Ohio History Journal

GENERAL GEORGE A. CUSTER.     JUDGE RICHARD M. VOORHEES. If after a lapse of twenty-three centuries the world still looks with respectful emotion on the mound which protects the dust of that phalanx of Spartan heroes who fought and fell at Thermopylae while resisting the tide of Persian invasion and in

rescuing the land of popu- lar liberty, of letters, and arts from  a ruthless foe, surely no apology is need- ed for claiming an hour's thoughtful consideration of the life, character and ser- vices of our young and brilliant American soldier, Gen. George A. Custer. On the fifth day of December, 1839, in the ob- scure village of New Rum- ley, Ohio, Geo. A. Custer was born.    His parents had neither fortune nor fame to bestow upon their son; these were left for him to achieve for himself.

Whatever the future had in store for him he had to secure by his own genius and efforts. My first remembrance of him goes back more than fifty years ago. Then we were country lads and school fellows to- gether, surrounded with the pleasures and contending with the trials in that narrow sphere of life. By his pleasing disposition and behavior Custer exhibited thus early in life some of the peculiar traits of character which later developed into and made (341)

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him one of the most brilliant and dashing cavalry officers of

modern times.

Whoever came in contact with him were impressed by his

conduct and bearing, his enthusiastic nature, manly deportment

and exuberant dash; qualities his subsequent career in life and

heroic death fully developed and confirmed.

Physically he was favored and kindly dealt with by nature;

tall, erect and handsome in person; exceedingly graceful in

movement, with a noble, knightly face, his golden locks flowing

gracefully over his manly form; just such a figure as fancy

would picture for her ideal soldier.

In June, 1857, he received his appointment as a cadet at

West Point; there to fit himself for his military career which

was so brilliant and brief. Neither in his literary or military

studies did he attain special eminence.  He was not what is

commonly called a first-class student. He himself tells us that

in a class of thirty-four members, thirty-three had at graduation

a higher standing than he. His reckless romance of character

almost cost him a court-martial on the day of his graduation;

which instance would have ruined any one not possessed of

Custer's good fortune. The incident which gave rise to this

is worth relating, as it is so peculiarly characteristic of the sub-

ject of this brief sketch. On commencement day he was

officer of the guard and seeing two cadets quarreling, instead of

arresting both, he called out to the bystanders, "Stand back,

boys; let's have a fair fight." Here he furnished the keynote to

his whole character as a soldier. Let's have a fair fight was his

motto then, and to his death; and no man ever loved a fair fight

better than he.

On April 12th, 1861, by lightning speed the terrible news

was flashed over the world that the American flag had been dis-

honored; Sumter had fallen, and a call to arms was made.

Here was Custer's first opportunity of good fortune. He gradu-

ated that year and was ready for military life. Although in the

army myself from the beginning to the close of the war, it was

not my fortune to meet my early companion and schoolmate

until after the war was closed, and I must look elsewhere for facts

concerning him and his career other than personal observation.

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General George A. Custer.             343

 

Fortunately, however, there is no lack of information upon the

subject. The history of our country is replete with acts of his

splendid achievements.

The trouble encountered by him on his graduation day be-

ing over, he was ordered to report for duty at Washington.

There he met a friend who asked him if he would not like to see

the Commander-in-Chief of the army, Gen. Winfield Scott. Ac-

cepting the opportunity he was presented to the veteran soldier;

and at that very hour and day the General wanted a messenger

by whom he could send a dispatch to McDowell at Bull Run.

It was on July 20th, 1861, the day preceding the battle.

On being presented to the General the old veteran took an imme-

diate fancy to this handsome young officer and selected him to be

the bearer of his dispatch to McDowell, upon condition that he

could be in readiness to go within an hour from that time.

Custer agreed to go. And now his luck came to his aid again

in securing for him a horse in Washington City, where every

stable had been emptied by previous demands of civilians in pro-

curing for themselves means of conveyance to the scene of battle,

to take place the next day. He met a sergeant, who was going

to the front with an extra horse, the very same on which the

young cadet had learned to ride at West Point. He started at

once for the scene of impending battle, riding alone all night

long. Reaching headquarters early Sunday morning he deliv-

ered the dispatch intrusted to him by Gen. Scott to McDowell.

After partaking of a hasty breakfast he joined his company then

under McDowell at Centerville, which was among the last to

leave the field on that fatal day bearing with them Gen. Heintzel-

man, who had been wounded.

Custer served with his company until Kearny was appointed

Brigadier General of volunteers, who detailed him upon his staff,

where he remained until the order was issued prohibiting regular

army officers from doing staff duty. He again returned to his

company after receiving flattering testimonials of his efficiency.

Moving with the army that followed up the evacuation of

Manassas he was in the advance under Stoneman and made

his first cavalry charge at Catlitt's Station. In this charge was

drawn the first blood in the campaign under McClelland. Here

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we might sweep the whole field of heroic action in which our

young hero made so many brilliant and successful charges,

achieving many victories and receiving compliments from his su-

perior officers. I will, however hazard the risk of going some-

what into details, trusting that my readers will not consider them

wearisome or trying on their patience.

After the army had invested Yorktown, Custer was detailed

as assistant engineer under Gen. Sumner, in which position he

threw up the nearest earthworks to the enemy's lines. He was

in the advance under Hancock in the pursuit of the enemy from

Yorktown, and at Williamsburg was aid-de-camp to Hancock

and took the first battle flag captured by the army of the Po-

tomac. He was the first to cross the Chickahomony, wading the

river in full view of the rebel pickets; and for his gallantry was

made a personal aid to McClelland with the rank of Captain.

He took part in the seven days' battle in front of Richmond,

marked out the position occupied by the Union forces at the

battle of Gaines Mills, and participating in the campaign closing

with Antietam and which ended McClelland's military career.

Custer's good luck saved him from the fate of his chieftain's

ill-fortune and he was detailed to serve on the staff of General

Stoneman, Chief of Cavalry to the Army of the Potomac, and

subsequently on that of his successor, Gen. Pleasanton, with

whom he took part in numerous cavalry engagements. When

Pleasanton became Major General and in command of a cavalry

corps, upon his recommendation, strongly endorsed by Hooker

and Meade, his young aid-de-camp was made a Brigadier Gen-

eral and assigned to a brigade composed of Michigan Cavalry.

At the battle of Gettysburg his services were conspicuous; his

greatest achievement being the utter rout of Hampton's division

of cavalry, which were endeavoring to reach and capture the

train of the Union army. In this battle, he had two horses shot

from under him, and during the retreat of the rebels he was

sent to harass their rear. While in this pursuit he succeeded in

capturing 1,800 prisoners and in destroying Early's entire train.

In an engagement at Hagerstown he again had his horse

shot from under him and at Falling Waters he attacked the ene-

my's rear guard, killing its commander and capturing 1,300 pris-

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General George A. Custer.             345

 

oners, 4 battle flags, 2 pieces of cannon, and utterly routing the

enemy. During the ensuing fall he was constantly engaged in

raids and skirmishes and in picketing the Rapidan between the

two armies. The following spring he took part in the battle of

the Wilderness and in May set out with Sheridan on his raid to-

ward Richmond. Always in the advance, he captured Beaver

Dam, burned the station with many supplies and released a

large number of Union prisoners. Rejoining Grant on the Pa-

munky, he was again in the front and had another horse shot

from under him. Being ordered to surprise the rebels near Tre-

villian Station, he was so unfortunate, through the failure of

another command to co-operate, as to be surrounded. With five

brigades against him, he fought desperately for three hours. One

of his guns was captured twice and each time retaken. The color

bearer was killed, but the General saved the flag from capture

by tearing it from its staff and concealing it about his person.

The arrival of the tardy reinforcements enabled him to extricate

himself from his perilous position.

In Sheridan's great campaign in the Shenandoah Valley,

Custer made a brilliant record, excelled only by his chief. When

Sheridan reached the end of his famous twenty mile ride, his

first orders were, "Go in Custer."  He obeyed the order with

such dash and effect that he captured forty-five out of the entire

number of forty-eight pieces of artillery taken from the enemy,

besides many prisoners, including a Major General. For this

achievement he was brevetted a Major General of Volunteers

and further honored by being detailed to bear the report of the

battle and the captured flags to Washington.

On the ₉th day of October, 1864, he routed the rebel Gen.

Rosser, a classmate, captured many prisoners, pieces of artillery,

and his entire train. In the winter he attacked with the force of

1,000 a force of 2,000 under Gen. Early. A rout and pursuit

resulted in the capture of eighteen hundred prisoners, fourteen

pieces of artillery, and a large wagon train, including Early's

private baggage. The Union loss was one man killed and four

wounded.

His services in the encircling of Richmond were conspicu-

ous. At the battle of Dinwiddie Court House his division

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reached the field when the Federal troops were slowly losing

ground. Ordering the band to strike up a national air, he

charged the advancing Confederate column so impetuously that

it retreated over the lost ground.

At Sailor's Creek, Sheridan ordered Crook and Merret, the

latter another classmate, to break the enemy's line and delay his

retreat. Their efforts were not effectual. Sheridan then called

for Custer and his division threw themselves upon the enemy

with such impetuosity and dash that their horses actually leaped

over the breast-works. This was his greatest cavalry charge.

The captures consisted of seven general officers, among them

Custis, son of Gen. Robt. E Lee, Ewell and a brother of the

pirate Semmes, and five thousand prisoners. After the charge,

the hero of it rode by Sheridan and a number of other superior

officers, when three rousing cheers were given for the young hero.

He was in the advance when Lee's surrender took place and

was the first to receive the white flag sent in by the rebel com-

mander. After the surrender Gen. Sheridan purchased the table

upon which the terms of peace were made and presented it to

Mrs. Custer with the flattering words that he knew of no one

more instrumental in bringing about this most desirable event

than her most gallant husband.

This closes the war of the rebellion. The army was dis-

banded. Many officers seeing no chance of further distinction

in the service, returned to civil life. Our young hero, who had

worn a general's stars and swept the field with his columns of

victorious horsemen, found himself wearing the modest leaves

of a field officer in the regular army. Instead of a division of

veteran troopers, he was reduced to a few companies of raw

recruits in a newly organized regiment. Major General Custer,

the brilliant, was transformed into plain Lieut. Col. Custer to

await the slow process of promotion in the regular army, with

the knowledge that no deed of his, however brilliant, could ad-

vance him out of the line of promotion a step higher.

In time of war when the best men are indispensable, it may

do to promote for merit, but in times of peace the law of pro-

motion must not be disregarded.

The only concession due to past services was found in taking

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General George A. Custer.              347

 

the field officers for the new regiments from among the young

generals who had led the volunteers to victory in the Civil War.

It would seem now as if "Custer's Luck" could carry him

no further; that nothing was left for him but to await at frontier

posts for time to advance him in the regular order of promotion.

Indian warfare, since the confederation of tribes had ceased,

has degenerated into an inglorious strife of small posts. The

days when Harrison fought Tecumseh and rode into the White

House to the tune of Tippecanoe are over. The contrast be-

tween those days and the present are so marked that compari-

son is impossible.

It would seem that there was no glory to be gained at the

frontier, owing to the nature of the fighting. It is the differ-

ence between charging Early at Winchester and fighting Mos-

by's guerillas. There was everything to lose and little or nothing

to gain in the contest. Irregular enemies, divided into small

bands, living among their friends, with thousands of volunteer

spies, who would appear only when it suited them and always

in stronger force than the watching soldiers, dashing in upon

wagon trains, waylaying small bodies, killing and destroying

with little risk to themselves, and with their savage deeds accom-

plished they would vanish from effective pursuit at one point

only to reappear at another hundreds of miles away in fresh deeds

of daring.

