Transcript

10.2.26 · History Hour

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Speaker 1: Hello and welcome. This is Radio Eye's History Show and
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Speaker 1: I'm your host and reader for today, Joseph Bolt. Glad
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Speaker 1: to be with you for this time and before we
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Speaker 1: begin today's program, I just want to remind you that
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Speaker 1: Radio Eye is listener-driven. That means you. So we welcome
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Speaker 1: your comments, suggestions, and or anything you want to talk about,
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Speaker 1: so call us if you have any of those at
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Speaker 1: 859-422-6390 and let us know what you are thinking. Radio Eye,
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Speaker 1: as you know, is a reading service intended for people
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Speaker 1: who are blind or have other disabilities and make it
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Speaker 1: difficult to read printed material. I'll cite the sources for
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Speaker 1: today's program as we go along. And today, I thought
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Speaker 1: we would talk about a story that I'm sure you're
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Speaker 1: familiar with, but I might add some things to it
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Speaker 1: that you may not have heard before, and that is
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Speaker 1: the story of General George Custer. And so I'm going
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Speaker 1: to pull from the article history.com, what really happened at
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Speaker 1: the Battle of the Little Bighorn, and it was written
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Speaker 1: by Annette McDermott in May of 2025. So let's read
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Speaker 1: her article. In June of 1876, the U.S. Army dispatched
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Speaker 1: three columns of soldiers, including Custer and his 7th Cavalry,
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Speaker 1: to round up indigenous people and return them to their reservations.
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Speaker 1: The plan was for Custer's Cavalry and Brigadier General Alfred
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Speaker 1: Terry's infantry to rendezvous with troops under the command of
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Speaker 1: Colonel John Gibbon and Brigadier General George Crook. They then
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Speaker 1: find the Native Americans, surround them, and force their surrender.
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Speaker 1: Crook was delayed, but Terry, Custer, and Gibbon met up
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Speaker 1: in mid-June and after a scouting party found a trail
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Speaker 1: headed toward Little Bighorn Valley, they decided Custer should move in,
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Speaker 1: surround the tribes, and await reinforcements. Custer forged ahead, but
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Speaker 1: things didn't go as planned. Around midday on June 25,
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Speaker 1: his scouts located Sitting Bulls camp. Instead of waiting for reinforcements, however,
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Speaker 1: Custer planned a surprise attack for the next day. He
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Speaker 1: moved it up when he thought the Native American forces
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Speaker 1: had discovered his position. Custer divided his more than 600
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Speaker 1: men into four groups. He ordered Custer one small battalion
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Speaker 1: to stay with the supply train, and the other two,
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Speaker 1: led by Captain Frederick Benteen and Major Marcus Reno, to
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Speaker 1: attack from the south and prevent the tribesmen from escaping.
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Speaker 1: Custer would lead the final group, 210 men strong, and
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Speaker 1: plan to attack from the north. Well, Reno's group attacked first,
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Speaker 1: but swiftly embarked on a disorganized retreat after realizing they
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Speaker 1: were completely outnumbered. By the time they'd regrouped, at least
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Speaker 1: 30 troops were dead. Benteen's troops came to Reno's aid
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Speaker 1: and the combined battalions joined forces on what is now
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Speaker 1: known as Reno Hill. They remained there despite Custer's order. Quote,
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Speaker 1: Been team. Come on. Big village. Be quick. Bring packs. P.S.
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Speaker 1: Bring packs. End quote. The exact events of Custer's last
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Speaker 1: stand are unclear. What is known is that neither Benteen
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Speaker 1: or Reno helped Custer despite admitting later they'd heard heavy
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Speaker 1: gunfire coming from Custer's position. Custer and his men were
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Speaker 1: left to face scores of Native American warriors alone. Some
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Speaker 1: historians believe many of Custer's men panicked, dismounted from their horses,
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Speaker 1: and were shot dead as they fled. No one knows
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Speaker 1: when Custer realized he was in trouble, since no eyewitness
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Speaker 1: from his troops lived to tell the tale. The Sioux
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Speaker 1: and Cheyenne warriors, led by a crazy horse, attacked with Winchester, Henry,
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Speaker 1: and Spencer repeating rifles. as well as bows and arrows.
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Speaker 1: Most of Custer's men were armed with Springfield single-shot carbon
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Speaker 1: rifles and Colt. 45 revolvers. They were easily outgunned. Custer's
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Speaker 1: line and command structure quickly collapsed, and soon it was
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Speaker 1: every man for himself. In the end, Custer found himself
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Speaker 1: on the defensive with nowhere to hide, nowhere to run
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Speaker 1: and was killed along with every man in his battalion.
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Speaker 1: His body was found near Custer Hill, also known as
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Speaker 1: Last Stand Hill, alongside the bodies of 40 of his men,
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Speaker 1: including his brother and nephew and dozens of dead horses.
