By ELMO SCOTT WATSON F HIM it is written: “He followed Glory all his days. He was her lifelong devotee. She gave him fa- vor withheld from most men, and denied herself when his need of her was sorest. When, desperately pur- suing, he died on the heights above the Little Big Horn, Glory, the per- verse, relented and gave eternal brilliance to his name.” So begins chapter one of a new “now-it-can- be-told” biography—Frederic F. Van De Water's “Glory Hunter,” published recently by the Bobbs- Merrill company. The “Glory Hunter” was “George Armstrong Custer, Lieutenant-Colonel, 7th United States Cavalry, Brevet Major-General, United States Army, the ‘Boy General with the Golden Locks’ the ‘Murat of the American Army,’ the good sword, the hero, the martyr.” Around his name has raged endless contro- versy, for he was the kind of man who seems to have been capable of inspiring either the bit- terest hatred or the blindest loyalty. Chief among the exemplars of the latter was, of course, his wife, “who was to devote the rest of her life to adornment of her husband's memory.” Long be fore his tragic death In 1870 there were those who had reason to hate him but chose to hold their tongues. After that event there were whis- pers of suspicion but little, if any, full-volced denunciation. “Elizabeth Bacon's fifty-odd years of glerifica- tion have enshrined her husband in the folk-lore of America. She proclaimed him hero and, since she was his widow, men who thought otherwise held their peace.” Last spring she died, as did Gen. E. 8 Godfrey, another staunch defender of Custer's name. Therefore a “now-it-can-be-told” blography can appear without giving pain to these two honored devotees to a partly true legend. If, Indeed, as the poet the child Is father to the man, then several incidents In the childhood of the hoy who was born In New Hum. ley, Harrison county, Ohlo, just 95 years ago {December 5, 1838) are significant of the man he was to become. When war with Mexico threatened, his father, Emanuel Custer, joined the “New Humley Invincibles.” a militia company, and provided his little son, “Autie,” with a min iature geplica of his uniform. One day the young. ster amazed his father by lifting his arm in imi. tation of an older half-brother who had been “speaking a plece™ at school and declaiming in his boyish treble “My voice is for war!” For the next 30 years “Autie” Custer's voice was to be raised for war—to be heard In a “wild shrill whooping in the forefront of a hundred cavalry charges.” The Custers were staunch Jacksonian Demo crats even though their community was predom- inantly Whig. One day Emanuel Custer took his four-year-old =on to the doctor to have a tooth pulled. As they left the office, the boy gave a bloody grin and, apropos of nothing, exclaimed: “Father, you and me can lick all the Whigs in Ohio.” In 1876 he felt the same way about the Sioux in Montana and he died because of that belief, When he was four years old a new brother arrived in the Custer home-—Nevin J, who is worthy of mention If for no other reason than that he was so different from the rest. He lived and died in peace, a farmer. Thomas W. Custer appeared on the scene in 1845, Boston Custer in 1848 and Margaret Emma Custer in 1852, They, especially Tom Custer, became the first hero worshipers to send their older brother on his pur. suit of glory and they were to share in the tragic end of his quest, as was his half-sister, Lydia, who In 1849 married David Reed of Mon- roe, Mich. When she went to the little pioneer town on the shores of Lake Michigan, she took “Auntie” with her. He lived there off and on for the next six or seven years and there he met the girl, Elizabeth Bacon, whom he was to marry 10 years later, Returning to New Rumley again, Custer took the first step In his glory-seeking career. Despite his father's strong Democratic principles and consequent disapproval of his son's actions, Cus- ter was not averse to asking a Republican con. gressman to get him an appointment to the United States Military academy at West Point. Unsuccessful at first, Custer was so importunate that finally John A. Bingham, the congressman, gave it to him and on June 3, 1857, he entered West Point. There he was “a defiant insubordi- nate cadet, forever in trouble and as constantly on the verge of more, . . . The impartial voice of the Academy records portrays George Arm strong Custer as a slovenly soldier and a deplor. able student.” The approaching crisis of the Civil war resulted In the ascademy’s five-year course being compressed into four and two classes were graduated in 1861—one In April and another In June, Custer was in the latter group, his stand. ing being thirty-fourth in a class of thirty-four. “Two years of campaigning would turn West Point's Indifferent sloven into a soldier,” writes Yan De Water. “It would not change bis sub stance. Battle that reconstructed others, sober. ing and deepening thelr spirits, would only sharp. en George Armstrong Custer. He would become a keen weapon, terrible to the enemy, difficult for a weak superior to wield, yet lutrinsieally he would remain the raucous and reckless youngster who had defied his parents to clasp the hand of tells us, Gen, and Mrs, Custer a political foe apd had been the Academy's chronle insurgent. His was bright and volatile, yet durable past the power even of war to alter” It was during these