The Last Days of George Armstrong Custer

by Thom Hatch

  Libbie’s heartfelt quote “He is noble…” can be read in Merington, The Custer Story, 50.

  Letters and manuscripts of Libbie’s are housed at the Detroit Public Library, Lincoln Memorial University, Monroe County Historical Museum, U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and Yale University, as well as Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument.

  Pleasonton’s quote about Custer being “the best cavalry general in the world” is on page 60 of Merington, The Custer Story.

  Major Kidd’s quote about Custer taking command is in Kidd’s Personal Recollections, 125–29.

  The quotes by Ballard and Christiancy can be found in the Grand Rapids Daily Eagle, July 8, 1876, and Libbie’s Boots and Saddles, 9–10.

  Libbie’s “My more than friend…” letter is in Merington, The Custer Story, 73.

  Rebecca Richmond’s description of Libbie’s wedding dress can be found in Frost’s General Custer’s Libbie, 92.

  Custer’s exclamation of “Glorious War” is in my Glorious War, 202.

  New York Times reporter E. A. Paul compared Custer to Napoléon in the October 27, 1864, edition.

  The subject of the Surrender table is covered in most Custer biographies and perhaps best by Frost in General Custer’s Libbie. Sheridan’s letter can be found in Merington’s Custer Story, 165.

  Accounts of Custer’s temperance lecture from Ann Reed and his religious conversion can be found in most biographies of him but perhaps are best depicted in my Glorious War.

  Chapter Three

  Chasing Shadows on the Plains

  Custer’s activities during this period of time in Texas and Louisiana are covered in the following: Tenting on the Plains; or, General Custer in Kansas and Texas, by Elizabeth Custer; Custer in Texas: An Interrupted Narrative, by Carroll; “The Boy General and How He Grew,” by Millbrook; and “A Better Time Is in Store for Us: An Analysis of the Reconstruction Attitudes of George Armstrong Custer,” by Richter.

  Perhaps the most interesting account of the Hancock Expedition, although decidedly biased, was written by George Armstrong Custer in his My Life on the Plains. A well-researched reconstruction of events covering the years 1866–67 can be found in two fine articles by Millbrook: “The West Breaks in General Custer,” which has been reprinted in Hutton’s Custer Reader, and “Custer’s First Scout in the West,” edited by Dippie. Also, Dippie’s footnotes in Nomad provide valuable information and Custer’s own story about his adventurous buffalo hunt is included in his first “letter” of that volume.

  Two views by participants—a cavalry officer and the only doctor accompanying Custer—are also significant: Life in Custer’s Cavalry, edited by Utley, and On the Plains with Custer and Hancock, by Kennedy.

  Observations by two representatives of the press who accompanied the expedition are documented in “A Summer on the Plains,” by famed illustrator Theodore R. Davis, and My Early Travels and Adventures in America and Asia, by Henry M. Stanley of the New York Tribune.

  A highly critical assessment of Hancock’s expedition from an Indian point of view is included in The Fighting Cheyennes, by Grinnell. The best source about the Kidder massacre is A Dispatch to Custer, by Johnson and Allan. This volume contain important correspondence between those involved—including Custer—as well as excellent photos and maps.

  Other notable sources for the expedition include: Custer, Come at Once! by Burkey; Tenting on the Plains, by Elizabeth B. Custer; and “The Hancock and Custer Expedition of 1867,” by White.

  The best account of the Seventh Cavalry Regiment is Of Garry Owen in Glory, by Chandler. Three fascinating books flavored with amusing anecdotes written by Libbie Custer, who followed the Seventh Cavalry’s guidon, offer an insight into post life and personalities: Boots and Saddles, Tenting on the Plains, and Following the Guidon. The Seventh Cavalry is well represented, with depictions of daily duty, in Utley’s Frontier Regulars. For a look at the trials and tribulations of a cavalryman see The Troopers, by Whitman, and Forty Miles a Day on Beans and Hay, by Rickey. A description of the weapons, dress, equipment, horses, and flags of the Seventh Cavalry in 1876 can be found in Boots & Saddles at the Little Bighorn, by Hutchins.

  Biographical sketches of individual members of the Seventh Cavalry are contained in They Rode with Custer, edited by Carroll, and a revised and expanded edition of that book titled Men with Custer, edited by Nichols.

  More about Winfield Scott Hancock can be found in Reminiscences of Winfield Scott Hancock, by His Wife, by Hancock; The Life of Winfield Scott Hancock, by Junkin; and Winfield Scott Hancock, by Jordan.

