Forgive my language, but I was born a Plainsman and a Plainsman I will always be and in saying that, I have just read, heard and witnessed so much horse shit concerning General George Armstrong Custer and Elizabeth Bacon Custer that upon this Google forever internet I post these factual words taken from Custer letters and diaries which were never meant for the public to explain a great deal about Capt. Frederick Benteen, the soldier who let the 7th Cavalry down in causing the massacre of the Little Big Horn.
This of course will rattle the Custer haters and those ignorants who think in reading some book by some other ignorant that they really know what this entire situation was all about.
I turn first to the insane hatred of George Custer by Frederick Benteen as explained in cloaked terms by Marguerite Merington, close friend of Libby Custer and who edited the Custer letters.
Her quote is from that book, page 192 as she was told by Libby what military life was like on those plains:
Quote " On the frontier with such limited scope for their activities, men of intemperate habits gave way to excess. Sullenness was the next stage. Then deterioration of quality was next to set in. Resentments, fancied slights, when brooded over became obsessions. Men by nature sane, in an abnormal situation were likely to show themselves not sane".
This is not to term Frederick Benteen a drunk at all, but is to show that military life in isolation created horrendous problems for commanding officers as people in all frontier communities soon learned in a quote from Teddy Roosevelt, "A man who was a simple quarreler in the east would become a murderous fiend on the outlaw plains".
In speaking of older officers of the 7th Cavalry which Benteen was one, Elizabeth was quoted from a dinner party in her diary at about the time Frederick Benteen was stationed in Kansas.
Quote: At a military banquet drink loosened tongue recounts some tale of past injustices....never too long past for the slightest detail to be forgotten. What injustices? Oh, having been thwarted when on point of being assigned to a post where duty was light and pleasure perpetual. Or having had baseless charges preferred against one. Or having been overslaughed."
General Custer cautioned his wife on these small conflicts to never become involved in them as there had to always be unity as these people were stuck together and no one could leave.
This is the picture of Frederick Benteen in petty grudges which fumed over became obsessions. One can find online Benteen's letter almost a week after the deaths of 300 people he had worked with for 10 years and in it there was not one bit of remorse for anyone. His chief concerns to his wife were she to keep the WW Cooke memo for him to bring up packs quickly as it was valuable and he attended to how so many would not benefit in being raised in rank.
While Frederick Benteen was a capable and brave soldier along with a loving husband his entire picture of psychological outlook was a very heartless person.
One my read the entire letter to his wife not meant for public at the link below.
http://www.astonisher.com/archives/museum/frederick_beneen_little_big_horn.html
It is in all of this that my intention is to judge rightly and be prejudiced in fact in setting this record straight in this part of the Custer story. Too many uninformed and hateful people have set George Custer up as a whipping boy when the actual historic facts show these people ignorant.
Frederick Benteen was a personality who nurtured grudges to hatred. He might have moments of showing compassion to Elizabeth Custer in offering her funds, but the Little Big Horn exposed him as crass and the old Benteen.
To put it plainly, Maj. Marcus Reno was a coward without leadership to direct him. It was his lack of initiative in following up the Rosebud Indian trail of 1000 Indians which forced Custer and the entire 7th to blunder into 3000 Indians in a combined force.
Reno having his command ready first was sent in to attack the main camp, but when overwhelmed as Custer was he simply went yellow and fled leaving his command to die.
It was at this point that Reno met Benteen and Benteen for only reasons he has never revealed truthfully did not follow orders to meet Custer when everyone knew that 4 miles away there was a major battle going on due to Custer firing 2 mass volleys to show he was in distress.
I focus on the truthfully part as in the Court Martial records of Reno when he was tried and convicted for stalking a married woman, Reno approached Benteen out of all the people in the world and tried to get him to lie about the incident to cover.
Benteen refused, but in that is the Truth that Reno approached the one man he knew would lie in the gravest matters to save him......the only other time this happened was at the Little Big Horn.
This time Benteen reverted to his hatred of commanding officers which Reno now was and he refused, letting Reno be convicted.
Benteen from the start in the letter to his wife is blaming Custer for the Little Big Horn. In examining the letter he comes up with a reason that Custer and his troops "yelled from 4 miles away and alerted the encampment". Benteen is lying in this as he knows very well that on the Plains sound unless mechanical does not travel more than a mile. A dog barking can not be heard more than that distance.
General Terry and General Sheridan from the start were perplexed because the reports coming in (who was in charge but Reno and Benteen) were both blaming Custer for the massacre. It was not until General Nelson Appleton Miles reviewed and concluded in the official report to Congress that General Custer acted completely within military doctrine and that it was Capt. Frederick Benteen who did not follow direct orders from General Custer to come to his aid.
I submit on the above known facts that Benteen and Reno lied. That President Grant blamed Custer to cover up for his own administration's graft and selling arms to Indians and for the final death blow of retaliation for General Custer testifying before Congress over the corrupt nature of the Indian Agents for the Grant administration.
For the testimony, Custer was removed from command of the 7th and was not even to go in answer to the Crow Indian request for the army to save them from the depredations of the Sioux and Cheyenne.
Custer though begged to at least save face and ride with is command and General Terry agreed that Custer was indispensible to the campaign as Terry was only a desk officer and knew nothing of Indian warfare. So from St. Paul, General Alfred Terry countermanded the order of the President of the United States, US Grant and posted Lt. Col. Custer in command of the 7th Cavalry.
There has been far too many lies in this and far too many weak people hating George Custer. The Indians had horridly selfish leaders in Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse. They led them to their deaths while great leaders like Spotted Tail kept his tribes alive.
Those are the facts and I sincerely hope in the day when all of this does not matter that Libby Custer, a lady whom I have come to adore will smile upon my efforts in defending her boy general and the esteemed lady as her friend, Ms. Merington attempted.
With that I close with these words by Charles G. Leland concerning George Custer:
Quote: He left me rich in impressions, both as man and gentleman, not only admirable but an impressive personality. One could credit anything to his credit because he was so frank and earnest. Such a man is as rare as the want of such in the world is great.
agtG
