After the war Custer’s ego became to grow. He became an over confident, egotistic, flamboyant man. He was also a narcissist and loved himself- a lot. Custer had an interesting personality. He could kill without a single twinge, but was able to shed tears at a play in the theatre. After the civil war he became too confident. He was vain, respected by men and especially the women. But the woman who respected him the most was his beautiful wife Elizabeth. He was considered a hero, a brave man-in fact the bravest of all and most importantly he wanted Washington. To become President was his biggest ambition and the way to fulfil this dream was to continue his success in the army and to continue leaping ranks. Custer designed his own uniform and spent long hours on his appearance for his ‘audience’. He had fine bright yellow hair in curls that dell to his shoulders and vivid blue eyes. He had a lovely figure with broad shoulders, a deep voice that shrilled and was a natural born athlete.
Custer was a hero of the civil war and was very successful in battle. As he dominated more wars, he became a national hero and he received all the fame and glory he longed for. He was soon put in charge of the 7th Calvary. He was to protect travellers and miners from the Indians. Custer then rose to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. As time went on he gained recognition from the plenty successful attacks on Indian camps. Custer was now a successful, brave, heroic fighter that was invincible. He inspired his troops at the face of danger and was always at the front of the line leading his men.
As his ego grew his attitude went up with it. Custer began to disobey orders, set double standards for him and his men and mistreated his men. At one point of his military career, Custer abandoned his men because he went home to his wife to check if she had caught cholera. He also mistreated his men. He did this when some of his men decided to runaway. They were found by Custer and they were injured. He refused them aid and left them in the outdoors. This was a very bad move he had made and he suffered consequences. He was arrested for desertion and for mistreatment of his men. Custer was stripped off his title, lost his job for a year, his income and more importantly to him, his pride and respect.
Up until the Black Hills of Dakota had been the hunting grounds for the Sioux tribe. In 1862 gold was discovered in the Rocky Mountains in Montana. The Bozeman trail then opened. Because the Americans had crossed through the Sioux hunting grounds the Sioux tribe became very angry about this. For the next two years, Red Cloud and his Sioux warriors harassed travellers that came across the Bozeman trail. Due to their success, the Government negotiated with the Sioux tribe. This turned out to be the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868. On 4th November, 1868 Red Cloud signed the Fort Laramie Peace Treaty. Red Cloud and the chiefs and the people of the Ogala, Brule and Miniconjou bands agreed to move onto the vast Great Sioux Reservation. Red Cloud agreed that his reservation should be the South of Dakota, west of Missouri River and the Black Hills. The Black Hills were special and sacred to the Sioux tribe. The U.S. also agreed to close down forts and the Bozeman trail. However, Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull and other tribe members did not agree to this.
Not long after, gold was discovered in the Black Hills. The U.S. tried to buy the Black Hills from the Indians. They failed to buy the land as the Indians told them the land did not belong to the Indians and also because it was their hunting ground. This led to wild Indians guided by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse. The Government then broke the Fort Laramie Treaty. In 1874 the Americans invaded the home of the Sioux tribe. Because of the land taken away by the Whiteman, conflicts erupted between the Indian and the Whiteman. By 1875, the Indians decided not to move. After this they were considered hostile. The Government then instructed the Indians to depart from the Black Hills by the 31st of January 1875. This was physically impossible for the Indians to do because the journey was too long, they had too many goods, they slowed down by weather, elders and had to stop frequently for rest and food.
Ready for battle once more, Custer was put back in command of his regiment. Again Custer began to make more mistakes. He had poor tactics and a lack of organisation. Custer was told by his commander ‘Don’t be greedy, wait for us’. And his response was, ‘No I won’t’. Now we don’t know whether he meant ‘no’ he will not be greedy or ‘no’ he won’t wait for the rest or the army. This has been widely debated comment that no one will ever know the correct answer. And judging from Custer’s personality he probably would have meant he won’t wait for the rest. Especially looking at the fact that he had disobeyed orders before. But nevertheless, he could have changed his mind and followed his commands in order to stay out of more trouble. We will never know.
On the 21st of June 1876 General Terry, General Gibbon and General Custer set out on the journey to the Sioux camp. Terry, Gibbon and Custer had agreed to take a five day expedition to the Little Bighorn. Custer had other plans. He pushed his men hard and forced marches on them. His men marched for many hours without rest day and night. Eventually his troops became too fatigued. Along the way, Custer developed a short cut to the Little Bighorn. He took this short cut and to his luck arrived a day early. Custer was very happy bout this as it meant that he could defeat a whole nation on his own. He and his commanders did not agree with each other and this caused conflicts between them. Custer was offered more men and ammunition, but to his arrogance, he refused extra help and went on with just about 230 of his men excluding Benteen and Reno.
When Custer had realised how many Indians there were he still went on with his plans for the attack. The Indians had a number of advantages. The Americans also had their advantages but were not as practical as the Indian’s. One of the numbers of advantages the Indians had been Sitting Bull. Indians had many traditions and one of them was visions. Sitting Bull had a vision the Bluecoats would attack them and like locusts would die. Sitting Bull made a sacrifice which was he cut off fifty slices of flesh from each arm and he went without food and water for three days. Saturday June 24th, Custer arrived early and realised just how many Indians there were. On Sunday 25th June 1876, Custer arrived early and decided to defeat the nation by himself. Custer divided his troops into 3 groups. Each of the groups had too little warriors to fight with the Indians.
As the battle was to commence, Captain Benteen told Custer he was sorry not have taken the other soldiers. And this is when the ‘mistakes were made’. And Indian scout told Custer there were too many Indians to fight but as usual Custer uncared for this. When Custer prepared for attack he told Reno that he would be supported when he went to attack the village. As Custer took charge into the Sioux tribe sacred grounds, he saw how many warriors he had to fight. He was faced with 2-3000 Indian warriors and he only had around 230 men. This was going to be a very big predicament for him. When Custer had arrived there was already a battle in place so the warriors were ready for anymore attacks. The Indians were very well prepared and organised. And the Americans weren’t. The Indians had repeating rifles which were given to them by the white man. The white man had ‘green troops’. The men were inexperienced with weaponry and they had problems with their guns.
When Custer saw his men were in danger he did nothing about it and this showed his greed and narcissism. The army had single-shot rifles which was government policy. The army also only had 6 shots a year to practise with whereas the Indians had regular practise through hunting. Also their horsemanship was excellent. There were broken lines of communication between the three officers. There was also no support given to Custer from the other two officers. Captain Benteen and Reno refused to support Custer as they had been mistreated before by him. So basically, because of Custer’s attitude and selfishness it landed him in great troubles. Custer was blinded by fame and glory and would just about anything to achieve more.
Written by Kuziva Foroma.
