Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire “My Life on the Plains.” General G.A. Custer, U.S.A.

Birdy,

Read “The Life Of George Bent”. If you haven’t already.

You will appreciate it. Ergo Cheyenne et al!

I've read quite a bit about him over the years ... he was a little too flamboyant imho, to the point of being pathologically egocentric, based-upon what I've read. Which cost a lot of people a lot of lives on both sides.

He was last in his class at West Point where he contracted gonorrhea while banging hooers at every opportunity.

He was well-known, even after marriage, for taking advantage of native american females, some as young as 13-14 years old ... when his units would camp near villages.

He was very good at self-promotion (as in My Life on the Plains) but most of his own writings have been proven to-be bull$#!+. In other words, both his wife (Lizzy Bacon) and he were very good at tooting his own horn.

Custer was hated by his men - ALL of his men - of every unit he ever commanded. He was roundly despised as being beyond hubristic to the point of being vainly insane. He cared about no one other than himself - all others be damned.

Historical perspectives of most who worked with him, served with him or knew him personally are, well ... that Custer was a lying POS scumbag and that nothing he said (even under oath while testifying in various proceedings) or wrote can, nor should they be, trust. Most of his official claims about anything are totally unsubstantiated.

I don’t know what your sources were to come to that conclusion, but he was not hated by all his men. As a matter of fact, he had an extremely loyal following with his inner circle in the Civil War and the 7th Cavalry.

Just for example, Captain Weir left Reno Hill to go to Custer’s aid, when no one else would respond to his messages to come to support him at the north end of the battlefield.

As to the continual reference to his finishing last at West Point, he did finish last in what was left to graduate, but nearly half of that class left early to join the Civil War. Everyone knows he finished last, but no one remembers who was first in that class. No other West Point graduate of any placement, became a Brigadier General at the age of 23.

Love or hate him, there was no one like him and no one could do what he did. It was mentioned earlier, that he was probably not capable of dealing with life outside of a battlefield, and had he survived the LBH, it is hard to imagine him coping with a normal life.

Because of his ability to lead men into battle, General Sheridan relied upon him throughout the Civil War and saw to it that he would command the 7th Cavalry.

You also may want to research other notable figures in regards to Custer’s actions at LBH. General Nelson A. Miles continued to support Custer’s actions at the battle and is on record as saying so. Lt. Godfrey, who was at the LBH battle, also supported Custer’s actions many times after the battle.

The court of Inquiry with Major Reno was due to the negative feelings of the battlefield survivors that felt he had let Custer down, by not being more organized and aggressive in his part of the battle. Reno never recovered after the battle, court of inquiry and subsequently died in squalor mainly due to his poor performance and the overwhelming support from surviving troopers, that felt Custer’s command was neglected.

Research George Herendeen’s account at the river, when Reno was pushed back up the hill when it was a route and not a retreat.

Sure, there are Custer critics, but there are real Custer supporters and I can understand why General Sheridan put so much confidence in Custer’s abilities. I do know I wouldn’t have wanted to serve under Custer, as he was relentless and tireless, but that is how he got things done.

Here is another testament to Custer’s abilities, the orders from General Terry as to what Custer was supposed to do once he left the Far West and headed to the LBH.


Headquarters of the Department of Dakota (In the Field)
Camp at Mouth of Rosebud River, Montana Territory June 22nd, 1876

Lieutenant-Colonel Custer,
7th Calvary

Colonel: The Brigadier-General Commanding directs that, as soon as your regiment can be made ready for the march, you will proceed up the Rosebud in pursuit of the Indians whose trail was discovered by Major Reno a few days since. It is, impossible to give you any definite instructions in regard to this movement, and were it not impossible to do so the Department Commander places too much confidence in your zeal, energy, and ability to wish to impose upon you precise orders which might hamper your action when nearly in contact with the enemy. He will, however, indicate to you his own views of what your action should be, and he desires that you should conform to them unless you shall see sufficient reason for departing from them. He thinks that you should proceed up the Rosebud until you ascertain definitely the direction in which the trail above spoken of leads. Should it be found (as it appears almost certain that it will be found) to turn towards the Little Bighorn, he thinks that you should still proceed southward, perhaps as far as the headwaters of the Tongue, and then turn toward the Little Horn, feeling constantly, however, to your left, so as to preclude the escape of the Indians passing around your left flank.

The column of Colonel Gibbon is now in motion for the mouth of the Big Horn. As soon as it reaches that point will cross the Yellowstone and move up at least as far as the forks of the Big and Little Horns. Of course its future movements must be controlled by circumstances as they arise, but it is hoped that the Indians, if upon the Little Horn, may be so nearly inclosed by the two columns that their escape will be impossible. The Department Commander desires that on your way up the Rosebud you should thoroughly examine the upper part of Tullock's Creek, and that you should endeavor to send a scout through to Colonel Gibbon's command.

The supply-steamer will be pushed up the Big Horn as far as the forks of the river is found to be navigable for that distance, and the Department Commander, who will accompany the column of Colonel Gibbon, desires you to report to him there not later than the expiration of the time for which your troops are rationed, unless in the mean time you receive further orders.

Very respectfully, Your obedient servant,
E. W. Smith, Captain, 18th Infantry A. A. J. G.

Custer contracted gonorrhea at West Point? For real? I bet Libby did not find that humorous.
Did they have a cure for gonnorhea back then?

In that same era, Winston Churchill's father caught syphilis, and he slowly wasted away over a ten year period. A British aristocrat and there was no medical help for him.

Simon Kenton 7

Just like the old song “Pills of white mercury"

Yes.he.did. Which is why he never had kids. He was treated with arsonic, almost killed him. It's the story every new Cadet gets told and warned about ... don't screw with the hooers that still hang around up there.

Supposedly he gave it to some native america gals before he was finally treated. They say he was always on the lookout to bang the native american gals and would have his underlings find them and bring them to his tents.

He was also mutinied against on at least two occassions. The big one happened post-war in Texas along the gulf coast if I remember correctly.

He would have been fragged by his troops if they'd had good hand grenades back then. His legend has been way overblown.

I read it in college 40 years back, back then college libraries had books and I pretty much read the Frontier/American Indian section one end to the other (anyone else recall “The Prairie Potawatomi”? They were a thing 🙂).

One thing I didn’t appreciate until recently were the tons of trade goods poled on flatboats upstream, and the large quantities of buffalo hides the Bents sent downstream, all taken by Indians, for their hides.

Posted this before, but if you’ve ever attended an event at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin you’ve probably walked right by this building and MLK and west frontage road IH 35 and didn’t know it! 🙂

Custer’s occupation HQin Austin. The old “Blind, Deaf, and Dumb" asylum.



If you travel west on MLK ( old 19th street) until it dead ends at N. Lamar blvd. You are about 100 yards upstream on Shoal Creek, from where the Occupation troops bivouaced at what is now Pease park.

Whatever his personality defects were one cardinal sin I haven’t heard of him being accused of is ordering his men to take risks that he wasn’t willing to take himself.

The Bents were quite the entrepreneurs! Would have liked to have attended the 200th anniv. event at Bent’s Fort a year ago. But aside from it being they usual NPS goat rodeo, there was a lot going on then personally.

The long search for a cure for gonorrhea and syphilis can be an interesting read. Arsenic was used extensively but it had better success on syphilis than on gonorrhea. Sometimes the cure did more damage than the disease.
Sterilization from gonorrhea was possible but fairly rare. It came from epididymitis. The epididymis is a tube on the testicle that the sperm passes through on it's way to the penis. It can get infected and permanently blocked. I don't know if Custer had that but it's possibly the reason he never had children.

Did not know that Rock Chuck. Good to know.

He may have actually had syphilis according to some ... who knows.

I think his brother had a thing for the native american gals too and fathered a few with various indian princesses.

We're not big fans of Custer down here. He had some bad things to say about Southerners. The man had no morals or honor .... but he sure played that card at every turn.

Some historic figures are proclaimed heroes while others are demonized. We were a territory during the Civil War. It pisses me off that the south continues to be unfairly judged. The statues and the confederate flag are all important pieces of history and to the people that had relatives that fought in the horrific battles. Very unfortunate.

I read My Life on the Plains in the early 70`s. As I recall, the book was heavy on geography and Custer seemed to take an intense interest in the subject. Makes sense given his profession.

Syphilis was a common malady of men who served on the frontier. That was true for the Lewis and Clark expedition and all who came after. It was common in the east as well but, I suspect, more avoidable since your wife, girlfriend, fiance was readily available to supply relief when needed. In the early days of the insane asylum, roughly half of inpatients were there due to late-stage Syphilis-induced insanity. It was a largely terminal illness until treatments were discovered.

There is a portrait of Custer in which he appears to have very small bumps on his face. It has been speculated that those are evidence of him having early to mid-stage symptoms of syphilis.

I believe several of the Corps of Discovery camp sights were positively determined and verified by the traces of mercury found in the soil of their latrines.

You wonder how many family trees that crew sprouted up and down the Missouri.

I read one account of LBH were they captured a squaw he ended up...'using'?

These were supposedly Major Joel Elliott’s words before charging off with I think 16 men after some fleeing Cheyenne at the battle of Washita.
Elliot and his men probably ran into the other Indians who were camped further down the river, and got wiped out.
The were coming up stream to Black Kettle’s camp after Custer’s attack.
Custer recognized he was in trouble, and rounded up some non-combatant Indians as hostages. He faked a charge and then skedaddled, getting his men and the hostages out without further bloodshed.
I believe he had no idea that Elliot had taken off, and of there really wasn’t time to look for him. At this point, he knew he was in over his head.
Be that as it was, Benteen never got over it. He blamed Custer for abandoning Elliot, and the idea poisoned his relationship with his commander ever after.
Benteen went to his grave sure in his mind that Custer was a no good SOB.
I believe that this sorta explains why he made no attempt to come to Custer’s Battalions aid at LBH, and Reno was in no shape to command troops by the time Benteen joined him.
It’s a damn shame that Custer’s career as an officer is only judged by most over the last afternoon of his life.
He had his faults, but then we all do.
The General deserves better!
7mm