Chapter XIX

A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF MAJOR-GENERAL CUSTER.

(CONCLUDED.)

As the foregoing biography of Gen. Custer has been confined chiefly to his military career, it may be well in conclusion to give some account of his personal characteristics; and this can be best done in the language of those who knew him well. A gentleman who accompanied Gen. Custer on the Yellowstone and Black Hills expeditions, contributed to the _New York Tribune_ the following:--

"Gen. Custer was a born cavalryman. He was never more in his
element than when mounted on Dandy, his favorite horse, and riding
at the head of his regiment. He once said to me, 'I would rather be
a private in the cavalry than a line officer in the infantry.' He
was the personification of bravery and dash. If he had only added
discretion to his valor he would have been a perfect soldier. His
impetuosity very often ran away with his judgment. He was impatient
of control. He liked to act independently of others, and take all
the risk and all the glory to himself. He frequently got himself
into trouble by assuming more authority than really belonged to his
rank. It was on the Yellowstone expedition where he came into
collision with Gen. Stanley, his superior officer, and was placed
under arrest and compelled to ride at the rear of his column for
two or three days, until Gen. Rosser, who fought against Custer in
the Shenandoah Valley during the war but was then acting as
engineer of the Northern Pacific Railroad, succeeded in effecting a
reconciliation. Custer and Stanley afterward got on very well, and
perhaps the quarrel would never have occurred if the two generals
had been left alone to themselves without the intervention of camp
gossips, who sought to foster the traditional jealousy between
infantry and cavalry. For Stanley was the soul of generosity, and
Custer did not really mean to be arrogant; but from the time when
he entered West Point to the day when he fell on the Big Horn, he
was accustomed to take just as much liberty as he was entitled to.

"For this reason, Custer worked most easily and effectively when
under general orders, when not hampered by special instructions, or
his success made dependent on anybody else. Gen. Terry understood
his man when, in the order directing him to march up the Rosebud,
he very liberally said: 'The Department Commander places too much
confidence in your zeal, energy, and ability to wish to impose upon
you precise orders which might hamper your action when nearly in
contact with the enemy.' But Gen. Terry did not understand Custer
if he thought he would wait for Gibbon's support before attacking
an Indian camp. Undoubtedly he ought to have done this; but with
his native impetuosity, his reckless daring, his confidence in his
own regiment, which had never failed him, and his love of public
approval, Custer could no more help charging this Indian camp, than
he could help charging just so many buffaloes. He had never learned
to spell the word 'defeat;' he knew nothing but success, and if he
had met the Indians on the open plains, success would undoubtedly
have been his; for no body of Indians could stand the charge of the
7th Cavalry when it swept over the Plains like a whirlwind. But in
the Mauvaises Terres and the narrow valley of the Big Horn he did
it at a fearful risk.

"With all his bravery and self-reliance, his love of independent
action, Custer was more dependent than most men on the kind
approval of his fellows. He was even vain; he loved display in
dress and in action. He would pay $40 for a pair of troop boots to
wear on parade, and have everything else in keeping. On the
Yellowstone expedition he wore a bright red shirt, which made him
the best mark for a rifle of any man in the regiment. I
remonstrated with him for this reckless exposure, but found an
appeal to his wife more effectual, and on the next campaign he wore
a buckskin suit. He formerly wore his hair very long, letting it
fall in a heavy mass upon his shoulders, but cut it off before
going out on the Black Hills, producing quite a change in his
appearance. But if vain and ambitious, Custer had none of those
great vices which are so common and so distressing in the army. He
never touched liquor in any form; he did not smoke, or chew, or
gamble. He was a man of great energy and remarkable endurance. He
could outride almost any man in his regiment, I believe, if it were
put to a test. When he set out to reach a certain point at a
certain time, you could be sure that he would be there if he killed
every horse in the command. He was sometimes too severe in forcing
marches, but he never seemed to get tired himself, and he never
expected his men to be so. In cutting our way through the forests
of the Black Hills, I have often seen him take an ax and work as
hard as any of the pioneers. He was never idle when he had a
pretext for doing anything. Whatever he did he did thoroughly. He
would overshoot the mark, but never fall short. He fretted in
garrison sometimes, because it was too inactive; but he found an
outlet here for his energies in writing articles for the press.

"He had a remarkable memory. He could recall in its proper order
every detail of any action, no matter how remote, of which he was a
participant. He was rather verbose in writing, and had no gifts as
a speaker; but his writings interested the masses from their close
attention to details, and from his facility with the pen as with
the sword in bringing a thing to a climax. As he was apt to overdo
in action, so he was apt to exaggerate in statement, not from any
wilful disregard of the truth, but because he saw things bigger
than they really were. He did not distort the truth; he magnified
it. He was a natural optimist. He took rose-colored views of
everything, even of the miserable lands of the Northern Pacific
Railroad. He had a historical memory, but not a historical mind. He
was no philosopher; he could reel off facts from his mind better
than he could analyze or mass them. He was not a student, nor a
deep thinker. He loved to take part in events rather than to brood
over them. He was fond of fun, genial and pleasant in his manner; a
loving and devoted husband. It was my privilege to spend two weeks
in his family at one time, and I know how happy he was in his
social relations."

