Ohio History Journal

BRUCE A. ROSENBERG

 

Another Look at

George Armstrong Custer

 

 

Custer in the Civil War: His Unfinished Memoirs. Compiled and edited by

John M. Carroll. (San Rafael, CA: Presidio Press, 1977. 233p.;

illustrations, bibliographic checklist, index. $27.50.)

Centennial Campaign: The Sioux War of 1876. By John S. Gray. (Fort

Collins, CO: The Old Army Press, 1976. 392p.; bibliography, maps,

index. $20.00.)

Li/e in Custer's Ca\valr: Diaries and Letters of Albert and Jennie Barnitz,

1867-1868. Edited by Robert M. Utley. (New Haven: Yale University

Press, 1977. xiv +- ³⁰²p.; illustrations, appendices, bibliography,

index. $15.00.)

 

 

 

More than a century ago "Custer achieved an immortality," writes

Robert Utley, "that a dozen brilliant victories could not have earned him,"

one of those truisms that is incontestable because obvious. This perplexing

man, whom author John Carroll calls "a great officer and leader of men,"

whom fellow officer Albert Barnitz called "The most complete example of a

petty tyrant that I have ever seen," is also justly appraised by Utley as a

"repository of a host of baffling contradictions," a "paradoxical combina-

tion of virtue and vice." The battle in which he lost his life, gloriously or

ignobly is uncertain, was relatively small in scope and of itself minor. But it

has become the most popularly known conflict in American history, the

subject of more than one thousand paintings and illustrations, of more

than a score of movies, and of hundreds of essays and books. The three

reviewed here are merely among the most recent; they will not be the last.

One of the most cogent evidences of the enduring fascination of Custer's

character and achievement is the devotion afforded him by such men as

John Carroll, author and editor of nearly a dozen books on his hero.

Carroll is an ardent champion of Custeriana and a fervent apologist;

among the devotees in the Custer cult-the Associates of The Little Big

 

 

 

 

Bruce A. Rosenberg is Professor of English at Brown University.

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74                                             Onto hISTORY

Horn   he is one of the most reverent and assiduous. But in this volume partisanship is no issue: it is a collection of records, Custer's serialized memoirs, and a bibliography. Editor Carroll has added almost no com- ment of his own. though the thoroughness of his labors is always noticea- ble. Part I of this tome  mainly a source-book  presents the gleanings of the 130 volume W11ar of the Rebellion: A Compilatiotn of the Official Recordx of Tlhe (nion and Confederate Records. A second section reprints several of Custer's autobiographical essays carried by Galaxy Magazine during the spring of 1876. A few of these are interesting: all are literate. But nowhere, one feels, does the real George A. Custer emerge, even (or especially'?) when he describes his embarrassed gaffes during his first combat. A final section lists the more than 550 articles and books which at least mention Custer in the Civil War. Most of these bibliographical entries are sparsely annotated and of almost no value to a Custer biographer. A typical annotation informs us that the writing "contains a few Custer mentions" or "has some Custer mentions." Equally unhelpful are such comments from the records of Part I as "were in engagement at Gettysburg," or "was engaged at Monterey Pass." Like so much of Custeriana, this material holds no interest for the professional historian. But it is, all of it, of the utmost interest and concern to the Custerphile. And it is to this person. and there

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Another Look at Custer                                    75

are many of them in America today, that Carroll's book will have its strongest appeal. For the rest of us, the inaccessable Galaxy articles are the most attractive. Of broader interest is John Gray's Centennial Campaign, a chronicle of the 1876 war against the Sioux. Like most authors of books on Custer, Gray is an interested nonprofessional. And his pages often reveal his passionate commitments. Not that Gray is an unreconstructed Custerphile, but he does take sides in several of the issues he discusses, and the intrusion of his opinions into what should have been the dispassionate presentation of data is distracting and tends to make one wary of even his most convincing arguments. Nevertheless, what Gray lacks in professional distancing he almost makes up for in attention to detail and to contempor- ary sources (used almost exclusively): he gives a great deal of information about both prelude and aftermath of the "Last Stand" seldom included in histories of the battle, and his work is valuable for that reason alone. Gray makes a number of unsupported evaluations of events and personalities; yet he also examines some aspects of the battle in such detail--for instance, Benteen's "valley-hunting" assigment--as to be definitive. Robert Utley has written widely on the West, and he is among the two or

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76                                                   OHIO IIISTORY

 

three ablest historians on the subject. The diaries and letters of Albert and

Jenny Barnitz (he was an officer in the Seventh Cavalry until seriously

wounded at the Washita) is not a major work of history, bht one of great

interest. Maj. Barnit7 greatly admired Custer during the Civil War, but

while on duty on the plains he changed his mind about his commander

radically:  . . . I should never associate with him on terms of intimacy,"

he wrote to Jenny in May of 1867, "because by his recent unfeeling

treatment of enlisted men of this command and shameful discourtesy to

officers, he has proved himself unworthy of the respect of all right-minded

men."

The light that the opinions of one of Custer's articulate colleagues sheds

upon "The Boy General" is only part of the interest of this book. Also

revealed is a warm and vivid picture of life in the frontier army in many of

its perspectives; it is a canvas colored by a sensitive and perceptive

observer. Ultley has carefully edited his material, never intruding on the

reader, yet always providing just enough information to keep us informed

about trivial people and minor events. This is perhaps the most engaging

personal history of the army of the frontier, of those "pioneers in blue."

When we wonder, then, at the great expense of energy still being spent

upon Custer, we wonder, however unconsciously, at the emotional allure

of the battle in which Custer was killed, without which we would hardly

hear of its martyred hero at all. Is it really worthwhile after all'? Is this man

who did little to change the course of American history or alter its thought

worth all the ink, the paint, the celluloid? For many obviously not. But for

many others the question answers itself. Custer continues to live in the

minds and imaginations of many thousands, to inspire some men to spend

decades of their lives to write books about him and others to spend between

$15 and $27 to read about him.

We also wonder, however, how much more conventional history needs

to be written about the Little Big Horn and its defeated colonel? In how

much more detail do we need to study this battle which, after all. tells us

very little about westward expansion. the course of empire. or the behavior

of man. My own interest in the Custer phenomenon concerned the heroic

"epic" that Americans, collectively, made of the few known facts of the

disaster: not what happened, so much, but rather what millions of white

Americans chose to believe had happened, and the narrative that emerged

as an expression of those beliefs. And subsequent to the appearance of

Cu.ster and The Ep£ic of I)efrat in 1974, Brian Dippie has published an

important book on the Custer "Myth" which details the important Custer

productions in popular art.

In my own jaded opinion, this is the approach that will tell us the most

about the man and his Stand: why do we think he (and it) so important'?

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Another Look at Custer                                        77

 

What does our understanding of his life and the battle that ended it say

about us and our attitudes -- toward Indians in particular and bravery in

general? How do such legends come about, and are they then predictable'

Despite the scornful disclaimers of academic historians, Custer is very

important but not for the reasons they usually ascribe to "important"

people. Despite the disdain of professional historians, Custer is interesting.

even fascinating. John Carroll, John Gray, and Robert Utley are fascinated

and have written interesting books to show it. For even as I write these

questions about whether Custer is worth all this bother, I read all three of

these books with something nearing unalloyed interest.

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