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Speaker 1: Custer had suffered two bullet wounds, one near his heart
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Speaker 1: and one in the head. It's unclear which wound killed him,
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Speaker 1: or if the head wound happened before or after he died.
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Speaker 1: In the heat of the battle, it's unlikely the warrior
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Speaker 1: who shot Custer knew he had just killed a U.S.
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Speaker 1: Army icon. Even so, once word spread that Custer was dead,
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Speaker 1: many Native Americans claimed to be his executioner. After the battle,
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Speaker 1: Native American warriors stripped, scalped, and dismembered their enemies' corpses
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Speaker 1: on the battlefield, possibly because they believed the souls of
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Speaker 1: disfigured bodies were doomed to walk the earth forever. The
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Speaker 1: Battle of Little Bighorn didn't end with the massacre of
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Speaker 1: Custer and his men. The Native Americans quickly regrouped and
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Speaker 1: pursued Reno's and Benteen's battalions. The troops fought until General
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Speaker 1: Terry's reinforcements finally arrived. Now it was the Native Americans
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Speaker 1: who were outnumbered, so they packed up camp and fled,
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Speaker 1: bringing the largest defeat of the U.S. Army during the
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Speaker 1: Plains Indian Wars to an end. The Sioux and Cheyenne
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Speaker 1: reveled in their victory for a time, but their celebration
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Speaker 1: was short-lived. as was their freedom. When word of Custer's
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Speaker 1: death reached Americans celebrating their nation's centennial on July 4th,
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Speaker 1: they demanded retribution. The U.S. Army intensified its efforts to
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Speaker 1: hunt down all resisting Native Americans and either wipe them
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Speaker 1: out or force them back onto the reservations. Within a year,
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Speaker 1: most had been rounded up or killed. In May of 1877,
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Speaker 1: Crazy Horse surrendered at Fort Robinson, Nebraska, where he was
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Speaker 1: later bayoneted and killed after an altercation with an Army officer.
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Speaker 1: After fleeing to Canada, Sitting Bull eventually surrendered in 1881
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Speaker 1: and lived on Standing Rock Reservation until he was killed
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Speaker 1: by Native American agent policemen during a conflict at his house.
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Speaker 1: in 1890. The Battle of Little Bighorn, aka Custer's Last Stand,
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Speaker 1: is steeped in controversy. To this day, many people question
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Speaker 1: his actions that fateful day. He's often accused of arrogance
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Speaker 1: for not following the original battle plan and leading his
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Speaker 1: men to certain death. Yet, it's possible Custer believed reinforcements
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Speaker 1: were on the way, and wanted to strike before the
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Speaker 1: Sioux and Cheyenne dispersed. It's unlikely he expected such a
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Speaker 1: well-armed attack. It's also argued that Reno and Benteen were
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Speaker 1: simply cowards who ignored Custer's orders when the fighting unexpectedly
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Speaker 1: got tough, leaving Custer and his men to fight a
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Speaker 1: losing battle. Well, in their defense, though, they may have
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Speaker 1: believed that following Custer's orders was a suicide mission. After
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Speaker 1: the Battle of Little Bighorn, Captain Frederick Benteen stayed on
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Speaker 1: duty on the northern plains, participating in the Nez Perce
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Speaker 1: and other campaigns. As a member of the 9th Cavalry,
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Speaker 1: In December of 1882, Benteen was promoted to major. His
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Speaker 1: career had further ups and downs. The latter was illustrated
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Speaker 1: by his being convicted of drunk and disorderly conduct in 1887.
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Speaker 1: He would have been dismissed from the Army if not
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Speaker 1: for President Grover Cleveland, who ordered a one-year suspension. During
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Speaker 1: his suspension, Major Benteen retired. He and his wife, Kate,
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Speaker 1: had five children, four of whom died in infancy. When
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Speaker 1: Benteen died in Atlanta in June of 1888, his only
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Speaker 1: surviving child was Frederick Jr. He had by then joined
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Speaker 1: the Army and would retire as a Lieutenant Colonel Major,
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Speaker 1: or rather a Lieutenant Colonel. Major Benteen was buried at Arlington.
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Speaker 1: As for Marcus Reno, the rest of his career was
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Speaker 1: a shambles. In December of 1876, while commanding Fort Abercrombie
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Speaker 1: in Dakota Territory, he was charged with making unwanted advances
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Speaker 1: toward the wife of another officer of the 7th Cavalry,
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Speaker 1: Captain James Bell, while Bell was away. After a general court-martial,
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Speaker 1: Reno was found guilty on six of the seven charges
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Speaker 1: and ordered dismissed from the Army. He, too, benefited from
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Speaker 1: presidential intervention when Rutherford Hayes ordered a two-year suspension instead.
