The Buel saga

[harpskiddie]

You know the really strange thing is that I was thinking of what a fantastic movie, or mini-series. the Buel Saga could make, and wondering to myself if anyone had written it up and/or owned the rights. The first two paragraphs were my "humorous" take on how to do it, when I thought of the photograph, and the rest just came out in one continuous rush.

I've had writer's block for the past two years on the book I want to write [I'm stuck with Reno in the valley, trying to figure out how to account for the scouts movements without stealing from somebody else and getting my sources down where they need to be]. But when it comes to "frivolities" I can rattle off something halfway readable in three seconds.

Trish, don't it make you sick when that happens? Or does it ever happen to you?

Gordie,
I wanna live San Fernando-style. I'm gonna eat an artichoke [once in a while].I'm gonna watch Police helicopters checking my file..............................................

[elisabeth]

Yup, playing a photograph is just about within my acting range. (But "beautiful", no.)

I don't know if Trish suffers from that affliction -- presumably not, since unlike the rest of us she's actually written hers -- but I certainly sympathise myself. I can scribble away fluently for hours, as long as it's just notes; come to do the "proper" writing, and I'll get hung up for a day and a half on a single sentence. The only time I imagine I'm about to hit my stride is when I'm up against a work deadline, and mustn't indulge.

That's such a great opening scene ...

Seriously: I wonder what the rights situation would be? How public-domain does a story have to be before it's fair game? I imagine there must be descendants of the family still around. But then so there are of Custer's and Benteen's and Reno's and Keogh's families, and they all turn up in fiction often enough without anyone getting sued ... Hmm.


[By the way, another little oddity to add to the nun and the priest. While the McDougall parents were staunch Presbyterians, I see that Tom McDougall's funeral took place at the Dahlgren Sacred Heart Chapel, Georgetown University -- very Catholic indeed. So, yet another convert in the family.]

[Tricia]

Well ... writer's block? Me?!

I had the Mother of All Writer's Block for (get this) 20 years! That's almost half my darn life! I really started writing "seriously"--though it was hopelessly bad--in 1980 and tried like hell to craft a good screenplay. I even moved from Phoenix to LA, but nothing, nothing. Of course, I was quite terrible ... but finding no success or satisfaction from the craft, I headed back east.

I didn't write again until January, 2003 when I started on this book ... and since then it's been verbal diarrhea ... and on to Book Two later this year or early next.

[harpskiddie]

Tricia:

Thanks for making an old man feel a little less like a failure. Twenty years!?!?!?!? Holy mackerel, Kingfish.

Gordie,
it's hard to pretend that you'll love me again, when there's nothing left inside for you to see........

[Tricia]

Well, I did kind of write--though they were just Art History papers. I wrote a very lengthy one on the statue of Athena Parthenos at the Parthenon, and one on Elizabeth Siddal's The Lady of Shallot ... a very naughty work, indeed. But all of the while, I was hoping for something, anything to get me back on the fiction route ... and damn it, why did it have to be Custer?!?!

I got old waiting for his tender and loving muse ....

[BrokenSword]

I'm not a lawyer - BUT, I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express once......

Historical figures are completely within the public domain. (Coretta Scott King tried numerous times to extract money from any film or work that merely mentioned her husband's name. To little avail, legally) But, with Custer, Reno, Keogh, Benteen - have a ball. John F. Kennedy (Sr. and Jr.) and Jacqueline are fair game - Caroline, probably, is not.

I believe that nearly any non-living person that is/was within the 'realm of the public-eye' is fair game for your purposes, as long as you don’t encroach on their ‘intellectual property’ in doing so. Elvis you can include - Elvis’ music you cannot. Its always (to my way of thinking) respectful to seek the family’s blessing first, however.

Don't take my word for it. (Which goes without saying) But!!!!! If I'm right then I want to be included in the endless credits at the end ... listed as 'Unofficial Barracks-Lawyer Consultant'. No fee required. An actual appearence in the film itself (while appreciated) is equally unnecessary. To be completely honest - Due to the nature of my work for the government, possession of a correct likeness of me is prohibited.

One little device that film makers use is to simply assign a different name to a known personality. Sometimes they create a completely fictitious character by combining traits and actions of a ‘real’ person or persons whose identity or identities they wish to disguise.

Personally, I love movies that claim to be historically accurate and then end the film with "…and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.”

M

[harpskiddie]

Especially if the sub-title is "The True [or Real] Story Of.............................."

Gordie,
Elvis Presley is living in my basement suite, admission 25 cents.....is that allowed?..............

[BrokenSword]

"Elvis Presley is living in my basement suite, admission 25 cents.....is that allowed?.............."

Its allowed but worth FAR more!

M

[elisabeth]

One more minor footnote to the saga. Josephine's younger sister, Frances, was also married to an artillery officer: Col. Lawrence Sprague Babbitt, whose family had the rare distinction of having three generations of graduates from West Point -- himself, his father, and his son. He, like Buel, had a distinguished CW career, brevetted twice for gallantry in action.