  Custer describes his inaugural excursion to Denver aboard the Kansas Pacific Railroad in the October 7, 1870, edition of Turf, Field and Farm, which has been reprinted in Nomad, edited by Dippie. General railroad sources include: “When the Union and Kansas Pacific Built Through Kansas,” by Snell and Richmond; The Story of the Western Railroads, by Riegel; New Tracks in North America, by Bell; and Trails, Rails and War, by Perkins.

  For two notable works about railroad and land speculator William Jackson Palmer, see: Rebel of the Rockies, by Ahearn and A Builder of the West, by Fisher.

  The definitive biography of William W. Cooke is Custer’s Forgotten Friend, by Arnold; see also Arnold’s “Cooke’s Scrawled Note: Last Word from a Doomed Command.” Numerous references to his friend Cooke are made by Custer in his My Life on the Plains.

  Perhaps the most accurate book about the life of the enigmatic Myles Keogh is Myles Keogh, edited by K. Langellier, et al. The most romantic and thought-provoking account is Keogh, Comanche and Custer, by former battlefield superintendent Luce. See also: The Honor of Arms, by Convis; Captain Myles Walter Keogh, by Hayes-McCoy; Hayes-McCoy’s “Captain Myles Walter Keogh, the Irish Sword”; “The Man Who Rode Comanche,” by Taunton; and “Myles Keogh from the Vatican to the Little Big Horn,” by Pohanka.

  References to Weir’s personal relationship with the Custers can be found in The Custer Story, by Merington, as well as Elizabeth Bacon Custer and the Making of a Myth, by Leckie.

  The best version of Custer’s dash across Kansas can be found in “The West Breaks in General Custer,” by Millbrook, which has been reprinted in The Custer Reader, by Hutton. Also see: My Life on the Plains, by Custer and The Custer Story, by Marguerite Merington, which contains Libbie’s letter and other interesting observations, as does Libbie’s Tenting on the Plains.

  Benteen’s theory for Custer’s desertion is related in Carroll’s Custer: From the Civil War to the Big Horn, and Mathey’s account was told in an interview with Walter M. Camp, Harold B. Lee Library.

  The Court-Martial of George Armstrong Custer, by Frost, includes not only an excellent account of the Hancock Expedition but also a verbatim account—testimony and exhibits—of Custer’s court-martial proceedings. Two other notable sources are “The Custer Court Martial,” by Murray, and “The Court-Martial of Brevet Major General George A. Custer,” by Halsey. Custer’s point of view can be found in his My Life on the Plains and Libbie’s Tenting on the Plains. The subject is also covered from various angles in every biography of Custer, but none comes close to matching Frost’s work, which allows readers to form their own conclusions regarding Custer’s actions and subsequent punishment.

  Chapter Four

  Death Along the Washita

  The debate about the “Indian problem” is described best in Uncle Sam’s Stepchildren, by Priest, and American Indian Policy in Crisis, by Prucha.

  The concept and execution of “total war” demonstrated during the Winter Campaign of 1868–69 can be found in William Tecumseh Sherman and the Settlement of the West, by Athearn; Personal Memoirs of Philip Henry Sheridan, by Sheridan; Phil Sheridan and His Army, by Hutton; General Custer and the Battle of the Washita: The Federal View, by Carroll; Utley’s Cavalier in Buckskin; Sheridan’s Troopers on the Borders, by Keim; and Hoig’s The Battle of the Washita.

  The best contemporary account of the Beecher Island battle is Monnett’s Battle of
Beecher Island and the Indian War of 1867–69. George A. Forsyth’s own romanticized version of the battle can be found in “A Frontier Fight” and in his autobiographies, Thrilling Days in Army Life and The Story of a Soldier. Eyewitness accounts by participants John Hurst and Sigmund Shlesinger are found in “The Beecher Island Fight.” The rescue by the Tenth Cavalry is detailed in The Buffalo Soldiers: A Narrative of the Negro Cavalry in the West, by Leckie.

  Other notable sources include: Hero of Beecher Island, by Dixon; The Beecher Island Battle, by Werner; “The Battle of Beecher Island,” by White; The Fighting Cheyennes, by Grinnell; and Indian Fights and Fighters, by Brady.

