Tag: Custer

Thomas Ward Custer rode to his death… along side his brother at the battle of Little Big Horn.  The dynamic, rowdy pair had been soldiers nearly all their lives.  Tom followed in his older brother’s foot steps, enlisting in the Union army at the age of 16.  Though George achieved more fame, he thought the world of his little brother, “Do you want to know what I think of him? Tom should have been the General and I the Lieutenant.”   The elder Custer was the youngest man to achieve the rank of Major-General while young Tom was one of 19 men to win the Medal of Honor twice.  Personally capturing two Confederate battle flags under severe fire (the second attempt nearly cost his jaw)  Tom was undoubtedly a hero.  The exploits of his older brother have relegated him to obscurity.

George (Autie, as Tom called him) was austere, devoted, and a teetotaler.  Tom tried to emulate his brother, but strayed to drink and hell raising when his sister-in-law Libbie was not near to regulate him.  Together, the Custer boys were notorious pranksters, and few familiar with them on the frontier were immune from their antics.  Autie Custer had molded the 7th Cavalry into a fast-moving, hard-hitting combat unit;  His brother was with him every step of the way.  Detractors labeled them the “Custer Clan”, and resented the good fortune which seemed to follow the family, “Custer’s Luck.”  That luck ran out on June 25, 1876.  George, Tom, and baby brother, Boston Custer died on the dusty hills of Southeastern Montana.

Tom Custer was an American hero… He died bravely on the field of battle fighting for his country.  His enemies mutilated his body beyond recognition that day.  His remains were only identified by a tattoo on his wrist.  Ironic that warriors described as noble by our society are excused for such behavior.  Cultural sensibilities must be respected, even in the desecration of the dead.   Should we believe this?  

Historians must stop giving… credence to rumors of controversial historical figures fathering children with women they allegedly oppressed.  This has become standard operating procedure for writers wishing to gain notoriety in the historical profession.  Latch on to rumors, oral tradition, slander- and give it legitimacy through politically correct currents flowing through society.  Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings garner most of the headlines, but historical revisionists continue to use this accusation to sully the reputations of prominent Americans.  George Armstrong Custer has come to symbolize the evils of American Indian policy; revisionists want to force Indian love children on to his tarnished historical resume’.

George loved Libbie Custer… from the moment they were introduced in 1862.  Her family was not impressed with the young cavalryman home on leave (a drunken courting call led to his oath of sobriety.)  His promotion to General at the age of 23 changed Judge Daniel Bacon’s mind and he gave the couple his permission.  The Custers were wed on February 9, 1864.  She stayed as close to her “Autie” as possible throughout the rest of the Civil War and then followed him wherever the army took them.  The two had a fiery love affair which comes through in their playful letters.  Libbie wanted children badly and blamed herself for their inability to conceive.  In fact, George was to blame for their childlessness.  Custer contracted gonorrhea while a cadet at West Point.  The Academy’s medical records show he was treated for it.  The disease more than likely sterilized him.  Custer would never father children…yet historical revisionism can produce immaculate conceptions.

Custer did not father a child with… the Cheyenne woman Monahseetah.  Revisionists base the claim on Cheyenne oral tradition, which is notoriously unreliable, and the testimony of Captain Frederick Benteen, the most vocal Custer critic of them all.  She did have two children after meeting Custer, but the father could not have been George Armstrong.  There is no direct evidence, none.  There is speculation in the form of tall tales found in Indian oral tradition.  There is slander found in the acidic letters from Benteen.  Custer holds a contentious place in American history.  Revisionists are trying to gain the upper hand in the debate with the most unsavory of tactics.

Hollywood has attempted to tell the Custer story…in no fewer than 25 films, and dozens of portrayals in television programs.  In the eyes of the movie industry, Custer must be portrayed as either a hero or villain.  Custer’s death at Little Big Horn is such a considerable part of the American story, his true character has been lost in competing cultural and political debates about the plight of American Indians.  With little concern for accuracy, filmmakers have used these two-dimensional images of Custer to help shape cultural opinions.  Here are the best (and worst) portrayals of Custer on film:

5. Richard Mulligan, Little Big Man- 1970:  The worst portrayal of Custer in cinematic history.  The first of the big-budget revisionist westerns, Arthur Penn’s film shows all soldiers as villains and Indians as noble freedom fighters.  Mulligan’s Custer is the epitome of American wickedness; racist, homicidal, inept – the actor smirks and mugs his way through what amounts to a libelous piece of character assassination.

4. Robert Shaw, Custer of the West- 1967:  The typically reliable Shaw is badly miscast in a poorly made movie.  The lanky red-head from history appears as a pudgy blonde in faux buckskin.  The battle scenes bear almost no resemblance to historical accounts and Shaw’s Custer looks like a bad Halloween costume.

3. Errol Flynn, They Died with Their Boots On- 1941:  Flynn is a dashing yet rowdy Custer in full heroic form.  The film is not historically accurate, but like John Ford’s My Darling Clementine, many envision this film as “the way it should have been.”  The film is ridiculed today for being culturally insensitive because of the negative portrayal of Crazy Horse(Anthony Quinn) and other Indians.

2. Henry Fonda, Fort Apache- 1948:  JohnFord’s film is loosely based on Custer and Little Big Horn.  Fonda’s Owen Thursday is a stern disciplinarian whose ambition becomes his downfall.  This common interpretation of Custer’s character is captured perfectly by Fonda’s dour performance.  Custer’s Last Stand is replaced with Thursday’s Charge, but the rich detail and fair depiction of the Indian wars makes this film a classic.

1. Gary Cole, Son of the Morning Star- 1991:  Cole seemed an unlikely choice, but he brilliantly rises to the occasion.  He gives a performance that captures all the facets of the complex man.  Loving husband, rowdy older brother, stern commander, ambitious soldier, curious frontiersman- Cole’s Custer is all these in an epic mini-series worthy of its topic.  Like Evan Connell’s definitive book, the film gives a balanced account of Custer and his career on the frontier.

PracticallyHistorical is honoring the 144th anniversary of the battle of Little Bighorn this week.

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