And now, more grist to the mini-series mill: the eldest sister, Georgiana, was married to a yet more distinguished war hero ... but on the Confederate side! He was Brigadier General John Adams, killed at Franklin in 1864. (One of the battles he fought in was Resaca, where the opposition included -- guess who? -- Keogh.) A splendid chap, it seems:
www.researchonline.net/generals/jadams.htm

[harpskiddie]

God, I simply love this family. Were any of them involved in the Garfield affair?

Gordie,
giddy up, giddy up, giddy up, my Four Oh Nine..........................................................

[elisabeth]

One more snippet to add to this stirring tale. In George A. Armes' Ups and Downs of an Army Officer, he tells how, in one of his many court-martials, Col. Buel was a member of the court. He'd been heard to say publicly that he wouldn't believe Armes' word on oath, so Armes, ever combative, tried to get him bounced from the court on grounds of prejudice. Then Custer got involved. Although he had no official standing in the trial whatsoever, he waded in and volunteered a ringing denunciation of Buel. Sensation in court.

Interesting, eh? If GAC loathed Buel enough to go for him in public like this, it might substantiate his motivation to debauch Buel's wife and allow the fact to become the talk of Leavenworth ...

[rch]

Elisabeth,

What did Custer say about Buel? Where did he say It?

rch

[elisabeth]

In front of the court martial, according to Armes, and attested to Buel's prejudice on the grounds Armes cited. Bear with me; I have to lay down dust-sheets every time I open my awful copy of his book, it's disintegrating so badly. Will do that and get back to you with the precise quote.

[elisabeth]

OK ... Here's how he tells it. Heaven knows what he's being charged with on this particular occasion; he's too busy foaming at the mouth with indignation to tell us clearly. But ...

"As soon as it became known that General Schofield had ordered a court for my trial my friends began calling to inform me of it, among them Gen. George A. Custer, with whom I had served a portion of the time during the war of the rebellion, who looked upon such trumped-up charges as an outrage, and immediately took my part ... They informed me of the prejudice of the members of the court, going so far as to give in details the words used in their expressions concerning me."

Once the court is in session various shenanigans take place, with Armes challenging member after member -- Yates, Barnitz, etc. (Yates freely admits prejudice, and asks to withdraw.) Then he gets around to Buel. The Judge-Advocate (Merrill, as it happens) questions Buel as to his alleged prejudice; Buel, not yet on oath, denies it. Armes now demands that Buel be put on oath.

"Bvt. Lieutenant-Colonel Buel was then duly sworn by the Judge-Advocate and put on his 'voir dire'.

Ques. by Accused: Have you ever expressed any opinion as to the guilt or innocence of the accused in the matter now pending?

The accused then stated that he had been told by a party that Colonel Buel had stated that he would not believe the accused on oath, and would vote for his dismissal if on a court, but that he declined to state who told him so or to bring the person before the court, and desired to question Colonel Buel as to his having expressed any such opinion. The court refused to permit the question until the accused should show grounds for believing that the opinion had been expressed. (General Custer, who was one of the spectators in the courtroom, at once authorized me to call him before the court, as he saw I did not wish to give his name.) The accused then stated that Gen. G. A. Custer is the person whose testimony can show that Colonel Buel said he would not believe the accused on oath.

Ques. by J.-A. to Colonel Buel -- Have you ever stated that you would not believe the accused on oath, and would vote for his dismissal if on a court?

Ans. I have.

Ques. by Court. Notwithstanding the opinion you have formed of the credibility of the accused, can you fairly and impartially try him on the evidence and according to your oath?

Ans. I feel confident I can do so.

The accused then stated that he had the same opinion of Colonel Buel, and had so expressed himself outside before he came in.

I said that was also 'my opinion of Colonel Buel, under oath, and I want that to go on the record.'"

This, not surprisingly, nets Armes a contempt-of-court charge to add to his other offence(s).

I admit that from a first quick reading I'd gained the impression that Custer actually testified verbally, which it now appears he may not have. But Armes clearly believes his intervention was crucial: "my witness being present was a great surprise and enraged the rest of the court to such an extent that they could not hold their tempers and took advantage of their authority to arbitrarily sentence me to the guardhouse ...".

Obviously, we can look at this in two ways: Custer stirring it, or Custer loyally backing up a friend. But either way, we have Custer being distinctly unhelpful to Buel's reputation ... Of course I may be over-egging this, as Rebecca Richmond's diary shows the Custers and the Buels continuing to socialise after the date (March 12th 1870) of the court-martial. However, it's hard to imagine that this little spat did much to increase cordiality between them. And there's little sign of the Custer household being plunged into grief when Buel is murdered four months later. Libbie doesn't even mention the episode in any of her books, as far as I can recall, although it would make for quite an anecdote; and in Annie Gibson Roberts' diary (A Summer on the Plains, p. 83) the news is sandwiched in without comment between "went to see Badger, the pretty horse" and "Met Col. Merrill & Mr. Lippincott -- Genl. & Mrs. Custer drove me home & Capt. Hale also." Barely a raised eyebrow.

It would be good to know a great deal more about the Buels and their relations with the Custers; simply piecing things together from the few scraps available, one's in danger of making bricks without straw. But unless there are more letters/diaries lurking out there, that may be all one can do ...

[leavenworth]

Elizabeth;

I would love to know the referneces for the co-conspirators in the Buel assassination.  I am writing a little piece on the event and that is new information to me.