1877. The battle site was designated a [[U.S. National Cemetery|National Cemetery]] in 1886.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://mrail.net/data/cemete/mont/bighorn/custer/index.htm|title=Custer National Cemetery - Big Horn County - Montana|website=mrail.net|access-date=2020-02-18}}</ref>

The assessment of Custer's actions during the American Indian Wars has undergone substantial reconsideration in modern times. Documenting the arc of popular perception in his biography ''[[Son of the Morning Star]]'' (1984), author [[Evan S. Connell]] notes the reverential tone of Custer's first biographer Frederick Whittaker (whose book was rushed out the year of Custer's death.)<ref>Connell (1984), p. 287.</ref> Connell concludes: