Custer's last stand

[JustAGuy1]

Malignant narcissism at it's worst.

 

[Chillicothe]

Cavalry is mobile and is not supposed to get trapped
Poor planning by Custer

Malignant narcissism at it's worst.

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Well, another view: 'not supposed to'. Yeah, but.....
But things happen. A highly fluid, rapidly evolving situation changes everything almost minute by minute. During the march over the divide and into Reno creek he was informed the natives had spotted his command.....and were fleeing. That forced a decision....a prompt one. He chased after 'em because experience had shown the Army that the tribes preferred flight over fight....particularly with women in children at risk.

And then events evolved, Custer went north of Medicine Tail with a company to find how he could head off the fleeing women. It seems to me, that once he found that ford (now called Ford D)....he'd consolidate with those companies back at Medicine Tail, he'd go to them, or have them come to him.... and as far as he knew Benteen was fast behind all of 'em, coming 'quick, bringing (ammo) pacs'....because that was the kind of can-do officer Benteen was.....and he'd join Custer's five companies with his three companies. And combined they could get across the Little Bighorn and stop the fleeing women. And the warriors would recognize the plight of their families and settle down, maybe try to negotiate. And Terry would be along shortly with the infantry.

Custer did not know that Reno had been routed and fled to the hilltop.....thus freeing multitudes of warriors to come after him. He did not know that Benteen stopped his advance towards him to salvage Reno's command. And that is the nature of those kind of calvary actions......things evolve rapidly.

What we have to remember these nearly 150yrs later is that the army's experience with trying to corral hostile natives was that they were more likely to run and dissipate.....than stand and fight. Sure, they did at the Rosebud, and maybe at the Fetterman affair....but those were more the exception than the rule. The mobile hostiles were like willow-the-wisp phantoms, at times. So 'fixing-them-in-place' was a highly sought goal.....and sound strategy. Hence, Custer's goal became stopping them from fleeing.
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And then the 'malignant narcissim'. I don't know about that.
Sure, George Custer was flamboyant, head-strong, at times indiscrete.....and occasionalllly a dick. A lot of folks didn't like him. Others had all the faith in the world in his abilities (read some of the testimonies by his Michigan cavalry of the Civil War).

America's evolving perception of George Custer is almost as interesting as the 'mystique'-thingy of his Lost Battalion.
Newly dead, George Custer was a hero. Criticized by some, sure, but often thought of as the victim of incompetent Army Brass. And then his chief promoter, press officer, and shaper-of-opinion....the widow Libbie, pulled out all stops to showcase her dead husband as a hero. A BIG FRIGGIN' hero!

And he stayed a hero to America until sometime shortly after Libbie's death in the 1930's.
Then a more skeptical view of George emerged in the academic journals and in some non-fiction general audience books. But overall America still thought of George as the tragic hero of mendacious hostile natives, and an incompetent Army administration.

Then comes VietNam. Then comes the movie 'Little Big Man' in 1970.

War was no longer considered a good and noble thing. And Arthur Penn's movie portrayed Geoge Custer as the 'malignant narcissist' the poster above suggests.

I personally think George Custer was not the shining hero Libby so effectively claimed.
Nor was he as bufoonish and repellant as Little Big Man (played by actor Richard Mulligan) presented him.

He was a competent horse cavalry commander, with a strong resume (at only 36yrs old when killed), he had personality tics that repelled some (famously Benteen). But he died trying to do the right thing as he saw it at the time, and was on an assigned military mission to corral the hostile 'summer roamers'.

He ain't no hero. And should only be a villain to the natives....as all of that era's western military are perceived now.

RIP, George.