I would like to thank all of the library team and its great meeting some of you in the audience. Its great to be back home in ohio. It is good to shake off inside the beltway every now and then. They all have ohio roots one way or another either born and raised here. As a friend from mississippi said, you have a lot of bloody bastards from your state. [laughter] i guess it depends on what side you are on. One question that i get about my book is why is that the title, what makes your book the real book and the answer to that question is to say that is what the publisher wanted. Okay so thats the title. But i think it is better to view and not as the conclusion like this is the real custard is more like a question. Little big horn its like thats the mistakes that he made on that day. But that isnt the case. She had a whole life and character so the book really is about trying to get to the root of the question. If we could strip away all of the things that have been written since then and just talk about the man himself, so thats what it is really supposed to be about. The famous anheuserbusch advertisement that they commissioned and became most peoples view of what happened on that day. For example, one of the most talked about in American History and probably the most written about battle and gettysburg of course where he also fought and played a key role. He has been lionized, demonized and hes been heralded committee has been mobbed him hes been mentioned in books, articles. This is a 1926 movie. He is more famous today and mentioned them he was at the height of his fame. Hes more he is more mentioned in books than he ever was in history. You can look at the statistics and it just keeps going up plus it is just immensely famous. And a part of what we are going to talk about is what he is famous for. Here he is being portrayed by Ronald Reagan in the historically challenged film the santa fe trail where he does a bunch of stuff that he never ever did. [laughter] but its a movie. What do you want. And john brown is featured in this movie and we talk about the collection of the john brown materials. [inaudible] this is the image most associated with him. They spoke the seriousness and also the boyishness into the prankster and things like that so it really captures that he and becomes the symbol. But then he became kind of a tragic hero and everything was great about him and when you bring someone up to that level of being a superhero, it is pretty easy to then transfer them into being the super villain. So after the 1960s and 70s when that took hold of the culture rather than the heroic custer, we had the custer from Little Big Man or we have had as a kind of psycho. A selfimportant, chaotic random kind of guy that made decisions and wasnt even aware of all of this. So, i mean he became the real one to many people. She had no military ability whatsoever. He was an indian hater, genocidal maniac and things like this. So, that really became a dominant image of custer in the last 30 years or so. Now we have representation like this from the night at the museum of a few seen this movie of general custer and bill playing custer in which he laments i will always be famous for my biggest failure. But in the way for people that like and this is progress because in this of this movie hes actually one of the good guys. And hes this kind of lovable loser but at least hes one of the good guys in this movie. Along the way weve had him comment, weve had custer the action figure. We have had the playset and in the marble books and songs and movies come every medium possible talking about the general. So, whether he approves of that i dont know but he is not amused. So, thats why him, why George Custer, why is he more famous today than ever in his life, he isnt famous for nothing. You can do that these days. These days you can be famous for nothing. There are lots of people that are famous for nothing or the corollary to that is saying it is full of famous people that you have never heard of. But that he had long hair or she wore a tie he was famous for reasons we will talk about some of those. So, lets take him back a few years. There he is. George custer at west point, John Montgomery when he was in his third year described him as an indexer and soldier of a poor student, a reckless cadet always in trouble playing pranks that liked by everyone. That was at west point. He said his career was an example to be carefully avoided. He would go to the class, he was the last in his class and the title of my other book thats out there. What does that mean, does it mean that he was a dummy or that he couldnt hack it . No because there are two types of people that come in. One type to get to west point and its hard they are in over their head, they struggle and they do but they can and they squeak in right at the bottom and that is one type. The other type gets to west point and says i can handle this. I graduate from this. I dont care about the grade or the class rank. So im just going to have a good time to the extent that i can end of the last and at the last minute i will just cram antisqueak through. He was from that type. There had been many like him. George, another example, speaking of people famous for blowing it. So, jeanne was to spend his time going to the tavern nearby, going in the middle of the night to enjoy and have some of their escapades. He would try to get to get there with visiting the piedmont or whoever might be around because at the time west point particularly was a Tourist Destination so naturally they were investigating who might be checked in and custer was definitely among the group. Playing pranks and doing other things and generally getting in trouble this is what he did. He had a talent for that but i think what is more important for understanding customer he had a talent for getting out of trouble. A lot of guys got in trouble and got expelled. But George Custer for whatever reason and his charisma or if he was lucky he would get out of the trouble that he got into and another thing is he never questioned the institution or its purpose. When they caught him, fine. You caught me. I will take my punishment. If you break the rules you have to take your punishment. Since he began racking up a lot of the delay in quincy to the actual first page to