We have all had our greener days with public humiliation, and never let it be thought that none has not.
I include the following not to mock, but to simply relate that one of the best Cavalry officers America would ever create as a horseman in General George Armstrong Custer, had a dunking beginning too in learning the ropes.
As the headquarters staff and the troops following us had gone into line to permit their horses to drink, Custer, for some reason, concluded to go in on the other side of the stream, riding in alone to allow his horse to drink. He did not know how deep the water was, and after his horse was satisfied, instead of returning by the way he went in, concluded to cross the stream and come out on our side. The water was deeper than he anticipated and his horse nearly lost his footing. However, when he got to our side, he urged his horse to climb out at a point where the bank was steep. In this effort he fell over backward, Custer going out of sight in the water. In an instant, however, he was up on his feet and the horse struggled out amid the shouts of the spectators, when, mounting his horse, the march was resumed. The dust at this time was so thick that one could not see more than a set of fours ahead, and in a few minutes, when it settled on his wet clothes and long wet hair, Custer was an object that one can better imagine than I can describe.
Henry C. Meyer. Civil War Experiences / under Bayard, Gregg, Kilpatrick, Custer, Raulston, and / Newberry, 1862, 1863, 1864 (Kindle Locations 377-388).
We have all had our humble beginnings and some of us have fools made of us yet in being ourselves.
Nuff said
agtG