The following rambling remarks are accredited to a general, whose name is not given:--

"The truth about Custer is, that he was a pet soldier, who had
risen not above his merit, but higher than men of equal merit. He
fought with Phil Sheridan, and through the patronage of Sheridan he
rose; but while Sheridan liked his valor and dash he never trusted
his judgment. He was to Sheridan what Murat was to Napoleon. While
Sheridan is always cool, Custer was always aflame. Rising to high
command early in life, he lost the repose necessary to success in
high command. * * * Then Custer must rush into politics, and went
swinging around the circle with Johnson. He wanted to be a
statesman, and but for Sheridan's influence with Grant, the
republicans would have thrown him; but you see we all liked Custer,
and did not mind his little freaks in that way any more than we
would have minded temper in a woman. Sheridan, to keep Custer in
his place, kept him out on the Plains at work. He gave him a fine
command--one of the best cavalry regiments in the service. The
colonel, Sturgis, was allowed to bask in the sunshine in a large
city, while Custer was the real commander. In this service Custer
did well, and vindicated the partiality of Sheridan as well as the
kind feelings of his friends. * * * The old spirit which sent
Custer swinging around the circle revived in him. He came East and
took a prominent part in reforming the army. This made feeling, and
drew upon Custer the anger of the inside forces of the
administration.

"Then he must write his war memoirs. Well, in these memoirs he
began to write recklessly about the army. He took to praising
McClellan as the greatest man of the war, and, coming as it did
when the democrats began to look lively, it annoyed the
administration. Grant grew so much annoyed that even Sheridan could
do no good, and Custer was disgraced. Technically it was not a
disgrace. All that Grant did was to put Terry, a general, over
Custer, a lieutenant-colonel, who had his regiment all the same;
but all things considered, it was a disgrace."

The following is from an article by Gen. A.B. Nettleton, published in the _Philadelphia Times_:--

"It must be remembered that in fighting with cavalry, which was
Custer's forte, instantaneous quickness of eye--that is, the
lightning-like formation and execution of successive correct
judgments on a rapidly-shifting situation--is the first thing, and
the second is the power of inspiring the troopers with that
impetuous yet intelligent ardor with which a mounted brigade
becomes a thunderbolt, and without which it remains a useless mass
of horses and riders. These qualities Gen. Custer seemed to me to
manifest, throughout the hard fighting of the last year of the war,
to a degree that was simply astounding, and in a manner that marked
him as one of the few really great cavalry commanders developed by
the wars of the present century. Of fear, in the sense of dread of
death or of bodily harm, he was absolutely destitute, yet his love
of life and family and home was keen and constant, leaving no room
in his nature for desperation, recklessness, or conscious rashness.
In handling his division under Sheridan's general oversight, he
seemed to act always on the belief that in campaigning with
cavalry, when a certain work must be done, audacity is the truest
caution. In action, when all was going well and success was only a
question of time or of steady 'pounding,' Gen. Custer did not
unnecessarily expose himself, but until the tide of battle had been
turned in the right direction, and especially when disaster
threatened, the foremost point in our division's line was almost
invariably marked by the presence of Custer, his waving division
tri-color and his plucky staff.

"A major-general of wide and splendid fame at twenty-five, and now
slain at thirty-six, the gallant Custer had already lived long if
life be measured by illustrious deeds."

The following is from a sketch of Gen. Custer published in the _Army and Navy Journal_:--

"Custer was passionately addicted to active and exciting sports as
the turf and hunting. He was a splendid horseman and a lover of the
horse; he attended many American race-meetings and ran his own
horses several times in the West. His greyhounds and staghounds
went with him at the head of his regiment, to be let slip at
antelope or buffalo. With rifle or shotgun he was equally expert,
and had killed his grizzly bear in the most approved fashion. * * *
Bold to rashness; feverish in camp, but cool in action; with the
personal vanity of a carpet knight, and the endurance and
insensibility to fatigue of the hardiest and boldest rough rider; a
prince of scouts; a chief of guides, threading a trackless prairie
with unerring eye of a native and the precision of the needle to
the star; by no means a martinet, his men were led by the golden
chain of love, admiration and confidence. He had the proverbial
assurance of a hussar, but his personal appearance varied with
occasion. During the war he was 'Custer of the golden locks, his
broad sombrero turned up from his hard-bronzed face, the ends of
his crimson cravat floating over his shoulder, gold galore
spangling his jacket sleeves, a pistol in his boot, jangling spurs
on his heels, and a ponderous claymore swinging at his side.' And
long after, when he roamed a great Indian fighter on the Plains,
the portrait was only slightly changed. The cavalry jacket was
exchanged for the full suit of buckskin, beautifully embroidered by
Indian maidens; across his saddle rested a modern sporting rifle,
and at his horse's feet demurely walked hounds of unmixed breed.
Again, within a few months, he appears in private society as an
honored guest; scrupulously avoiding anything like display, but in
a quiet conventional suit of blue, with the 'golden locks' closely
shorn, and the bronzed face pale from recent indisposition, he
moves almost unnoticed in the throng."

The faithful correspondent who perished with Gen. Custer on the Little Big Horn portrayed him thus:--

"A man of strong impulses, of great hearted friendships and bitter
enmities; of quick, nervous temperament, undaunted courage, will,
and determination; a man possessing electric mental capacity, and
of iron frame and constitution; a brave, faithful, gallant soldier,
who has warm friends and bitter enemies; the hardest rider, the
greatest pusher; with the most untiring vigilance overcoming
seeming impossibilities, and with an ambition to succeed in all
things he undertakes; a man to do right, as he construes right, in
every case; one respected and beloved by his followers, who would
freely follow him into the 'jaws of hell.'"

Gen. Custer's last battle "will stand in history as one of the most heroic engagements ever fought, and his name will be respected so long as chivalry is applauded and civilization battles against barbarism."