Nevertheless they were not nearly as bad as the two asshat announcers Chick Hernandez and Chris Walker, who decided to poke fun at Wichita State basketball player Isaiah Poor Bear-Chandler because of his name.
His name comes from his being half Native American and it is a tribute to his heritage. He is a member of the Oglala Lakota tribe and he grew up on a reservation in Pine Ridge, South Dakota before moving to Omaha, Nebraska where he attended high school.
Poor Bear-Chandler reminded me of the trip I took many years ago when I drove to Yellowstone National Park which is mostly in Wyoming. On the way I passed through some of the most beautiful and interesting parts of the country I have ever seen...the Black Hills and the Badlands in South Dakota.
While on the trip I visited the Little Big Horn battlefield in Montana which is where the US Army's 7th Cavalry and the Lakotas and Cheyennes met in one of the Native American's last armed efforts to preserve their way of life.
On June 25 and 26 of 1876, 263 soldiers, including Lieutenant Colonel (NOT General) George A. Custer and his troops died fighting several thousand Lakota and Cheyenne warriors.
Somehow I think the memorial is to the wrong person...it should have been to the Native Americans, or Indians as they were called in my day.
It wasn't far from Yellowstone where Custer made his ignoble charge down Deep Ravine Trail where Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and Gall were waiting with the largest concentration of warriors ever assembled.
Custer and his troops were lionized and turned into heroes, but after the death of Custer’s wife, Elizabeth “Libbie” Custer, a popular Western author, who wrote three books building her husband's legend, historians finally revised the legend to reveal the truth.
Custer was born on December 5, 1839 near New Rumley in eastern Ohio not far from Pittsburgh. He entered West Point in July 1857 and his time there was filled with demerits and a few times he managed to escape getting tossed out.
While many of his classmates ended up serving as officers for the Confederates in the Civil War, Custer, who graduated last in his class of 34, was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the US 2nd Cavalry in June 1861.
During the Civil War Custer was present at the First Battle of Bull Run but did not see action. Shortly afterwards he transferred to the Cavalry and was promoted to a 1st Lieutenant in July of 1862. From there he was quickly appointed as an aide to General McClellan with the acting rank of Captain.
In June 1863, at the age of 23, Custer was made Brigadier General of volunteers. He did distinguish himself while in command of the Michigan Cavalry Brigade at the battle of Gettysburg and leading a cavalry charge 2 days later with the 7th Michigan Cavalry. He then served with the Army of the Potomac throughout 1864 and gained renown during battles in the Shenandoah Valley.
At the end of the Civil War he was a Major General with the volunteers where he was leading a cavalry division.
Custer loved publicity and the press loved him because he was young, a showman with long red hair and a taste for velvet jackets with gold braid.
His men hated him. He was autocratic, dictatorial and incredibly arrogant. He was so bad that his post war command ended when his troops mutinied after Custer had reintroduced lashing as a form of discipline.
After his command was disbanded, Custer mustered out of voluntary service in February 1866 and reverted to his Army rank of Captain, but he still liked to be referred to as General Custer.
In early 1867 while on a recon mission Custer’s actions led to a court martial and he was found guilty of 1) absenting himself from his command, 2) using some troopers as an escort while on unofficial business, 3) abandoning two men reported killed on the march, 4) failing to pursue the Indians responsible, 5) failing recover the bodies, 6) ordering a party going after deserters to shoot to kill which resulted in 1 death and 3 wounded. But, that wasn't all! He was also found guilty of 7) unjustifiable cruelty to those wounded.
As the military still does to this day, officers receive a much less harsh punishment than do enlisted personnel. Custer was sentenced to suspension from rank and pay for a year.
While sitting out his suspension at home he was recalled to duty early due to a manpower shortage. His early recall resulted in a lot of bad feelings between Custer and the other officers in his regiment.
The regiment saw minor action against the Indians for the next few years, but not Custer. it didn't matter; Custer published exaggerated accounts of the 7th Cavalry’s actions.
Then in November of 1868, under Custer's command, the 7th Cavalry fought at the Battle of Washita River (or the Washita Massacre) over a hundred Indians were killed including some women and children. As a result, the Cheyenne referred to Custer as "Squaw Killer."
Custer’s incompetence helped increase ill feeling towards him and in the spring 1873 the Regiment was moved to Dakota under command of Colonel D.S. Stanley.
There, while protecting some railway engineers, the regiment skirmished with local Indians and Custer's actions ended up with him being charged with insubordination. Even a guy like Custer had friends though and they convinced Stanley to drop the charges.
In 1874 an expedition was sent to the Black Hills. While there, Custer was accused by some of spreading stories of a gold find. As a result, prospectors followed and they were attacked by the Indians. These attacks were an excuse for a campaign against the Indians.
The campaign was under General Alfred Terry who favored Custer even though at the time Custer was, again, in disgrace for having offended President Grant, Army Commander General William Sherman and his division commander General Phil Sheridan after having accused them of certain irregularities involving trading posts.
While on patrol at the Little Big Horn, Custer again chose not to follow orders when he saw Indians in the valley below him...probably around 15,000 of them. He decided to split his force into three groups and attack from three directions..an idiotic plan considering his small force.
Two prongs of the attack were driven back, but made it to safety while Custer’s force was cut off and slaughtered by Crazy Horse’s Sioux.
Custer had risen to power due to friends and supporters and, also, thanks to the press which was always seeking a good story. A lot of people died that day to serve the glory seeking of an arrogant and incompetent lout who was hardly deserving of a memorial.
No comments:
Post a Comment