This kind of warfare naturally developes only one side of

a soldier's character; it is the proper domain of a captain of

cavalry an affair of small parties, rapid marches, long raides,

and vigilant outposts.

The qualities of generalship which prevailed in civilized war-

fare were of little value here where there was no visible enemy

to fight, no formidable army to meet, no towns to capture, no

roads to cut, or earth-works to leap over. Everything vulner-

able was on the American side, and the army was reduced to

the condition of defensive warfare pure and simple. Of all

situations this is the most trying and distasteful to a born soldier:

to a soldier like Custer it was peculiarly trying. It was under

such circumstances and conditions with a regiment composed

of new recruits that he went to the plains as an officer in the

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Seventh Cavalry. Here his own experience availed him but

little; he had to learn everything over again. But his quick

perception and a mind that digested ideas rapidly enabled him

to familiarize himself with the peculiarities of the Indian mode

of warfare, so that he could fight them with their own stratagems

and use against them their own peculiar deceptions and decoys.

The Indians have as perfect a system of signals as were

ever introduced into civilized warfare. They can telegraph accu-

rately with fires and columns of smoke; they can count an army

within a score of its number, by the depth that a trail is worn;

they can give within a dozen the number of horses in a column,

by the amount of turf nibbled at the last feeding place; they

can tell the speed, direction and strength of an army as far as

the dust that rises from its feet is perceptible.

Custer learned all their signs until he knew them as accu-

rately as they and we find his career here is marked by the same

qualities that gave him success in the Civil War. Above all

things he loved a charge, a fair fight, and always preferred the

attack to the defense.

His first noted success on the plains was his expedition

against Blackkettle's band on the Washita River. I will not

stop here for any details but pass to his last and fatal campaign.

And this is not the time nor place to consider the origin of the

Sioux War of 1876. It is enough to say that it originated in

the lust for gold.

The rush of miners to the Black Hills was the direct con-

sequence of the government's inability to control the turbulent

frontier population. But when the Sioux formally resolved on

war, it became necessary to attack them to prevent them from

attacking the frontier settlements, and to avoid an indiscriminate

massacre of the innocent with the guilty.

The Government for this purpose assembled in the north-

west three separate columns of troops. The first under Gen.

Crook, who was to strike from Ft. Fetterman; the second under

Gen. Gibben, who was to march westward from Ft. Ellis in

Montana, and the third under Gen. Terry, who was to move

southwest from the little village of Bismarck in the north of

Dakota Territory; all three were to converge on the sources of

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General George A. Custer.              349

the Yellowstone River, where it was supposed that Sitting Bull,

Crazy Horse and other turbulent chiefs had hidden their villages,

and were preparing their forces for a grand raid.

To prevent this raid was the principal object of the campaign.

The results show that the plans were faulty. Instead of 1,000

warriors, as was reported, Sitting Bull had from 2,500 to 3,000,

and was able to oppose two to one of each of the converging

columns by massing his forces against each successively.

The first news received was that he had struck Crook on

the Rose Bud, surrounded him with a superior force and pun-

ished him severely, although the field of battle remained in

Crook's possession. Crook was so badly crippled that he fell

back and failed to disturb Sitting Bull's camp, the objective

point of the expedition.

The next news came that Gibben had been stopped at the

crossing of the river and that he too was unable to proceed.

All hopes of the expedition now lay with Terry's column, which,

starting later, was moving towards Gibben, and the camp of

Sitting Bull. The most sanguine hopes were placed on the

success of this column, chiefly for the reason that it contained

Custer, the favorite of fortune, the most renowned Indian fighter

of the plains, and the whole of the Seventh Cavalry. Was it

to be wondered that high hopes were entertained by them and

all their friends of their success on that occasion, when they

were accompanied by a strong force of infantry and a battery

of the renowned Gatling guns, and while every day brought

them nearer to Gibben?

