Crazy Horse and Custer: American History15/3/20
Both Custer and Crazy Horse were recognized as leaders by the age of 24, neither were drinkers and both were avid hunters. They met only twice - on the banks of the Yellowstone in 1873 and at Little Bighorn in 1876.
In the great plains grasses send down roots 24 inches to withstand the drought, and provide nutritious plant food and the buffalos provided an inexhaustible supply of meat. Kansas alone had 12 million and they provided meat, clothing and shelter and droppings fed campfires. Horses only arrived in the south US in 1690 and till then Indians lived sedentary lives on corn squash and beans.
With their endurable pintos they could make a travois and move around the plains. The Sioux only acquired horses in 1776, it also became a medium of exchange and wealth. Pemmican was made from buffalos meat. Whiskey dominated the fur trade but they also wanted coffee, metal and guns.. Indians fought for prestige and loot.
James Fenimore Cooper gave a romantic view of the red man.
1839 George Armstrong Custer born in New Brumley, Ohio where there was a big mix of immigrants and Calvinism had a great influence. Nowhere was success as great as in America where a mans property was secure in law and customs. Anything in the way of progress had to be destroyed, first the forest for agriculture and then the Indians. Free land was of central importance to the American way of life and taking the continent was their manifest destiny and the Bible went hand in hand with ambition.
1840.Oregon Trail opened. Public education was set up in Ohio. With American history, the Revolution and Constitution emphasised. Custer's favourite reading was military fiction and got into Westpoint getting free higher education. Navel collage was an alternate for boys without money.
1857 Custer aged 17 arrived in Westpoint the most advance engineering school in the US and graduated in July1861. This way a poor boy mixed in circles like the Vanderbilt's and du Ponts. Some southerners resigned to join the Confederates.
1845 the first white soldiers seen on Sioux country and by 1849 cholera , smallpox, measles arrived. Indians spoke different dialect but had a common sign language. At fort Laramie you had Indians receiving supplies annually to pacify them.
The Oregon Trail was the road west and Indians attacked wagon caravans and stagecoaches. During the 4 civil war years the army was not in this area and the Oglalas Sioux and the Shoshonis and had the finest hunting season and they stayed mostly in the Powder River region and kept out of the way of whites and European sicknesses .. Everyone who wanted to avoid the civil war headed west along the Holy Road (Oregon Trial) Even though young braves wanted goods and they could steal and big American horses, guns and cattle.
Only the worst officers left over from the Civil War were sent to serve on the Plains, and they ended up killing friendlies making the rest more hostile. Indians knew the terrain, could live off the country, were more mobile and had the inactive.
1865 Gold had been found in Montana and whites wanted the shortest road there the Bozeman Trail.
A peace treaty was signed letting Americans open roads in the Powder River country. In Washington it was thought that it would be cheaper through bribery than war but no hostile Sioux signed.
1861 Custer was with Mc Dowel in the Battle of Bull Run. He always had amazing good health.
1862 Custer was under Mc Clellen in the army of the Potomac who was replaced by Burnside.
1863 June, Robert E Lee invaded the north As the battles go fiercer political appointees dropped out an West Pointers took their places.
1863 Sep. Custer was pictured on Harpers Weekly as a national hero.
He led a Brigade in the Battle of Gettysburg and cut his way out of the battle of Brandy Station. At the end of the war he was in the van of the force that cut Lee off from his supplies.
Custer was only 25 at Appomattox for him the war had been fun, and he fraternized with his rebel friend now.
1864 He married Libby Bacon in Monroe who devoted 12 years of married life to Custer and then 57 years of widowhood to her husbands legasy She wrote Boots and Saddles: life in Dakota with General Custer. To satisfy her father he pledged not to drink or swear and he kept this pledge. He now became a major general.
Discipline is what makes an army and civilization.
During the Civil War 267 soldiers of Union Army were executed a third of them for rape the others for desertion.
Sherman was sent to protect the railways and it was cheaper to buy their way out of a war with the Indians but not enough money was allocated. Only the Powder River Sioux were an obstacle and the army started building forts before they had a peace treaty and Red Cloud stormed out of the council at Fort Laramie. Red Cloud between 1866-68 allied Indian forces for a 3 year campaign.
Fettleman was enticed by decoys to Lodge Trail Ridge and ambushed killing 81 soldiers.
1867 Custer got his first command on the Great Plains his first post war assignment had been to accompany Sheridan to Texas where the last rebel force surrendered and to deal with Emperor Maximilian's French troops in Mexico.
Wild Bill Hickock taught Custer a lot about the Indians. Many of the men who joined the army did it to get free tranport west and then deserted to work on mines. The unemployed in the cities were recruited by the army so drunks criminals and deadbeats. Henry Morton Stanley was a leading reporter in this area. Later known for finding Livingstone in Africa.
Sherman ordered Custer to kill Indians and bring in women and children. Sherman's contribution to the Civil War was cutting off the enemies resources and the coming of the railways would meant the end of the Indian way of life. In 10 year the number of buffalo were reduced from 50 million to less than 1000 by 1888. Buffalo hunters not the army cleared the Indians off the plains. Whites could think of only 2 solution civilization or extermination of the Indians. They di not follow a policy of genocide.
The government provide them with ploughs wagons, oxen and the Sioux agreed to education of their children between ages 6 and 16 to Christianize and modernize them.
Custer was successful in attacking the Indian camps in winter but extended winter campaigning was impossible as the horses had no food.
1870 When Red Cloud was taken to Washington and NY her was awestruck and put away his worrier clothing.
1869 till 1877 Ulysses Grant was a Republican President.
1876 the Cheyenne's and Sioux came to the closest united front against the whites under Crazy Horse. He defeated Lieutenant George Crook who survived at the Battle of the Rosebud as he was expecting them to attack and flee and not counterattack.
The Indians moved the camp to Little Bighorn Valley, Montana. Later Custer Cavalry were armed with 1873 model of the Springfield .45-70s Custer took the 7th Cavalry 611 men and wanted to get the Indians before they fled so left the heavy Gatling guns behind. He did not want to share his glory and wanted to be the Democratic candidate for president.
Crazy horse had 3000 warriors the movement of the Indian camps and the marks of the travois looked like a wide stretch of ploughed fields. Custer ended up doing exactly as the Indians expected him to do. Reno and his troops were meant to charge from the flank but did not and Crazy Horse knew no to chase them. 1 in 5 Indians had Winchesters. In 20 minutes the Indians wiped out Custer and 225 soldiers who had been marching all night. Custer was not only outnumbered, outflanked but outgeneraled. Sioux losses were 40 dead. Thus Crazy Horse had defeated Fetterman, Crook and Custer.
The next winter was extremely cold and with no hunting territory left the Indians had to come in and the Indian agent were now controlled by the army.
1877 Crazy Horse was stabbed to death in Fort Robinson while with Little Big Man. Controversial about wanting to escape?
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