Gentlemen,
I sincerely doubt that George Armstrong Custer could qualify as a Gunslinger! The man was an egomaniac, and seems from at least one episode in his quite colorful life, To have been remarkable clumsy with handguns!
While on Patrol with the 7th. Cavalry in Indian Territory, he very stupidly left the column BY HIMSELF! DID NOT tell any of his NCO's where he was going, and apparently went to try and shoot a buffalo with his service Revolver! (Presumeably, just to see if it could be done!) He apparently found such an animal, but was so inept, that while manoevering himself and horse to get in a position where he could kill the Buffalo, by mistake, shot his own horse in the head, killing the poor animal instantly!!!
I have nothing but contempt for "The Boy General!" He had the example of his Own Carbon Copy, Captain William J,
Fetterman, who at Fort Phil Kearney, willfully Disobeyed strict orders from his Commanding Officer, Colonel Henry B.Carrington, to NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, follow the Indians over Lodge Trail Ridge! Fetterman had bragged that given 80 men, he could "Ride through the entire Sioux Nation!" Well it so happened he had his 80 men! So convinced that he KNEW IT ALL, He disobeyed Carrington EXPLICIT Orders, and followed the Indian War Party over Lodge Train Ridge, and down a narrow Canyon. The Walls of which almost fell in on Fetterman and his eighty Men, Killing them To The Last Man, Just before Christmas 1866! No-body knew till later, but in charge of the Lakotah Party that day was a young Chieftain named, Crazy Horse!
Custer had this Glaring Example of Military Stupidity which had doubtless been covered in his classes at West Point,
yet he made several VERY STUPID Errors, almost exactly nine and one half years later, at the Greasy Grass on June 25th 1876! It was only by luck, and the skills of one of his Indian Trackers, that the Damned Fool was found, after he had idiotically killed his own Horse! It would have been a Blessing for all concerned, had he died that day, and then the Fiasco of the so called, "Battle of The Little Bighorn," would not have appeared as a blot on the military History of The United States!
The man was so obsessed with becoming the Next Presiden of the United States, that the list of disobeyed orders, and errors he committed, are almost beyond belief.
#1. He deliberately left the Gatling Guns behind, fearing they would slow his progress! For while the Military Plan was for Three Column to meet up together and entrap the Indians in a kind of Pincer Movement, Custer wanted to get there BEFORE the other two columns, so he could have the glory of capturing or killing the Indians ALL BY HIMSELF! He had been expressly ordered NOT TO TAKE ANY NEWSPAPER CORRESPONDANTS with him! BUt what is the point of a Glorioous Victory, if there is no-one there to write in the papers about your Brilliant and Glorious Victory!!! SO he took a relative of his, Mark Kellog, a reporter for a prominent Eastern Newspaper. Of course Kellog was killed too!
I forget the Actors Name, but in the Dustin Hoffman Movie, "Little Big Man," the actor who Plays the part of Custer, DID A MAGNIFICENT JOB, of portraying him as an over-bearing, Supercillious, Egotistical, Pompous Moron! That Actor should have received an Oscar for the way he portrayed Custer as he really was in real life! He caused the death of many members of the 7th Cavalry at the so called Battle of the Washita, Where he rode up in the pre-dawn darkness , in the dead of Winter, on the PEACEFUL VILLAGE of Black Kettle. Black Kettle raised the American Flag, then a White Flag, but the attack went on. Custer, Master Tactician that he was,(?) had decided to attack the village from all four sides! So Custer's men who were shooting from the west, were hitting their comrades on the east and vice Versa, and the same thing happened with the guys attacking from North and South!! Most of the Cavalry injuries and Deaths, were from, .45-70 Trapdoor Springfield rifles!
Then Custer, took captive Black Kettle's Daughter, ostensibly as an, "Interpeter!" Since the girl did not speak a word of English, this role for her seems a little strange. Back at Fort Abraham Lincoln, the Girl lived in Custer's Quarters, and only when Mrs. Libby Custer was on her way to join "Autie," was the girl, by this time several months pregnant by Custer, thrown out into the Pole Corral, with all the other Indian Captives. It was winter, and the Indian Captives just had threadbare Blankets, and had to fight one another for the mouldy remnants of the Cookhouse scraps, which were thrown into troughs just inside the pole corrals! THAT is the kind of Arrogant, Self-Serving Bastard, George Armstrong Custer REALLY WAS!
In 1876, it would not have been,"Politically Correct," to admit what a, "Utter and Complete Balls-Up," Custer made of the Engagement!. Captain Benteen, for the sake of his own Military Career, which would have hit the Skids, had he opened his mouth and told the truth, still made it plain that he did not like the ,"Boy General!"
Some years ago now, the Great Country & Western Singer, Johnny Cash, sang a song about Custer. I think some of the first lines in the song were,"Now I want to tell you Buster, That I aint a Fan of Custer!" In a reference to the So Called, "Battle of the Washita,"Some other lines read, "With victories he was swimming, He killed Children, Dogs, and Women, But the general he don't ride well anymore, Crazy Horse set out to Call, with Sitting Bull and Gall, and the General, He don't ride well Any More!"
This song was featured on an L.P Record I had of Johnny Cash, Songs of the American Indian. The Album was called, "Bitter Tears!" If you come across one in a thrift store somewhere, GRAB IT! I believe that Johnnie Cash was proud of his Cherokee Blood.
Johnnie Roper,Alias:Gunslinger9378.