The junction was effected and the united forces, secure

in their own strength, began to search for the enemy.

Major Reno of the fated Seventh was dispatched on a

scouting expedition to hunt up Indian signs. He came across

the broad and palpable track of a great Indian village on the

march from the Valley of the Rose Bud and going straight to-

ward the Little Horn. He had found the camp of Sitting Bull

and returned at once to Terry to make his report.

Terry had not yet learned anything of the rough handling

given to Crook's large force on the Rose Bud, nor the real

strength of the enemy, and still supposed, as Crook had, that

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Sitting Bull's band numbered less than a thousand warriors,

which he would have to encounter. He was yet unadvised that

the Sioux chief had been joined by the Arrapahoes and Cheyennes

as well as by other bands of his own nation.

Terry's fear was that Sitting Bull had already had notice

of his approach and would probably escape if he followed with

his entire column, encumbered as it would be by infantry and

slow-moving wagons.

To catch the lively moving Indians it was necessary to be as

light as they, and there was the whole Seventh Cavalry, with

its renowned leader, famous for successful enterprises of the

same sort.

Custer was therefore detached with his regiment as an inde-

pendent command, and moved forward by forced marches to the

attack. The story of what followed is brief. Custer pushed on

straight up the Rose Bud to its junction with the Little Horn

where he found the whole force of the Indians camped along the

river; and here we have his last recorded saying, when he saw

the Sioux camp, "Custer's luck! the biggest Indian village on

the continent! Forward!" He strikes the center of a line of

lodges several miles long and the enemy was waiting for him.

The conflict ensued in which the young leader soon found

himself surrounded with no possible chance of success; but one

thing was left for him and his soldiers and that was to die fight-

ing and thereby impress the Indians with respect for the white

man.

Thus Custer, his two brothers, nephew, brother-in-law, and

his entire command of nearly 300 mounted officers and men,

yielded up their lives on the 2₅th of June, 1876.

Not a man was left, no friend surviving to tell the terrible

story, or give an account of the desperate and heroic conflict.

All is left to conjecture, excepting what may be gathered

from one touching and most affecting circumstance. In the

midst of a circle of dead bodies, which marked the last standing

of the remnant that was left, lay the body of the young hero,

with a bullet in his brain and one in his breast, but unmutilated,

the only body to which belonged this distinction.

This shows that in all that band of heroes who were found

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lying dead on the field where they had fought, brave as they were,

he was found to be the bravest, so magnificent in his courage

that even his savage foes were impressed with and reverenced his

valor.

He here found the one thing needed to complete his character

as an ideal hero of romance, a glorious and terrible death on the

field of battle. No jarring chord disturbs the harmony of his

career. His death is the only case on record in the annals of In-

dian warfare in which the spirit of self-sacrifice and lofty heroism

may be compared with that of Leonidas, the Spartan King at the

pass of death. From a material point of view alone the life of such

a man may seem sad in its close; but in the grander schemes

of human affairs which recognize death as a mere passage to

illimitable freedom, his life is rounded and perfect, by tragic and

heroic death. Happy is the young genius who has compressed

the human experience of three score years and ten into thirty-

six, and dies with his fame still perfect and complete. At the

age when other men are beginning to emerge from the crowd

these few set apart from the rest, have practically ended their

career.

History as well as literature furnish many examples of young

persons who were the very embodiment of early success, for-

tunate in everything they undertook, but whose lives were short.

They came flashing from the multitude and vanished as swiftly

as they came, leaving behind only a halo of light. Such, for ex-

ample, were Alexander of Macedon, Titus the Conqueror of

Jerusalem, and Don John of Austria, who won the battle of La-

panto at 24 and died as early. Who would not be a Summer-

field, the divine, dead at 30, with no stain on his flame, his life

a story of perfect beauty?

Compare these young heroes with those who have outlived

their fortunes. The brilliant Alcibiades, with all the world at his

feet at 20, at 40 was disgraced and murdered.

