The Real Custer (73 page)

35
.
    
Shenango Valley Argus
, August 14, 1875.

36
.
    
Janesville Gazette
, May 22, 1875, 1.

37
.
    
See Watson Parker,
Gold in the Black Hills
(Pierre: South Dakota State Historical Society Press, 2003). Other notables on the mission were Calamity Jane Cannary and Moses Milner, a.k.a. California Joe.

38
.
    
Oakland Daily Evening Tribune
, June 24, 1875.

39
.
    
Sterling Gazette
, June 30, 1875.

40
.
    
Oakland Daily Evening Tribune
, June 24, 1875.

41
.
    
“The Indians Protest,”
Burlington Hawkeye
, September 12, 1874, 1.

42
.
    
“Another Indian Talk,”
Washington Evening Star
, May 21, 1875, 1.

43
.
    
Ulysses S. Grant,
The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant: 1875
, John Y. Simon, ed. (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2003), 122.

44
.
    
Quoted in John S. Gray,
Centennial Campaign: The Sioux War of 1876
(Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1988), 19.

45
.
    
Reprinted in “General Custer on the Sioux Indian Problem,”
Worthington (MN) Advance
, June 4, 1875, 1.

46
.
    
“Senator Allison's Party: How Near They Came to Being Scalped,”
Cedar Falls Gazette
, October 15, 1875, 1.

47
.
    
See Joseph Agonito,
Lakota Portraits: Lives of the Legendary Plains People
(Guilford, CT: Globe Pequote Press, 2011), 74; “The Indians: Heap Bad Indian Break Up Council,”
Burlington (IA) Hawkeye
, September 28, 1875, 1; and “The Great Indian Council,”
Washington Evening Star
, September 27, 1875, 1.

48
.
    
The Chicago Inter Ocean report was noted in “Winter Campaign Against Sitting Bull,”
Bismarck Tribune
, November 20, 1875, 1.

49
.
    
Bismarck Tribune
, November 20, 1875, 4.

50
.
    
“The Black Hills Country,”
New York Times,
January 25, 1876, 1.

51
.
    
“Sitting Bull,”
Bismarck Tribune
, January 19, 1876, 2.

52
.
    
New York Sun
, June 4, 1876, 5.

53
.
    
Fort Wayne Daily Sentinel
, March 13, 1875.

CHAPTER 27

1
.
      
Senate Executive Document no. 81, volume 1664, July 13, 1876.

2
.
      
F. W. Benteen, “An Account of the Little Big Horn Campaign,” typescript copy, USMA Archives, 11.

3
.
      
“Prospective Trouble on the Frontier,”
Burlington Daily Hawkeye
, December 23, 1875, 3. The article incorrectly reported that the two prongs would launch from Fort Lincoln and Fort Bufort.

4
.
      
“An Indian War Anticipated,”
New York Times
, February 21, 1876, 1.

5
.
      
Burlington Hawkeye
, March 1, 1876, 1.

6
.
      
Janesville (WI) Gazette
, March 2, 1876, 1.

7
.
      
John F. McBlain, “With Gibbon on the Sioux Campaign of 1876,”
Journal of the United States Cavalry Association
, June 1896, 139–48.

8
.
      
In an interview with the
St. Paul Dispatch
, General Terry was very open about this military movement. “Gen. Custer, with another strong and well provided force, will set out from Ft. Lincoln, for a co-operative movement, but it would be impossible for him to leave at the date fixed,” he said. Reprinted in the
Palo Alto (IA) Reporter
, March 11, 1876, 1.

9
.
      
“The Position at Washington,”
Anglo-American Times
, March 10, 1876, 9.

10
.
    
See Timothy Rives, “Grant, Babcock and the Whiskey Ring,”
Prologue
, Fall 2000.

11
.
    
Reprinted in the
Anglo-American Times
, September 19, 1868, 11. The pro-Grant
Philadelphia Evening Telegraph
remarked that Custer and other Democratic-leaning former generals were found “in close company with . . . Lee, and Beauregard, and Hampton, and Forrest, and almost every man of high or low repute who wore the uniform of grey.”
Philadelphia Evening Telegraph
, September 11, 1868, 4.

12
.
    
The Senate voted 35 to 25 to convict, failing to achieve the necessary two-thirds majority.

13
.
    
“Custer on the Stand,”
Indiana Democrat
, April 4, 1876, 1.

14
.
    
Congressional Series of United States Public Documents
, volume 1715 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1876), 570.

15
.
    
“General Hedrick,”
Burlington Daily Hawkeye
, April 20, 1876, 2.

16
.
    
Ibid.

17
.
    
Congressional Series of United States Public Documents
, 12.

18
.
    
“What General Custer Knows of Affairs on the Frontier,”
Burlington Hawk-eye
, April 5, 1876, 1.

19
.
    
“General Custer's Testimony,”
Burlington Daily Hawkeye
, April 18, 1876, 4.

20
.
    
Ibid. Alexander McDowell McCook, USMA 1852, was a wartime volunteer and brevet major general who after the war served mainly in Texas, and at the time of the Belknap impeachment was a staff colonel and aide-de-camp to General Sherman.

21
.
    
“Notes from the Capital,”
New York Times,
April 7, 1876, 1.

22
.
    
