Picture of... Custer's son Yellowbird?

[Banned]

Never seen it before. Quite the same nose, hum ?

I don't believe this story of Monaseetah-Custer relationship, but I am curious where does this picture come from...

www.astonisher.com/archives/museum/white_cow_bull_little_big_horn.html

[Banned]

Tom Custer's son ? It's an empty thesis, not a fact. Where does this guy come from?

Tom had already a child, but who's this Indian?

[Diane Merkel]

This is the kind of nonsense that drives me off the deep end. (I know, it's not a far drive . . . .)

Note the caption of the photo above while the text next to it clearly is talking about GAC as the father:

They said the boy’s father had been a white soldier chief named Long Hair; he had killed her father, Chief Black Kettle, in a battle in the south [Washita Massacre] eight winters before, they said, and captured her. He had told her he wanted to make her his second wife, and so he had her. But after while his first wife, a white woman, found her out and made him let her go.

It has been speculated on another thread that, because GAC was sterile due to his little STD episode at West Point, the father may have been Tom. Why does it have to be either?

CSS, if you'll run a Google search of the boards (at the bottom of the page), I believe someone identified the guy in the photo and -- wonder of wonders -- he isn't a Custer.

[Banned]

"because GAC was sterile due to his little STD episode at West Point"

That's Jeffry Wert's theory. One can wonder why Custer hadn't children, but it was maybe Libbie's problems.

[Diane Merkel]

It's not just Wert's theory. The following is from Medical Histories of Union Generals by Jack D. Welsh, M.D. You'll see that the USMA medical information came directly from GAC's military records.

GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER • Born December 5, 1839, in New Rumley, Ohio. Graduated from the USMA in 1861. While at West Point, he was treated for contusio and catarrhus seven times each, diarrhea, excoriatio, and subluxiatio each three times, cephalalgia twice, and once each for nausea, odontalgia, clavus, erysipelas, and gonorrhea. Custer entered the Civil War as a lieutenant and did staff duty until he was appointed brigadier general of volunteers in June 1863. He had sick leave from October 3 to December 2, 1861. While trying to out a fire on the Skiff Creek before Williamsburg, Virginia, on May 4, 1862, he burned his hands. During a charge to capture enemy guns near Raccoon Ford on September 13, 1863, he received a gunshot in the area of the tibia, which tore his boot. The soft structures were injured along'with the periostium of the bone. He returned to duty in October. Custer was thrown from a carriage on March 14, 1864, and suffered a concussion of the brain. He received a leave and was back in April. In July he had remittent fever and diarrhea. He was given the full rank of major general of volunteers in April 1865 and was appointed lieutenant colonel of the Seventh Cavalry in 1866. During October 1867, while on court-martial duty, he had a boil on his right thigh. Custer died at Little Big Horn, Wyoming [sic], on June 25, 1876. The confusion concerning the details of Custer's death at Little Big Horn are reflected in the number of articles and books dealing with the subject. Reports by the only survivors of the battle, the Indians, say he was killed midstream of the Medicine Tail Coulee and then carried to the spot where he was found. Others report he was killed where he was found.

OR, vol. 11, pt. 1:526, pt. P40; vol. 29, pt. 1:112; RG 94, Records of the AGO, 1783-1917, Military Service Records of George A. Custer, 1856-79, microfilm; Lyman, Meade's Headquarters, 17; Robert M. Utley, Cavalier in Buckskin, 193; David Humphreys Miller, Custer's Fall: The Indian Side of the Story, 128, 245.

[Banned]

What I wanted to say is: I know that Custer had gonorrhea, but Wert thought that his long leave from West Point MEANT that Custer could be sterile after a long-term disease. But it's just a thesis.
Almost every soldier had gonorrhea, but they had children too.

[Banned]

"Reports by the only survivors of the battle, the Indians, say he was killed midstream of the Medicine Tail Coulee and then carried to the spot where he was found."

Who said that?

[crzhrs]

I believe in Miller's book an Indian said Custer was shot at the river, picked up by Boyer(?) and carried back up hill.

[Banned]

It cannot be true, because Keogh would have taken command of the regiment and Custer's ammunition wouldn't have been found around him.

[crzhrs]

That didn't mean Custer was killed at the river. He may have been wounded and/or unconscious then came around afterward and fired a few rounds.

Maybe Tom Custer took over and told Keough to go back to his command where he would be needed.

[Banned]

Tom Custer giving order to Keogh, his superior in rank ? Impossible.

According to John Adams, BTW, Custer's wounds were not as we think. Private Adams saw that Custer's head wound WAS in fact bleeding, and that his chest wasn't. No powder burn on the face.

[crzhrs]

Nothing is impossible at the LBH.

And PRIVATE Adams was a doctor?

[Banned]

There isn't any need of a doctor to see which wound is bleeding and if the skin is burnt or not... Adams signed the death certificate. His testimony cannot be overlooked.

And, yes, some things are impossible at LBH, it's not your game.

[rch]

Tom Custer was the second most junior capt of the 7th Cav. Keogh the 2nd most senior. Tom Custer would not have told Keogh to do anything. I don't beleive Keogh would have stood for it at such a moment.

Near Custer's body was the regiment's adjutant and chief trumpeter, the regimental sergeant major may not have been too far away. One officer of Gibbon's command thought he recognized the surgeon nearby. The body of Custer's personal flag bearer may have been down hill from Custer's body. No member of the regiment's headquarters establishment seemed to have been found near Keogh. It is not likely that Custer was killed at the ford.

I recall reading one of Custer's letter in which he noted the misery of one of the pregnant women present with his command. I beleive it was A. C. M. Pennington's wife who was, as I recall, along with Mrs. Custer on the march back from Appomattox. He said he dreaded the day his wife would be in that condition. I haven't been abIe to find the letter, and I hope my memory is not too faulty.

I think it may be possible that no matter what they said, the Custers may simply have decided not to have children and that there was nothing more to it than that.

rch

[Banned]

I just imagine Keogh, with his amazing career, accepting advices from Tom Custer... Simply impossible.

rch, you're totally right ! For the children, it could be an answer, but there's still Libbie's poem when she said that the grapes are sour or something like that, suggesting that there WAS a problem with her or him.