nature two years that the tradi tion of “Custer's luck” began. For nothing else but luck could have made him a brigadier general at the age of twenty-three, the youngest in the Army. . . . At been able to find any good reason why In 1802 least, the historians have never he should have been advanced from a first leu. tenancy In the Fifth cavalry to the command of the Second brigade of the Third divisi ing past the ranks of captain, major. Ii colongl and colonel. True, seif In a wild charge at Gettysburg but at least . rocket. he distinguished him twice thereafter he narrowly escaped ar tion at the hands of that cavalry genius | Jeb Stuart, The appointment of Phil Sheridan as chief of the Union cavalry fame. “It was Sheridan who overlooked Insubop dinations by Custer with unwonted charity . Here was no #trategist but a tireless body and Rray, gave Custer hig chance for f mind as hungry for war as a bent how was a weapon that She an knew how He used him in the ralds which devastated the Shenandoah learned wi DES8 80 Custer to use ™ ley where Custer seems to have iy enough necessary to those whe engage In the dirty business of making war. By the spring of 1865 he had become a malor. general and It was “Custer”s luck™ again which enabled him to be “in at the death” For it was Custer and his eavalry who swooped down upon Appomattox Station and slammed shut the door to Lee's only avenue of retreat. After Lee's sur. render, Custer issued the oft-quoted congratn- latory general order to his Third division, whose record, he declared, was "unparalleled in the annals of war" “This Is more ornate but scarcely more acen- rate than other battlefield proclamations” mys his blographer, whose calm analysis of the ree ord shows that it was much less remarkable than the hero-worshipers would have us believe, While admitting that Custer was a “fair tactician and a smart disciplinarian . , , and as physically valiant a man as ever drew sword” a summing up of the evidence leads inevitably to the con clusion that George Armstrong Custer had few, if any, of the qualities which make a really great commander and it is doubtful if he can be set down as an outstanding cavalry leader in the same class with Stuart and Forrest of the Con. federate army or Sheridan, Merritt and Torbert of the Union army. His weaknesses as a commander became even more apparent in his Indian fighting days than In his Civil war career. When he became lien tenant-colonel of the newly organized Seventh eavairy and busied himself with molding that outfit into what he believed a cavalry regiment should be, the strict discipline which he en. forced and his callous disregard for the wel fare of his men brought him close to disaster. In September, 1867, he was court martinled at Fort Leavenworth on seven charges, the most serious being that he had deliberately disobeyed orders of his superior officer, General Haneock, had deserted Ris command In the midst of hos tile Indian country to hurry to Fort Riley where the cholera was raging and from which his be loved wife was writing letters filled with loneli- ness and terror and that he kad ordered some of his officers to shoot down without mercy de. serters from the regiment, Former Custer biographers have either ignored or passed lightly over this court martial, but the fact remains that Custer was found gullty on all seven charges, suspended from rank and com. mand for a year and his pay for that time for. feited. But before the year had passed Sheridan, who had more than once overlooked Custer in. subordination, came to his rescue. The result was the “battle” of the Washita fought on November 17, 1868, when Custer at. tacked the sleeping camp of the Cheyenne chief, Black Kettle, killing that chief and slanghtering men, women and children indigeriminately, There is every reason to believe that Black Kettle and Where the Custers Died Photo by Groves Kilbourn Custer Monument * at West Point Lis people were no more hostile then than they bad been when members of this same band were the victims of Colonel Chivington rado troops at the San Sheridan's orders wer Creek ma and Coster didn't stop village into which he ber morning was occu Indians His tactics those whic later—a division of hi attack on an known, But he soon up a hornet's nest, for Black Mtie's village was Thre “enems only one of severnl ened by warriors from withdrew, even thot men in his for. Lieutenant « sounds of firing wi in distress Bit ind 1 that Elliott was Custer disregarded this and leaving Elliott to his fate that he bad his belief that the marched away, His hasty lost for the moment, at least, withe ites Seventh could whip all the Indians on the plains But he undivided falth and a« lost something else at the Washita-—the ration of the regiment From was a regi and the confidence of some of his officers that ment divided agains JOears which restored that shattered failth, During the Yello had one run-in with his superior officer. General Stanley, and a severe which caused him to be good thereafter-—at least, so far as obeying orders was concerned. But he did rush into one reckless fight with the Sloux which nearly ended disastrously for him and which gave him a dangerous scorn for the Sioux as foemen. His expedition Into the Black Hills in 1574 and his exaggerated reports of the rich ness of the gold there brought him a Heeting moment of fame, but this was soon