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Speaker 1: Responding to charges of cowardice and drunkenness at the Little Bighorn,
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Speaker 1: Reno demanded and was granted a court of inquiry. The
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Speaker 1: court convened in Chicago on January of 1879 and called
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Speaker 1: as witnesses most of the surviving officers who had been
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Speaker 1: in the fight. After 26 days of testimony, Judge Advocate
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Speaker 1: General Dunn concluded, I concur with the court and its
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Speaker 1: exoneration of Major Reno from the charges of cowardice which
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Speaker 1: have been brought against him. He went on to say,
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Speaker 1: The suspicion or accusation that General Custer owed his death
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Speaker 1: and the destruction of his command to the failure of
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Speaker 1: Major Reno through incompetency or cowardice to go to his
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Speaker 1: relief is considered as set to rest. End quote. Back
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Speaker 1: on duty in 1879. As commanding officer at Fort Meade
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Speaker 1: in the Dakota Territory, Reno again faced a court-martial, charged
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Speaker 1: with unbecoming an officer, including a physical assault on a
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Speaker 1: subordinate officer. He was convicted and dismissed from the service.
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Speaker 1: The disgraced Major took an apartment in Washington, D.C., where
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Speaker 1: he doggedly pursued restoration of his military rank while working
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Speaker 1: as an examiner in the Bureau of Pensions. Well, the
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Speaker 1: apple did not fall far from the Reno tree. Reno
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Speaker 1: married in October of 1882, and immediately there was friction
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Speaker 1: between the new Mrs. Reno and her 18-year-old stepson, Robert.
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Speaker 1: On Christmas night of 1883, Robert Reno, without invitation, entered
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Speaker 1: the room of actress Carrie Swain through a window. Swain
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Speaker 1: refused to press charges, and the management insisted the interloper leave.
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Speaker 1: Reno sent his son to live with an uncle in Pittsburgh.
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Speaker 1: But still, the marriage failed. So did several business ventures,
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Speaker 1: and as a result, Reno became a traveling salesman. In
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Speaker 1: March of 1889, he was diagnosed with cancer of the tongue.
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Speaker 1: He was admitted to to Providence Hospital in Washington and
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Speaker 1: underwent surgery. When hospitalized, he developed pneumonia and died at
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Speaker 1: the age of 54 on March 30, 1889, almost 13
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Speaker 1: years after the Battle of Little Bighorn. No preparations had
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Speaker 1: been made for his burial, so it was arranged that
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Speaker 1: he be temporarily interred at Washington's Glenwood Cemetery, until he
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Speaker 1: could be reinterred with his first wife at the Ross
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Speaker 1: family plot in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. No room could be found
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Speaker 1: there for his remains, so it seemed that his temporary
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Speaker 1: unmarked grave in Washington would be his final resting place.
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Speaker 1: Fast forward to 1967, when at the request of Charles Reno,
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Speaker 1: a great-nephew, a military review board reopened Reno's 1880s court-martial.
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Speaker 1: It reversed the decision, ruling Reno's dismissal from the service
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Speaker 1: was improper and awarded him an honorable discharge. That September,
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Speaker 1: Reno's remains were reinterred with honors in the Custer National
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Speaker 1: Cemetery on the Little Bighorn Battlefield. The dead at the
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Speaker 1: Battle of Little Big Horn were given a quick burial
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Speaker 1: where they fell, buried by the first soldiers who arrived
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Speaker 1: at the scene. Custer was later disinterred from the battlefield
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Speaker 1: and reburied at West Point. Other troops were also disinterred
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Speaker 1: for private burials. In 1881, a memorial was erected in
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Speaker 1: honor of those who lost their lives. A trench was
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Speaker 1: dug below the memorial to reinter the remaining battlefield remains,
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Speaker 1: and a marker was erected where each soldier had fallen
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Speaker 1: in battle. While Custer never had the chance to defend
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Speaker 1: his actions at the Battle of Little Bighorn, he needn't
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Speaker 1: have worried about his legacy because his widow Libby had
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Speaker 1: it safely in hand. She wanted her husband to go
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Speaker 1: down in honor and boldly promoted him as a brave hero,
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Speaker 1: cut down in the prime of his life while defending
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Speaker 1: his country. It seems Libby Custer's efforts paid off. No
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Speaker 1: matter how it's interpreted over 140 years later, the Battle
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Speaker 1: of Little Bighorn is still one of the most recognized
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Speaker 1: events in U.S. history. The following read comes from the
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Speaker 1: source HistoryNet.com, an article entitled Libby Custer, A Wounded Thing
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Speaker 1: Must Hide, written by Paul Andrew Hutton in August of 2017,
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Speaker 1: and from the book entitled Vengeance by Tom Clavin, written
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Speaker 1: in 2026. and published by St. Martin's Press, an imprint
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Speaker 1: of St. Martin's Publishing Group. So let's read. The only
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Speaker 1: documented and verified survivor of Custer's immediate command was Captain
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Speaker 1: Miles Keogh's horse by the name of Camatchi. The wounded
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Speaker 1: animal was discovered on the battlefield by General Terry's troops.