Napoleon Bonaparte at 36 was the ruler of Europe and had

he died before Waterloo would have stood in all history the

grandest military character the world ever saw.

Could Marshall Ney have died on the field at Waterloo when

he called to his comrades, "Come and see how a Marshall of

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France dies upon the field of battle," - what a brilliant life his

would then have been; but he did not die. Unfortunate man!

he was reserved for French bullets.

Never, perhaps, has there been a more perfect example of

the completeness of good fortune from his first appearance on

the field of battle to his final and heroic death than he whose life

and character is the theme of the hour.   The manner of his

death has given an interest to his name such as few have attained

in a contest with savages. To Custer alone it was reserved to

join a romantic life of perfect success to a death of perfect hero-

ism; to unite the splendors of Austerlitz and Thermopylae; to

charge like Murat; to die like Leonidas.

All through his life, however, was a vein of romantic eccen-

tricity which was manifested by his peculiarities in dress. He

seldom wore the prescribed uniform of the army, but generally

attached his insignia of rank to a more or less fantastic dress,

and when killed he wore a handsomely embroidered buckskin

hunting suit, somewhat resembling the Indian dress.

Many romantic stories are told of those famous curls. Some

have said that he wore them because of a vow never to cut them

until Richmond was taken, but such was hardly the fact, for at

one time during the Wilderness Campaign he became so gloomy

and low-spirited on account of unfavorable opportunity for a

favorite charge in the open field that he actually cut off his curls.

The truth lies doubtless in another direction: They were in har-

mony with the man, his romantic spirit and desire to attract

attention.

Call to mind Custer in the Grand Review at Washington,

the runaway horse with his wreath of flowers, the long curls of

his rider as he dashed past the grand stand which brought him

before the people in the journals of the day as the most con-

spicuous figure seen on that day.*

*The Editor of the QUARTERLY was a privileged witness of the

incident recalled by Judge Voorhees, having a position within a few feet

of President Johnson and General Grant. The Grand Review presented,

on May 23-24, 1865, the returning veterans of the Union Army to the

number of 250,000, comprising portions of the armies of the Potomac

and Mississippi. The march began at the Capitol and the almost endless

columns of the Boys in Blue, worn and torn from the campaigns of

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The fame he won is reflected upon the little village of his

birth. "The whole earth," said Pericles in one of his orations,

"is the sepulchre of illustrious men," and he might have added,

"All time is the millennium of their glory."

No injustice is done to the many other noble names that

have become illustrious in our late civil war by bestowing so

much honor on one; but they on the contrary, I am sure, will

readily join us in saying that throughout all time and the whole

civilized world wherever the accounts of the war are read in the

glorious annals of our common country, there will be no brighter

page than that which relates the daring deeds of George A. Cus-

ter. Ohio is proud to claim him as her son and to exult in his

name; but he was the representative of the nation and defended

her flag and the nation enrolls him among her heroes. But her

limits are too circumscribed to bound his fame. The time in

which he lived claims him as the new Leonidas with his noble

kin slain in that wild Thermopylae of the West.

the South, passed down Pennsylvania Avenue and thence to Georgetown.

It was one of the most patriotic and inspiring scenes of history, recall-

ing the military pageants of ancient Rome, the days when the conquer-

ing consuls returned to the city of the Tiber and amid the "pomp and

circumstance of war" proceeded with the procession of their heroes in

proud triumph to the Capitol. General Custer rode a splendid charger

at the head of his division. The ladies had encircled both rider and

horse with garlands of flowers. Just before reaching the reviewing

stand the brave and handsome general, shackled by his floral adornments,

lost control of his fiery steed which proceeded to improve the opportunity

and enliven the occasion by dashing by at break-neck pace. The gen-

eral, hatless, his long flowing, golden curls, streaming in the air, grace-

fully retaining his saddle, but unable to proffer the conventional salute,

as he sped by, laughingly ducked his head at the President, amid the

cheers and plaudits of the admiring and amused soldiers and spectators.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vol. XV-23

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