Re: Custer as Presidential candidate 1876? joe @ blow
wild bill
I do remember reading about it somewhere. But under what situation I
can't remember. So at this time I will bow to BobT & yourself till I can
provide a rebuttal. Thanks for the input. There have been several good
posts about the LBH and I enjoy any and all input. Wild Bill
Bob Tiernan
[From "Custer in '76", a collection of notes and
interviews conducted by Walter Camp in the early
1900s]
Scout George Herendeen:
"When Custer was buried, there were stakes marked VI and
VII for Custer and Tom Custer, and but for me they [Capt
Sheridan's 1877 group] would have made a mistake and got
other remains than Custer's"
Scout/interpreter Fred Gerard:
"No graves were dug except for the corpse of General
Custer."
From Camp interview with Pvt Thomas O'Neill: "O'Neill
helped bury the dead on June 28. He and Hammon
personally dug the hole in which in which Genl. Custer
was buried and lay the body in it."
"Lieut. Wallace wrote the General's name on a piece of paper,
rolled it up and inserted it in an empty cartridge shell and
put it by a little stake driven by Custer's head."
Bob T
wild bill
BATTLEFIELD!
Not beaten but out gunned.
I have enjoyed our discussion and the fact we were able to share
thoughts. I am a
novice but fairly well read. It appears you on the other hand are deeper
into it than I am. Although I have been to the battlefield
6 times and walked some of it to look over the terrain to relate it to
the books I read, you on the other hand seem to have better insight than
I.
As to the burial of Custer, I do stand corrected. You were right. What
ever book I got my information from was incorrect.
My reading was done before the days of the computer, ( as you can tell
by my webtv system) but I did a Wikipedia search <with help from a
buddy> on him and it confirmed what you said. However it did say that he
had two bullet holes one in the left temple & one just above the heart.
He was reinterred in the West Point Cemetery Oct 10,1877.
It did list three military blunders however,
First he refused the support offered by
Gen Terry on the 21st of an additional
battalion. Second he left behind a battery of Gatling guns, knowing he
was facing superior numbers. Finally on the day of the battle, he
divided his command in the face of superior numbers.
I still hold to some of my thoughts on the battle and will always feel
that Custer was
shot at the crossing at Medicine Tail Coulee. Then taken by his men to
Last Stand Hill, where he died. Whether by his own hand or by someone
else.
Further feel that Reno with Benteens help saved the rest of the command.
There was NO conspiracy between the two against Custer.
Whatever else will be debated as long as people read and reflect on that
day in history. "OLD" Wild Bill