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Speaker 1: Although other cavalry mounts had survived the battle, they had
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Speaker 1: been taken or killed by the Indians. For whatever reason,
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Speaker 1: Comanche was spared. After being transported to Fort Abraham Lincoln,
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Speaker 1: Comanche was slowly nourished back to health. After a lengthy convalescence,
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Speaker 1: Comanche was retired. In April of 1878, Colonel Samuel Sturgis,
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Speaker 1: still in command, of the 7th Cavalry, issued the following order, quote,
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Speaker 1: The horse known as Comache being the only living representative
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Speaker 1: of the bloody tragedy of the Little Bighorn, June 25, 25, 1876.
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Speaker 1: His kind of treatment and comfort shall be a matter
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Speaker 1: of special pride and solicitude on the part of every
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Speaker 1: member of the 7th Cavalry to the end that his
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Speaker 1: life be preserved to the utmost limit. End quote. In
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Speaker 1: June of 1879, Camachi was brought to Fort Meade, where
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Speaker 1: he was well cared for until 1887, when he was
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Speaker 1: taken to Fort Riley. As an honor, he was made
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Speaker 1: second commanding officer of the 7th Cavalry. He became something
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Speaker 1: of a pet to the fort's residents, occasionally leading parades
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Speaker 1: and indulging in a fondness for beer. When Comanche died
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Speaker 1: of colic on November 7, 1891, believed to be 29
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Speaker 1: years old, Colonel Sturgis' order that he be, quote, preserved
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Speaker 1: to the utmost limit was taken quite literally. He is
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Speaker 1: one of only four horses in U.S. history to be
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Speaker 1: given a funeral with full military honors. However, His remains
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Speaker 1: were not buried, but were sent to the University of
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Speaker 1: Kansas and preserved through taxidermy. Camachi can still be seen
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Speaker 1: today in the university's Natural History Museum. When it finally
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Speaker 1: came time for the funeral of General George Custer, There
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Speaker 1: was a grand procession through the streets of Poughkeepsie, New York,
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Speaker 1: a town a train called the Atlantic Express had brought
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Speaker 1: the remains of Custer. The procession moved from the cemetery
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Speaker 1: to the steamboat called the Mary Powell that had been
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Speaker 1: waiting at the riverfront. The boat sailed down the river
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Speaker 1: to West Point, where what was left of George Armstrong
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Speaker 1: Custer was laid to rest. Libby Custer soon afterwards found
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Speaker 1: herself deeply in debt, thanks to the Custer lifestyle when
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Speaker 1: not in the field and the Army's meager remuneration. Libby
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Speaker 1: received federal widow's pension of $ 30 a month, but that
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Speaker 1: was hardly enough to be comfortable. In addition, her husband
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Speaker 1: had recently taken out a $ 5, 000 policy with the New
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Speaker 1: York Life Insurance Company. That, along with her memories, was
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Speaker 1: all she had. Thanks to the sympathy of the American public,
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Speaker 1: she achieved her economic security as an author and lecturer.
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Speaker 1: In best-selling books, Libby built the bigger-than-life legend of Custer
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Speaker 1: as the greatest Indian fighter ever, and always referred to
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Speaker 1: him as General George Custer. Libby never remarried, and despite
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Speaker 1: spending much of her travel, or rather her life traveling
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Speaker 1: extensively throughout the United States and the world, she never
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Speaker 1: visited the Little Bighorn battlefield. Libby was said to treasure
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Speaker 1: a letter from President Theodore Roosevelt. who stated that her
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Speaker 1: husband was, quote, one of his heroes and a shining
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Speaker 1: light to all the youth of America, end quote. As
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Speaker 1: a result of her literary career and lecture tours, Libby
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Speaker 1: amassed an estate of over $ 100, 000, worth about $ 2. 45 million today.
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Speaker 1: Libby Custer died of a heart attack in New York
24:35
Speaker 1: City on April 4, 1933, four days before her 91st birthday.
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Speaker 1: She was buried next to her husband at West Point.
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Speaker 1: A few years before her death, Libby told a writer
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Speaker 1: that her biggest disappointment was that she never had a
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Speaker 1: son to bear her husband's honored name. Well, that about
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Speaker 1: does it for this chapter of Radio Eye History. I
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Speaker 1: sure hope you enjoyed today's program as much as I
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Speaker 1: did researching it and reading it to you. Thank you
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Speaker 1: so much for giving me your time today. I'm your host,
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Speaker 1: Joseph Bolt, and I'll be back next time with another
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Speaker 1: chapter of Radio Eye History. Until then, happy trails to you.