overshad- owed by the disgrace which overtook him when he became embroiled in the Belknap scandal Belknap, President Grant's secretary of war, was accused of graft in connection with sutler contracts at the army posts and impeached by congress. Custer “talked too much” —eclaimed knowledge which he did not have. Summoned to Washington to testify, he made a sorry witness He was even so rash as to Involve the Presi dent's brother, Orville Grant, In charges which he could not prove and to insinuate guilty know) edge of frontier graft by the President himself Naturally Grant resented all this. So Custer was not only deprived of the command of the expedition which wus to be sent against the hostile Sioux from Fort Abraham Lincoln in North Dakota but was even forbidden to go with it. He made frenzied appeals to Sherman, com. mander in chief of the army, to Alfonso Taft, the new secretary of war, and to Grant himself, But none of them availed and this time not even his friend, Sheridan, could help him. Finally he appealed to General Terry, who was to command the expedition, and it was Terry who succeeded In getting him restored to the head of his regi ment. It will be geen later how Custer repaid that favor, Chief among the points in the controversy that has raged about Custer's defeat and death on the Little Big Horn Is the question of whether or not he deliberately disobeyed Terry's orders, thereby breaking up a plan of campaign against the Indicns which might have been successful Van De Water's conclusion Is that he did delih. erately dicobey, that he Intended from the first cavalry time on the : Nor during the pext eight was uster able to do anything witone expedition of 1878 he received rebuke smashing victory over the Sioux to regain favor bled-—and lost! When he lost he brought death not only to himself but to more than 300 others. And among them were three of his own blood--Capt. Tom Custer, a troop commander in the Seventh, Bos. ton Custer and “Autie” Reed, the son of his half-sister, Lydia, who had been a "second moth. er” to him. Another of the Custer clan whose life was to he blighted by what took place on June 25, 1870, was his sister, Margaret Emma Custer, the wife of Lieut. James Calhoun, who perished on the hill above the Little Big Horn, ® by Western Newspaper Union. SUCCESSFUL TOUR "We must go to Stratford,” a tour- i Ist on a visit to England sald to his | wife { “What's the use of that? asked | “We can buy Stratford post cards in London” “My thing dear, one wavels for some. wore than to send posteards! I want to write my name on Shake speare’s tomb !"—Montreal Star. And He Went His Way Sinister-Looking Individual nificantly) Is yer ‘usband at ma'am? Lady (resourcefully)—Well, if he's finished his revolver practice, he'll be playing in the back garden with You want to -London Tit-Bits, SAFETY FIRST (sly ‘ome, see him? — Two-Piece Frock . - -. in Smart Design PATTERN 2030 In this two-plece frock youth is de- lightfully served. Make it of one of the new fabric prints which look like wool, or of a smart sheer woolen, It suggests a suit In its trim lines and neat tallored finish. The yoke ex- tends down the front to the edge of the jacket in a vest effect from under which a belt partly encircles the waistline, The bow at the neck is extremely attractive in velvet, Think of it in rust color with the frock in two shades of green. With the dia- grammed sewing chart which accom. make the frock, Pattern 2080 is available in Blze 12 takes fi 208 feed » ¥y + inleresis me, The Whole Story Smith, old man, for some time.” Ml seven weeks” i's too bad. Flu, 1 sup and crashed!” — Back to Early Standards “Are there any gangsters in Suspicious the morning following a wedding re in his pocket,” she observed —Ot tawa Citizen, Length, Not Breadth First Voter—How long did the can didate speak, Bill? Bill—About an hour and a half. First Voter—~And what was it al] | about? Bili—He didn’t say. Exchange, CO-ORDINATION “College. boys make both ends meet, all right” “How's that? “Using headwork in football” ard Luck’s Limit They were discussing thelr bad luck, “Do you know, BIL” sald one, “my luck is so dead out that if I threw a dollar bill into the alr It would come down an income tax demand address and sty TO STATE BIZE. i Address order i { Patter n Depa enteer t th stree tallroad President—Well, 1 declare, there's a block system all ready for our new road. Encouragement At an English theater they were playing “The Forty Thieves,” and as the company numbered only eight, into the cave was achieved by their passing out at the back of the stage and en- tering again at the front Unfortunately one of the robbers walked with a limp, and when he had entered five times a volce from the gallery cried: “Stick it Hoppy ; last lap” Warning Mrs. B.—What made you count your change so carefully after pay- ing our bill? Mr. B.—The clerk kept saying that “honesty is the best policy.”—Border Cities Star. Cash Wanted “Pay your taxes with a smile ™ a4. vised Mrs Gotrocks, “I should love to,” sald Miss Come I¥, “but they insist on cash.” Not Missing Anything Old Gentleman—Didn't 1 give you a dime Just now In the High street? Tramp-—Yes, sir; I've got a branch office there. Her View of It He—Would you marry for money? Sho-—-Well, a husband with no money to me would be like a garage with no car in It.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers