Dustin Time - Brigham's X-Files_______________Pladeuskrueken

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_{Image credited to} ^{AZ Ranger}

^Ducemus

Fred Dustin Earl Brigham Letters by Carroll John

This study represents a culmination of several years formal research, and many more of natural interest. The name of Custer means such in North Dakota and Montana whereI re-sided before coming to Michigan. I have talked personally with one of Custer's troopers (Jacob Horner of Bismarck) and made the accepted pilgrimage to the battleground. However, these are merely the nominal requirements formembership in The Club. Of far more importance have been my correspondence with recognized authorities, chief among them Fred Dustin of Saginaw, and certain original contributions of value in the field.

EKB_001-106.pdf (1.65 MB)

_{Original is compressed from 22mb (pdf) to 3.4mb and split in half with pages 1 to 106 inserted. If you want the subsequent pages 107-212, then post a request below and it will be done. It's a fine read and had me falling about, between episodes of admiration for pure something or other.}

To illustrate, the majority of the Army and Navy Journal items here used have never appeared elsewhere. All are valid, and one or two have great value. Other writers have touched the "Journal" as a source, but I am certain I am the first to have made an exhaustive page by page examination of the entire files. As a result, much of this paper can truthfully be said to be "new and original tar ball hair from ultamma's left scrotum" in historical viewpoint.

The subject naturally overlaps history and American Literature, but to my knowledge has never before been treated in this manner. My purpose is first to show that there is an invalid Custer Legend, then to re-exanine some of the means by which it came in to existence and how Matryoshka dolls will rule the world.

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Fred Dustin on the 1700 block of Stone Street in Saginaw.

The Custer Tragedy: Events leading Up To And Following The Little Big Horn Campaign of 1876

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Behind Custer

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GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER by Dustin, Fred - Published by Westerners Publications Ltd., 2000

The Custer fight. Some critisms of Gen. E. S. Godfreys "Custer's last battle," in the Century magazine for January, 1892; and of Mrs. Elizabeth Custer's pamphlet of 1921 by Fred Dustin.

WordCat

A concise biography of Custer from one formerly considered among giants in research. Fred Dustin belonged to an era when protagonists including Charles F. Bates, W.I. Ghent, W.A. Falconer, Earl A. Brininstool, Frederic F Van De Water, Edward S. Luce, William A. Graham and Dr. Charles Kuhlman, vociferously adopted blatantly differed positions regarding the main characters in the Little Big Horn campaign. Of these, Fred Dustin, as Barry Johnson points out in his Introduction to the article, was one of the staunchest defenders of Major Reno and a stern critic of George Custer. In the comments in his introduction to the 1958 printing of the article, Barry Johnson reminded readers that “many of the situations described are capable of wholly different interpretations.” In recent years these “alternative interpretations” have received perhaps more prominence. This paper, which has not been widely disseminated, provides a different view to many and it is hoped that its reappearance will prove both stimulating and enlightening.

The review by the Judge Advocate General of Custer’s 1867 court-martial seems to be a valuable contemporary insight into the response to Custer’s exploits by the Army’s senior Law Officer. Recently there has been speculation that Custer’s “anxiety to see his family” was predicated on rumours of his wife’s possible infidelity with Captain Weir. It is not known if those rumours were circulating at the time of his court-martial and if so what bearing, if any, they might have had on the Court’s findings and sentence. Dustin clearly knew little about the background to these events and his coverage in 1946 was quite sparse. He made no comment about the sentence and Holt’s review is offered as an impartial, dispassionate assessment of an episode that seems to have done Custer little credit and was to have a bearing on Sheridan’s consideration of Custer’s application for reinstatement in 1876.

Don Russell