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Post by dave on Feb 12, 2015 16:57:12 GMT -6
Montrose Was Custer's ego in such a state of over-drive that he could have stayed in the army if there no native raids, cattle rustling, killings and war? Could he had endured such circumstances? Regards Dave
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Post by Beth on Feb 12, 2015 18:29:03 GMT -6
Just a random thought
Sometimes I think of Custer's stay in the army after the end of CW as a waste of the man's talent. Can you imagine him as an explorer or in some other field that would give him a long chain with a brief stated mission, like find King Solomon's Mines? It would make use of this boundless energy and what seems to have been a restless nature.
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Post by quincannon on Feb 12, 2015 23:14:29 GMT -6
Personally I prefer Allan Quartermain. Having Custer hunt for King Solomon's Mines would be like the Bowery Boys meet Frankenstein, and their would be no part for Deborah Kerr
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Post by Beth on Feb 13, 2015 0:34:03 GMT -6
Personally I prefer Allan Quartermain. Having Custer hunt for King Solomon's Mines would be like the Bowery Boys meet Frankenstein, and their would be no part for Deborah Kerr Good point. Maybe the South Pole then? But seriously couldn't you see or want to see Libbie Custer treking through the jungles of Africa or along the Amazon River with GAC, Tom, and a few others. I may not admire what she did in the name of protecting her husband's reputation or have wanted to be her friend but she was an extra ordinary woman who managed to avoid the rigid type of life that most of the women in her era lived. Beth
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Post by quincannon on Feb 13, 2015 10:09:28 GMT -6
I will not lie, cheat or steal, nor tolerate those that do.
Libbie stole the good name of two men.
Remarkable woman or not, she placed too great a burden on her soul.
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Post by Beth on Feb 13, 2015 18:21:16 GMT -6
I will not lie, cheat or steal, nor tolerate those that do. Libbie stole the good name of two men. Remarkable woman or not, she placed too great a burden on her soul. I whole heartedly agree, but since we are talking about an alternate world were she wan't a widow, she didn't commit those crimes against Reno and Benteen. She had so many remarkable things open to her compared to the other widows of LBH she could have done anything. She chose to focus her grief and anger into blaming someone else and remain the perpetual Widow, maybe she was imitating Queen Victoria's widowhood. Blaming others for what was lost is something grieving people still do. Libbie unfortunately was surrounded or surrounded herself with people who gave her a world stage.Libbie and her supporters all gained from her actions and unfortunately she didn't have the self awareness or someone close to her that had the awareness to put a limit on her actions. She became crusader for a GAC that didn't even exist and used methods that were unprincipled and underhanded. I can admire the woman Libby Bacon could have been but I realize that perhaps I am just as guilty at times as putting my own beliefs about who she could have been she was about GAC. Maybe the difference is that I know it's fantasy and try always to live with reality. I think Libbie lost reality and lived in fantasy.
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Post by quincannon on Feb 13, 2015 20:07:25 GMT -6
Life is a long series of choices Beth. When one of those choices is to deliberately destroy, you sow the seed of your own distraction. I could forgive what she did to Reno and Benteen out of malice. What I can't forget is she made money off of the process. Despicable.
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Post by Beth on Feb 13, 2015 21:55:55 GMT -6
Life is a long series of choices Beth. When one of those choices is to deliberately destroy, you sow the seed of your own distraction. I could forgive what she did to Reno and Benteen out of malice. What I can't forget is she made money off of the process. Despicable. Unfortunately the reality of her world was she had to either marry again, find a way to support herself or live off the Custers for the rest of her life. She had no money of her own. She could have supported herself just writing and talking about her and Custer or even moved onto writing fiction or something else. It was her spite that let to the distruction of Benteen and Reno, and to me spite is pretty nasty. Ironically the fact that she blocked finding out what truly happened at LBH to me is unforgivable, but I know that is my own prejudice. I think her moral compass was set to "me first" Beth
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Post by herosrest on Mar 21, 2015 8:03:24 GMT -6
It is truly harsh to blame Whittaker on Custer's wife. I believe that is a fair point and particularly because the man was trouble-maker incarnate in respect the upper class and its arrogance. For what has become an incredibly vast attraction for researchers during 140 years it is incredible to find Whittaker both broadly and pointedly designated simply a pulp fictionalist. He was very, very good with prose and a prodigious writer. He was independent and independently minded and not one to back off and I suspect a troubled and excitable soul. He pissed off many more than the players in LBH and was staunchly Unionist in mixed company.
It is important to grasp and comprehend what Whittaker did to Curley, with outright lies about the blanket escape from the battle and offer to spirit Custer to safety. Pure fiction with immense life consequences for the scout. God knows who else he did that to.
As Beth gives, Custer's wife faced some daunting life choices and stood by that which committed her to marriage. It is wrong to cast her as originater and particularly in respect her own obeying orders and instruction. It can be argued that she did this. Patterson Hughes provoked an awful lot of what transpired. The armchair general debates in press and magazines stoked the fires. She set her course and followed it in brave heart. I wonder what she made of Reno's divorce and further troubles.
The divorce was reported in the New York Times and roundly surprised me..........
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Post by herosrest on Mar 21, 2015 8:51:30 GMT -6
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Post by herosrest on Mar 21, 2015 9:14:42 GMT -6
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Post by herosrest on Mar 21, 2015 9:18:33 GMT -6
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Post by herosrest on Mar 21, 2015 9:46:10 GMT -6
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Post by herosrest on Mar 21, 2015 9:55:11 GMT -6
Yep. Custer was wasted as well - hic.... www.nytimes.com/2012/12/02/books/review/custer-by-larry-mcmurtry.html?_r=0 There are a handful of inconsistencies and somewhat lazy conclusions here. McMurtry says Custer was a teetotaler for most of his adult life, yet he has him “sampling two fine kegs of liquor” on the day of the battle. He says Custer “probably had no idea” that a subordinate, Maj. Marcus Reno, was being forced to retreat after ordered to make an initial attack across the river. Yet research from the time of the photographer Edward Curtis up to the present day suggests that Custer may even have watched Reno’s rout, with amusement. McMurtry’s best character is the formidable Libbie Custer, the widow and the keeper of the mythic flame, who outlived her husband by nearly six decades. She fought anyone who dared to write the truth of her beloved’s last day.
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Post by tubman13 on Mar 21, 2015 10:38:02 GMT -6
The LBH, had nothing to do with Reno's punishment and you know it. For newbies, uneducated, and those not having the time to read all or your links you are attempting to convict Reno unfairly. This is truly beneath you. Plus it has nothing whatsoever to do with CYA. Can't let you get away with it. You have spent half a page talking a lot saying nothing! A true waste of your time and ours. Prosecution like this is why O.J. got off the first time.
Regards, Tom
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