Custer did NOT hate American Indians!

[Garryowen]

That's my thesis, in a nutshell. In my opinion, the popular view of him having an insatiable lust for spilling Native American blood is untrue. I think that, compared to his contemporaries, he was rather empathetic to their plight. I'd like to challenge some of the specific allegations, such as him deliberately killing Indian women and children, committing rape, and having a general contempt and lack of respect for Native Americans, in general.

I'm digging for primary sources to corroborate my position. So far, I have:

My Life on the Plains
The Custer Story: The Life and Intimate Letters of General George A. Custer and His Wife Elizabeth
On the Plains with Custer and Hancock : The Journal of Isaac Coates, Army Surgeon

Obviously, I'm brand new to the forum. I don't expect anyone to "spoon-feed" me information that I'm perfectly capable of retrieving. If any of you would be so kind as to point me in the right direction, however, I would appreciate it, immensely.

— Luke

[Garryowen]

I've found several pages in T.J. Stiles' Custer's Trials, consisting exclusively of primary sources! Hooray!

[tubman13]

Custer had a complex and sometimes a confusing make up.

He was loyal to the Union, yet a staunch Democrat. He spent time on a train tour with Andrew Johnson. He did not support Grant. He refused command of a Black Cavalry Regiment, instead taking the #2 seat in the 7th. He was a piss poor money manager, yet desiring to make more money in his chosen field.

Tunnel vision was a curse at times, you can find it if you look. The books you alluded to above were not just good stories, but shameless self promotion.

Regards,
Tom

[noggy]

He wrote a bunch of articles about his time in the field, I would imagine many of these are possible to find online or maybe in some collection?

I doubt he HATED Native Americans too. He would not be able to have genuinely friendly relationships with say Bloody Knife. Custer himself wrote about the "hostiles" that if he himself was born an Indian, he'd choose the life outside the reservation. 

If he was racist? By today's standards; yes. Most Americans in the 1870s (and onwards) looked down on anyone non-white. At least until they got to actually know people. But more often than pure hatred, it tends to come off as GAC's generation was looking down on them more than hating. The whole concept of "The noble savage" has in many ways positive aspects to it too. Indians were often looked at like children, albeit potentially dangerous, who did not understand just how fantastic it would be for them to give up their old ways and become farmers in terrible places they did not want to be.

Oh; and of course welcome.

All the best,
Noggy

[logan]

Jun 10, 2022 4:51:13 GMT -6 tubman13 said:

Custer had a complex and sometimes a confusing make up.

He was loyal to the Union, yet a staunch Democrat. He spent time on a train tour with Andrew Johnson. He did not support Grant. He refused command of a Black Cavalry Regiment, instead taking the #2 seat in the 7th. He was a piss poor money manager, yet desiring to make more money in his chosen field.

Tunnel vision was a curse at times, you can find it if you look. The books you alluded to above were not just good stories, but shameless self promotion.

Regards,
Tom

[logan]

I’m not sure I recall reading that he was ever offered the role of commanding black cavalry (Buffalo soldiers) which he refused, unlike Gen Benjamin Grierson, never really read much about Custer’s thoughts were of black cavalry, or if he even had any.

Interesting

[logan]

This topic is relevant, as with the British officer I study, who was killed in action at Isandhlwana by the Zulus, definitely didn’t hate them either, in fact he tried to prevent the war when he was part of the Boundary Commission, the results of which were suppressed as an impossible ultimatum was put together instead by the Governor of Natal, manufacturing reasons for declaring war.

The officer also involved himself in the welfare of the Natal natives, who were persecuted and displaced, his sympathy and concern isolating him from many of his fellow military and superiors.

It was tragic he was killed by the very people he didn’t want to fight, but as a British officer, personal opinion was surpassed by duty.

ironically, the Zulus may have killed him, but his own superiors killed him a second time in the aftermath, allocating blame and destroying his reputation...to save face, and being alive, save their own careers and reputations.

i recently acquired a book about such military scapegoats, those on the field mostly killed with a ‘smoking gun in hand‘, blamed by those not present but were the main decision-makers creating the circumstances of such failures.

Unfortunately, officers who stood out due to their successes or beliefs, that didn’t conform to their superiors ways, either through jealousy or feeling an inability to control them as they went against the norm, the former were most likely top of the list to point the finger at when things went wrong - if not killed in the event, either court-martialed or sent to an out of the way post to be forgotten.