  The best accounts of the march of the Kansas cavalrymen can be found in Campaigning with Custer and the Nineteenth Kansas Volunteer Cavalry on the Washita Campaign, 1868–69, by participant David L. Spotts, edited by Brininstool; “Winter Campaigning with Sheridan and Custer,” by White; and “The Nineteenth Kansas Cavalry in the Indian Territory, 1868–69,” edited by White. Other helpful sources include: “The Nineteenth Kansas Cavalry and the Conquest of the Plains Indians,” by Hadley; “The Nineteenth Kansas Cavalry in the Washita Campaign,” by Moore; and Hutton’s Phil Sheridan and His Army.

  Benteen’s dislike of Custer is demonstrated in one classic volume, The Benteen-Goldin Letters on Custer and His Last Battle, edited by Carroll, which best reveals the true personality of the sarcastic and critical army captain. Bitter and vindictive in his old age, Benteen literally blisters the pages of these letters to a former Seventh Cavalry private named Theodore Goldin and others with his hatred of Custer and contempt for most of his old comrades. Benteen occasionally rattled his saber by alluding to great crimes or misdeeds committed by Custer but fails to provide evidence and instead merely repeats camp gossip spiced with his rancorous conjectures.

  Benteen was the subject of a rather sympathetic biography, Harvest of Barren Regrets, by Mills. His softer yet no less sarcastic side is revealed in Camp Talk: The Very Private Letters of Frederick W. Benteen of the 7th U.S. Cavalry to His Wife, 1871–1888, edited by Carroll. The Custer Myth, by Graham, dedicates a full chapter to a sampling of Benteen’s writings on various topics.

  Other notable sources include Gray Head and Long Hair, by Karol Asay; Cavalry Scraps: The Writings of Frederick W. Benteen, edited by Carroll; and Benteen’s Ordeal and Custer’s Field, by Johnson. The Frederick W. Benteen Collection, which consists of three boxes of material, is located in the University of Georgia Library.

  Cheyenne oral tradition contending that Custer and Mo-nah-se-tah were an item can be found in Cheyenne Autumn, by Sandoz; Custer on the Little Bighorn, by Marquis; and Custer’s Fall: The Indian Side of the Story, by Miller.

  Benteen’s allegations about Custer’s affair with the Indian girl are contained in his letters of February 14 and 17, 1896, in The Benteen-Goldin Letters on Custer and His Last Battle, edited by Carroll; scout Ben Clark’s fading memories were recorded in a 1910 interview with Walter Camp in Field Notes, Folder 4, Box 2, Walter M. Camp Papers, Lilly Library, Indiana University.

  An analysis by Custer scholars includes: General Custer’s Libbie, by Frost; Custer, by Monaghan; Son of the Morning Star, by Connell; Ambrose’s Crazy Horse and Custer, and Wert’s Custer. One noted historian, Robert M. Utley, in his biography, Cavalier in Buckskin, leaves the door open a crack to the possibility that another child was born late in 1869 and that Custer could have been the father. Mo-nah-se-tah is a prominent figure in Custer’s memoir, My Life on the Plains, and Elizabeth Bacon Custer’s Following the Guidon.

  For the case of a woman who claims to be a descendent of “Yellow Hair,” also known as Josiah Custer, the alleged child of Mo-nah-se-tah and Custer, see: “My Heritage, My Search,” by Gail Kelly-Custer.

  An opposing view of the relationship within Cheyenne oral tradition is presented by John Stands in Timber and Margot Liberty in Cheyenne Memories, which dismisses any notion of a liaison between Custer and the girl.

  The text of Benteen’s scurrilous letter about Custer abandoning Elliott can be found in The Custer Myth, by Graham. Benteen’s explanation of the incident in Custer’s tent is described in his letter of February 22, 1896, to Theodore Goldin in The Benteen-Goldin Letters on Custer and His Last Battle, edited by Carroll.

  The best accounts of the Joel Elliott affair can be found in Cavalier in Buckskin, by Utley; Custer Legends, by Frost; The Battle of the Washita, by Hoig; and Sheridan’s Troopers on the Borders, by Keim. Incidentally, Keim, the reporter whom Benteen noted as being a witness to a later confrontation with Custer, makes no mention of that incident in his coverage of Elliott’s tragic fate, although he did write that he reported the reason for Custer’s officer’s call to Sheridan.

  The theory about Benteen fearing to confront Myers can be attributed to the author’s speculation.

