Posted by "Jackie and John Pullman" <jpullman@bserv.com> on Fri, 8 Dec 2000 19:00:02 -0800
Now to be fair, I don‘t think that Custer was a great leader of men. But as
a leader of irregular calvary, he wasn‘t a slouch. He had to have something
on the ball to be one of the youngest generals in the Civil war. Problem
with Custer was that "When in doubt, Charge!!" could be his personal motto.
It worked well enough for him in the war. Also he was lucky! Bad combination
at the end. I won‘t go into his personal faults. He had a pile of them and a
large number of his men and officers hated him. But if we look at the little
bighorn, he commanded to the end. His men couldn‘t have been placed better,
they died fighting in place, and he died with them. Yes, he screwed up.
Yes, he tackled the odds, but to be fair to him, in his personal history,
that worked! Call it luck, audacity or whatever. But it worked.
I have no great personal respect for the man. Personally I think that he was
undisciplined and a martinet when it came to his men. Not to mention an
immense ego. But when push came to shove, he could hold his own.
Just trying to be fair.
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