the merits that he earned. As he said they were not extraordinary that they were in the number. [laughter] said he was able to somehow walk a fine line between having just enough so he could still graduate and this is right up to the end of his career when he was courtmartialed the day before graduation. So right up to the end. But the thing about the people in the bottom of the class generally and also in particular you get a different type of officer at the bottom of the class. At the top of the class you know, you are mcclellan, robert e. Lee. They are very methodical thinkers. They know all of the theories and apply them and so forth. Those at the bottom tend to be more free spirit, they tend to be more outside the box, a little bit more unorthodox because thats the kind of career that they were pursuing and that certainly was true of custer. Another insight we get is his bravery because when they caught him, they called him and he would admit it and the cadet said that his bravery in the battle didnt surprise anyone that has seen him walking up with calm deliberation to the head of the section to face the instructors with a confession that he knew nothing. So he would just walk up and take it. He could have done better at the academy if you follow the rules. He had gone to the academy in michigan and performed very well when he was younger. He was actually a School Teacher before he went to west point. According to his brother he was reading books all the time. Not that you could tell from the Library Records but nonetheless, he read a lot of books. So he just wouldnt have been custer if he spent all his time studying instead of playing pranks and then getting courtmartialed and delayed joining his fellows at the war. So the civil war came and this was the thing that made him in my opinion. The band of brothers, the court of cadets between the northerners and the southerners. A lot of them are his friends and had to go fight him. They still remain prints but thats the way that it was. The war became the perfect arena for him to display his talent. He brushed from west point to the battlefield probably faster than any graduate of the military Academy Academy in history. Within four days he was the late because his class went on but he was busy being courtmartialed. This was in the summer of 1861 when things were getting a little bit hot. Within four days he went from west point to new york to washington. He got an assignment and he ran up to northern virginia. Got there in time to run with the rest from both on and then back to arlington in four days. And with terrible sleep. He realized quickly that what he would like to do is be an aid to the higher commanders. The Brigadier General was the first person who plucked him from the regular command and was taken as an aid. Custer realized that in doing this, he had a lot of freedom of action which was important to him to be able to do things and to make things happen rather than just being with his unit all the time, he would be like the eyes and ears of his commander and he would also be at the headquarters when things were going to have volunteered to get involved in them or in some cases he would just go out and get involved in stuff just because he knew that he could and no one would object. Not because he was on a gender roles a general staff comes in if you showed up with stress to say he was there because the generals had him there and sometimes that was true. Under the observation of the enemy. And that was highly dangerous. Not only that he went across the river where they see guns and prisoners to cause trouble to show that it could have been done. But this brought him to the attention of mclellan who then took him to make him his eight. But the problem with that is if you equate yourself to the high ranking general you better hope you are successful because if he declines you will go with him in that is what happened. George mcclellan was not fighting the war the way lincoln wanted so pylos his command so custer lost his influence. But along the way he was having interesting adventures. So then he became the a the aid which was very lucky for him although he did not know what at the time. To be generally heroic to think that is what we want. In the a deity read organize the Calgary Court. But luckily for custer with the gettysburg campaign. Around that time we invade general hooker and then the first guy he meets with and says what do we need to do to stop general the . He said we need to reorganize the Calgary Court so we can go after jeb stuart and fight these guys. So they already had custer in mind. So those who were in their twenties there was custer and farnsworth than merit. So that is how he got to be the general because of the various circumstances. But they wanted these guys to leave to the calgary brigade to fight one on one. But what they needed were people who could charge into battle to get it done. They had seen custer do this at various points of those were his guys. So that 23 the youngest general officer in the history of u. S. Army at that time and later superseded by petty packer who was 20 years old as a colonel when he led the assault on fisher when shot to pieces. And on his deathbed to honor him he was promoted to Brigadier General. Then he lived. [laughter] so to bump them up to Major General. [laughter] in addition he earned it but it was the circumstances that led to it that frequently joining in its tin battles. So now he had a whole brigade. But on the right flank and general craig who was is commander and doing things that this and of the battlefield and there was custer. Because something bad will happen. But custer said no problem. So sure enough his instincts were right because here comes the confederate calvary trying to get around to the right flank going on in the center of the battlefield. So that is where he reached a National Fame with his consecutive charges that gettysburg like, my new wolverines to spend each regiment with the idea with what the confederates were doing and as it turned out, it worked. And the union side left my field. He left because they beat you so it was not quite accurate. But he convinced the men the he was leading who wondered why the 23 yearold kid was a general and he has a right to be in command. So bearing the eccentric