“Custer Contradicted by Merrill,”
New York Times,
April 5, 1876, 1; and “A Slander Refuted,”
Washington National Republican
, April 5, 1876, 1.

23
.
    
GAC to EBC, April 8, 1876, in Marguerite Merington, ed.,
The Custer Story: The Life and Intimate Letters of General George A. Custer and His Wife Elizabeth
(New York: Devin-Adair, 1950), 283.

24
.
    
Ibid., 284.

25
.
    
See
The Campaign Text Book: Why the People Want a Change; The Republican Party Reviewed, Its Sins of Commission and Omission
(New York: Democratic Party National Committee, 1876), 316–19. In the 1884 race, the Democrats presented Custer's father to a massive pre-election rally in Michigan to invoke the spirit and memory of the state's favorite son.
New York Times
, October 30, 1884, 2.

26
.
    
“Lively Interview with Gen. Custer,”
Bismarck Tribune
, March 8, 1876, 4.

27
.
    
Orin G. Libby, ed.,
The Arikara Narrative of Custer's Campaign and the Battle of the Little Bighorn
(Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1998), 58–59.

28
.
    
A more detailed analysis of the question of Custer running for president is presented in the author's
Last in Their Class: Custer, Pickett, and the Goats of West Point
(New York: Encounter Books, 2006).

29
.
    
For information and data on the elections cited, see Robert A. Diamond, ed.,
Congressional Quarterly's Guide to US Elections
(Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly, 1975). In 1872 the Democrats endorsed Horace Greeley,
the candidate of the liberal faction of the divided Republican party. But even with his party split, Grant won reelection with 55.6 percent of the vote, a 3 percent increase over his 1868 total.

30
.
    
See for example, “Tilden Out of the Contest,”
New York Times
, June 23, 1876, 1.

31
.
    
“Lively Interview with Gen. Custer,” 4.

32
.
    
For Hancock's political career, see generally David M. Jordan,
Winfield Scott Hancock: A Soldier's Life
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988), chapters 24 and 26.

33
.
    
“Lively Interview with Gen. Custer,” 4.

34
.
    
GAC to EBC, April 8, 1876, in Merington,
The Custer Story
, 284.

35
.
    
See generally, “Rascalities of the Army Traders,”
New York Times,
March 30, 1876, 1.

36
.
    
“A Report Which Gen. Custer Claims to Have Made Is Nowhere to Be Found,”
New York Times
, April 19, 1876, 1.

37
.
    
“Gen. Custer and Gen. Merrill,”
New York Times
, April 19, 1876, 1.

38
.
    
“Gen. Custer's Testimony,”
New York Times
, May 5, 1876, 1.

39
.
    
GAC to EBC, April 1876, in Merington,
The Custer Story
, 289.

40
.
    
GAC to EBC, April 28, 1876, in ibid., 292.

41
.
    
W. T. Sherman to John Sherman, November 17, 1875.

42
.
    
W. T. Sherman to John Sherman, October 23, 1874.

43
.
    
GAC to EBC, April 1, 1876, in Merington,
The Custer Story
, 281. Grant went through three secretaries of war after Belknap: George M. Robeson, who was secretary of the navy, acted as war secretary
ad interim
, March 2–6, 1876; Alphonso Taft, March 8–May 22; and James D. Cameron after May 22.

44
.
    
Sherman in
The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant: 1876
, John Y. Simon, ed. (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2003), 72.

45
.
    
Belknap in
The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant
, 60.

46
.
    
“Marriage of Lieut. Grant,”
New York Times,
October 21, 1874, 8.

47
.
    
S. L. A. Marshall,
Cimsoned Prairie
(Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 1972), 103.

48
.
    
Sherman in
The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant: 1876
, 71.

49
.
    
Robert Utley,
Cavalier in Buckskin: George Armstrong Custer and the Western Military Frontier
(Norman: University of Oklahma Press, 1991), 162.

50
.
    
New York Times,
May 6, 1876, 5.

51
.
    
Reprinted as “Custer's Grievance,”
Burlington Hawkeye
, June 1, 1876, 1.

52
.
    
Indiana (PA) Democrat
, May 4, 1876, 2.

53
.
    
Custer quoted in Sarf, 65.

54
.
    
New York Herald
, quoted in the
Fitchburg Daily Sentinel
, May 12, 1876, 4.

55
.
    
Reprinted as “Custer's Grievance,”
Burlington Hawkeye
, June 1, 1876, 1.

56
.
    
Quoted in L. G. Walker,
Dr. Henry R. Porter: The Surgeon Who Survived Little Bighorn
(Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2008), 45.

57
.
    
Quoted in Utley,
Cavalier in Bucksin
, 163.

CHAPTER 28

1
.
      
Marguerite Merington, ed.,
The Custer Story: The Life and Intimate Letters of General George A. Custer and His Wife Elizabeth
(New York: Devin-Adair, 1950), 296.

2
.
      
Tom Custer, quoted in ibid., 296.

3
.
      
GAC to EBC, April 17, 1876, in ibid., 290.

4
.
      
For information on the Sioux Campaign generally, see John S. Gray,
Centennial Campaign: The Sioux War of 1876
(Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1976); Wayne Michael Sarf,
The Little Bighorn Campaign, March–September 1876
(Conshohocken, PA: Combined Books, 1993); and Robert M. Utley,
Custer and the Great Controversy
(Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1998); as well as other works cited below.