Custer Had It Coming
Today is Sunday, 25 June 2006.
One of your author’s favourite bumper stickers has long been: “Custer had it coming.”
George Armstrong Custer was born in Ohio in 1839, and graduated from West Point in 1861, just in time to indulge his ambitions in the blood of the Civil War. Having, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica, “distinguished himself in numerous battles”, he was promoted brevet brigadier general in 1863, commanding a Michigan volunteer cavalry brigade. He ended the War as part of the Army of the Potomac, which harried the Army of Northern Virginia in its final retreat, until its surrender by the morally-corrupt slaver and traitor, Robert E. Lee.
As part of the general shrinkage of the US Army after the War, Custer was reduced to his permanent rank of lieutenant colonel and sent to Kansas in 1866 as part of the forces under General Hancock assigned to the “final solution to the Indian problem”. He chose to detour to dally with his wife, however, and was subsequently court-martialed and suspended for a year without pay. The First Americans having refused to play their part in the final solution, Custer was restored to duty in Kansas with the 7th Cavalry in 1868.
On Christmas Morning, 1868, his troops attacked without warning the encampment of Cheyenne led by Black Kettle, along the Washita River in Oklahoma, massacring women and children as well as First American braves. He and the 7th were then transferred to the Dakotas, where President U.S. Grant had ordered that all First Americans who refused to be imprisoned on concentration reservations by 31 January 1876 would be subject to armed persuasion. (A major motivation was to clear the sacred ancestral lands of the Lakota and Cheyenne, so they might be overrun and looted by goldhunters.)
The 7th was part of a pincer movement. However, when Custer arrived on the banks of the Little Big Horn River, he determined not to wait for the infantry column, as he had been ordered, and to attack at once and seize all the glory. The result was the Battle of the Greasy Grass, also known as the Little Big Horn and Custer’s Last Stand. It is unknown if he realized that he was outnumbered some 3 to 1.
This was of a piece with Custer’s entire career. His Civil War record was “distinguished” by a willingness to take high-risk chances with the lives of his soldiers, if he might win recognition and promotion. His gambler’s luck finally ran out at the Greasy Grass.
Custer did indeed have it coming. Unfortunately, he took some 208 men with him. Twenty per cent of his force was under trained (having been in service 7 months or less), they were undernourished, and had just completed a forced march of almost 24 hours. Many of the troopers, then as now, were immigrants and other marginalized persons.
_______________________________
Also on this date:
1898 - Maria Skłodowska-Curie and her husband Pierre Curie announce their discovery of radium.
1903 – Eric Blair, better known as George Orwell, is born.
1950 – Democratic People’s Republic of Korea invades the Republic of Korea.
One of your author’s favourite bumper stickers has long been: “Custer had it coming.”
George Armstrong Custer was born in Ohio in 1839, and graduated from West Point in 1861, just in time to indulge his ambitions in the blood of the Civil War. Having, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica, “distinguished himself in numerous battles”, he was promoted brevet brigadier general in 1863, commanding a Michigan volunteer cavalry brigade. He ended the War as part of the Army of the Potomac, which harried the Army of Northern Virginia in its final retreat, until its surrender by the morally-corrupt slaver and traitor, Robert E. Lee.
As part of the general shrinkage of the US Army after the War, Custer was reduced to his permanent rank of lieutenant colonel and sent to Kansas in 1866 as part of the forces under General Hancock assigned to the “final solution to the Indian problem”. He chose to detour to dally with his wife, however, and was subsequently court-martialed and suspended for a year without pay. The First Americans having refused to play their part in the final solution, Custer was restored to duty in Kansas with the 7th Cavalry in 1868.
On Christmas Morning, 1868, his troops attacked without warning the encampment of Cheyenne led by Black Kettle, along the Washita River in Oklahoma, massacring women and children as well as First American braves. He and the 7th were then transferred to the Dakotas, where President U.S. Grant had ordered that all First Americans who refused to be imprisoned on concentration reservations by 31 January 1876 would be subject to armed persuasion. (A major motivation was to clear the sacred ancestral lands of the Lakota and Cheyenne, so they might be overrun and looted by goldhunters.)
The 7th was part of a pincer movement. However, when Custer arrived on the banks of the Little Big Horn River, he determined not to wait for the infantry column, as he had been ordered, and to attack at once and seize all the glory. The result was the Battle of the Greasy Grass, also known as the Little Big Horn and Custer’s Last Stand. It is unknown if he realized that he was outnumbered some 3 to 1.
This was of a piece with Custer’s entire career. His Civil War record was “distinguished” by a willingness to take high-risk chances with the lives of his soldiers, if he might win recognition and promotion. His gambler’s luck finally ran out at the Greasy Grass.
Custer did indeed have it coming. Unfortunately, he took some 208 men with him. Twenty per cent of his force was under trained (having been in service 7 months or less), they were undernourished, and had just completed a forced march of almost 24 hours. Many of the troopers, then as now, were immigrants and other marginalized persons.
_______________________________
Also on this date:
1898 - Maria Skłodowska-Curie and her husband Pierre Curie announce their discovery of radium.
1903 – Eric Blair, better known as George Orwell, is born.
1950 – Democratic People’s Republic of Korea invades the Republic of Korea.
posted by HH at 11:11 AM
1 Comments:
Very thought through comment, RtR, so, before I answer, could you please define how you mean "profession of politics" and "profession of arms", as I suspect we view them somewhat differently.
Danke sehr.
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