uniform with their red tie and though bluecollar but it doesnt matter. So that cemented custer. And he started to make friends with reporters. Because they knew they would get a good story. Sova to follow the guy who could fight. Again led sherman had run court martial. With Civil Military reaction relations they had a Good Relationship that was the head of the court and it seemed like every time something went wrong in their division but something went right custer got the credit. And ultimately tried to sideline custer and sent on a Suicide Mission and not really caring but as it turned out the main forces that he was involved in turned into a tragedy. From the secretary of navy. So that was of big fiasco. But custer did a brilliant maneuver and captured prisoners and came swooping about back so he got to meet with the president so it is beautiful for him. And around the same time we have another reorganization where grain is comes in from the west with an unfortunate casualty of the raid that he closed and now sheridan will be the head of the calgary and they hit it off well. Koesterer became his righthand man and a fight the war the wanted to fight. They were fighting the kind of for that linkedin wanted aggressive land offensive to get it done. In the sense it gave him the opportunity to fight in battles. Not that he won every time he always got out of his grapes of but never report i could find of custer stood if you look at little big horn and reports of his death nobody believed it because theres so many reports of him being dead. Even his wife in washington at the time she heard the news foyers pullover windows hearing he was killed and had to deal with that before it was proven that he was alive. So he is the instrument of this war that will destroy the confederacy that the moment fights the enemy at gettysburg of. Here is a sketch of custer and his men scourings the Shenandoah Valley when grant decided the way to do with the confederacy is to destroy the breadbasket so they burned all the forms they could find him in the lower part of the valley where he was elevated to a Division Commander and shortly after a one another one 2. 0 is Thomas Brooks and and here is a sketch from that battle for where he faced off with the west point classmate serge who is a confederate cavalry and they fought each other throughout the war but this battle before the sides were lined up on a creek and on a hill and custer was laid upon the other side and if you go there it is pretty imposing. Before they mounted the attack custer rode out. He could see up on the hill hear we are. Just like the knights of old tuesday d. C. Can . Him do you see this . But that is him being a showoff. That is one way to look at it but meanwhile custer sent three regiments on the flanking maneuver and custer was making sure all eyes were on him while the strike force went around to put them in the flank. This the other side get ready to hit there were hits in the flank and panicked and broke and ran. This is just part of the genius and how he understood battle. That there is a psychology but there is the instinct would get all the battles to have the intuitive sense where to hit the enemy where does it look like theyre too strong . For more battles he fought the better he got. Since he is famous because he got it done as a natural born warrior. He knew how to do it. So looking at april 1865 with a line around petersburg was broken custer played a big part of that thing you have a pursuit where lees army was trying desperately with johnsons army that was driven by sherman and the union forces tried to keep leigh from doing this and it was custer was out in front with the confederates tried to block the roads and bridges and railroads. And directed isnt the fighting for the days on end taking a prisoner at a time and whoever captured it would be a personal bodyguard. So customer would be riding along it is almost medieval. And it is demoralizing as head to see this. In here is custer excepting the flag of truce so that we could meet at the house to negotiate the terms of surrender. So where is he this great historic meeting through west point of north and south to end the national cataclysms . He is joking around with the confederate west point buddy he had not seen in a long time. Rather than be at the historic breeding that is just George Custer. And libby was disappointed it was just a dishtowel. [laughter] but armies of dont carry around a surrender flags and that is probably a bad idea. So there he is. As saying Major General he spent his entire career and spent four years fighting the greatest war of the 19th century with the biggest armies ever in the history of mankind to play a significant role in critical battle that shaped the history of that war. Here he is. Now what . Where do you go after that . He is only 25 when the photo was taken. What do you do . He had options. He could have gone into lowes politics one became the governors of michigan he could have been easy and it was there for the taking. He could have bnai a senator and written his own report no doubt. He was thinking i could have been an ambassador. There was the idea he would fight with the mexican rebels thought that was set up by the french and he was going to go but the secretary of state got in the way back he was ready to go. So he could have went into business but instead he stayed in the army. This is when things start to go wrong. There was still some resistance within the expectations there is more resistance than the government was keeping regiments day in uniform volunteer regiments for those who thought the war was over. So there was a lot of desertions though to be fair this was not good they were hanging people. Du know the expression branded a deserter . Clearly they would brand you. So there were punishments but you cannot do this at peacetime and technically the war was still going on the lowes people thought it was over so this got him very bad press he went from the golden hero to the hero of the al dash especially iowa where men were whipped the Legislature Passed a condemnation of custer purcells. That was bad in the drawdown affected him because once the war was over we did not the generals so he referred to the army rank of captain for that is fine but he did this stuff can he get Something