  Captive Clara Blinn’s message is on display at the National Frontier Trails Center in Independence, Missouri, and has been reprinted in Rister’s Border Captives, which details the incident. W. T. Harrington’s letter to Sheridan dated November 8, 1868, is located in the Records of the U.S. Army, Box 16, Division of the Missouri, Special File, RG 393. For an excerpt of the incident from Custer’s official report see My Life on the Plains, by Custer. The University of Oklahoma edition of the book also includes an argument by Colonel William B. Hazen with respect to the identity of the Indians who were responsible for the death of Mrs. Blinn.

  Custer’s own dramatic account of the release of the captured women on Sweetwater Creek can be found in My Life on the Plains. His wife, Libbie, adds her perspective to the story in Following the Guidon. An eyewitness account by participant David Spotts is contained in his Campaigning with Custer and the Nineteenth Kansas Volunteer Cavalry on the Washita Campaign, 1868–69. For two other interesting versions see California Joe, by Milner and Forrest and chapter 11, “Deliverance by Deception,” of Hoig’s Battle of the Washita.

  The best version of the Battle of Summit Springs can be found in a biography of Major Carr titled War Eagle, by King. The Summit Springs Battle, by Werner, includes copies of Carr’s official reports and several interesting maps. Scout Luther North’s interview with Walter Camp about the battle can be found in Camp on Custer, edited by Liddic and Harbaugh. An in-depth analysis by Don Russell with respect to who actually killed Tall Bull—in his opinion Buffalo Bill—is contained in his Lives and Legends of Buffalo Bill. For support for Frank North as the slayer of Tall Bull, as well as coverage of the battle, see both Two Great Scouts and Their Pawnee Battalions, by Grinnell and Danker’s Man of the Plains. Other notable sources for the battle include: Summit Springs, by King; Across the Continent with the Fifth Cavalry, by Price; and Sheridan’s Record of Engagements with Hostile Indians Within the Military Division of the Missouri.

  The most factual and dramatic account of the Washita battle, which provides a perspective from the Indian side of the affair without compromising the truth, can be found in my Black Kettle. An accurate overall account of the Winter Campaign of 1868–69 can be found in Hoig’s Battle of the Washita. Another excellent choice would be Phil Sheridan and His Army, by Hutton. For a compilation of the official documents see General Custer and the Battle of the Washita: The Federal View, edited by Carroll. An eyewitness perspective from a reporter who accompanied the campaign is Sheridan’s Troopers on the Borders, by Keim. The classic Indian Fights and Fighters, by Brady, includes a notable version of the Washita battle. Edward Godfrey, one of Custer’s officers, adds interesting details in his “Some Reminiscences, Including the Washita Battle, November 27, 1868,” which also appears in Hutton’s Custer Reader.

  Custer’s own view of events is included in his memoir, My Life on the Plains, in which he reacts to the criticism, and Libbie Custer provides her insight in Following the Guidon.

  Two of the more critical assessments are Brill’s Conquest of the Southern Plains and Custer’s Battle of the Washita and a History of the Plains Indian Tribes, by Epple.

  The
most balanced debate about the morals of the campaign can be found in Hutton’s Phil Sheridan and His Army. One of the better arguments for the humanitarian position is covered in detail in chapter 12, “A Quarrel of Conscience,” of Hoig’s Battle of the Washita. Ironically, Hoig concludes that the battle was a massacre but provides more than enough evidence to dispute that finding.

  For a reporter’s eyewitness point of view that at times both supports and refutes the army’s presentation of events and evidence, see Sheridan’s Troopers on the Borders, by Keim. Sheridan’s orders to Custer appear in the works by both Hoig and Keim.

  Other sources, for the most part sympathetic to the Indians, include: The Fighting Cheyennes, by Grinnell, and Our Indian Wards, by Manypenny.

  The most powerful narrative of the Sand Creek Massacre can be found in my Black Kettle, which provides an evenhanded view of events from both sides of the tragic affair.

  Helen Hunt Jackson was a resident of Colorado Springs when she wrote A Century of Dishonor, which describes the massacre in great detail and quotes liberally from testimony given before the Congressional Committee. The report of the U.S. War Department was published in 1975 by the Library of Congress under the title Report of the Secretary of War Communicating, in Compliance with a Resolution of the Senate of February 4, 1867: Copy of Evidence Taken at Denver and Fort Lyon, Colorado by a Military Commission Ordered to Inquire in the Sand Creek Massacre, November 1864.

  Sherman’s quote defending the attack on Washita can be found in my Black Kettle, 256.