Better . Okay he is lieutenantcolonel to macon Deputy Commander. Custer didnt think that was great was the Division Commander. Everybody told him you helped us to win the war. You will be a Deputy Commander. He would take it but was not happy but to improve his station he was linked in with president johnson who succeeded lincoln. And got involved with politics to promote the idea the new centrist coalition. Nobody knew politically everybody knew before the war the northern democrats and the southern democrats the Republican Party was abolitionist the southern democrats were forced labor. How will that sort out . So the northern democrats and ex rebels this affected people from the Republican Party to form a centrist saying and custer got involved. Bad news because the republicans took over it did not matter any more they won the war. And all the relationships made during the war became political after the war. To the great benefit of ohio if you look get all the ohio president s that followed the civil war and all veterans with the same units it was of big miscalculation on custers part but ever since he was on mcclellans staff he had the reputation to be the mclellan and and the democrats because he had to put distance between those ideas. And he was a democrat all his life so as the draw down and the stuff in texas, louisiana, of bad politics was not good for custer. Then he had another problem. Frontier duty. He was not a frontier warrior. He was a conventional warfare. With a force on force battle. Facing the same problems in vietnam and afghanistan and iraq. Lot about counterinsurgency . That is the warfare we fought against said indians for cannot the confederacy. They would stand up and fight that the indians would run away and ambush newsletter in later when you were strung out. It was totally different. [laughter] that well adapted to to their environment. Custer had a taste during the war it did not work than either it did not work out well. The general john gibbons said shot by an indian from behind a rock to have your name spelled wrong in the newspaper is a different kind of war he fosse were battles in the next 10 years in the last year of the civil war and there were mostly small battles with the scale of combat and little big horn was the big one if you look at the casualties of a couple hundred compare that. Nothing. A very small engagement by civil war standards but that is what custer was used to. So this added up to talk to the indian chief who was causing difficulties that during the 1867 campaign against the shot and. And here he is later wondering why he was courtmartialed at the end of the campaign has people say he was a scapegoat because general hancock had done a bad job and needed someone to blame it on. On the other hand, custer did abandon some guys in the field and had some deserters shot and other things that got him courtmartialed. You be the judge and read the record. Custer thought he was framed and he was a scapegoat in sheridan agreed but it did not matter but he was suspended for i year just two years after the civil war now he is suspended from duty and passed to take one year off. A bad time. He did not let it show he spent time hunting and fishing but it was not good. Then he was who resurrected because he could not find the enemy. If you can find a the guerrillas but the problem is finding them but someone came up with the idea how about Winter Operations . Is that harder for the army but it is even harder for the indians. In bed together month of his sentence then we get the famous battle of the of massacre and he led the operation to previously figured tragically and he keeps getting into these things not after this because he was killed but from the armys point of view this particular attack validated the concept into their critics it was the attack on a peaceful village than the calgary came to slaughter everybody. The number People Killed is disputed so lot of the disputes about this. But there is an argument and what brought custer back. So after this he reinvents himself. Here is a picture taken. And if he becomes a great buffalo hunter here is an illustration where he managed to kill his own horse. [laughter] i hear people criticize and he did not know what he was doing like he is not a good horseman . Are you kidding me . He made a mistake deal the recent, there is his horse lying there. The only reason we know about it is he tried to gun it down with a pistol so he was arrogant. That is pretty big if you are arrogant to hold yourself up to that mockery that was characteristic to it mitt his foibles and could laugh at himself which is not something you usually hear about him but i think it is true. And his wife by his side in bed when he finally relented he became a general that is a good way to look at it. And outwards a they were together whenever possible there is a terrific story regarding their marriages and romance but when the confederacy collapsed she was on a congressional tour that went down after and went into richmond before he did. He met her there and was staying in jefferson daviss bedroom at the time and that is our they were reunited. Can you imagine that life in their 20s . It is tremendous circumstances. But custer being a ladies man that is not a libby by the way he is kissing and the love the expression of the matron behind them that was shocked. This is a reception that a rat that the lady started to kiss the generals is comical but it made the papers so custer was having various relations and someone says there is a list in the secret papers of libya of all the women that custer saw on the side. But a lot of what we know that george wrote to the the would talk about to be given a york on a business trip. A blonde walks by the hotel to catch my attention so i talked to her and i thought why would you write this to your wife . Or the Indian Princess that they captured in supposedly e very beautiful he wrote to the be all of you all about her he got out to where he was quickly she got to him. Why would he do this . May be was popular or she should give more attention and i dont know. Than the one that they hear the most was a genocidal indian heder to kill indians that the drop of at. And this is not true. Is more nuanced. A man of his time no doubt but he thought there was Nothing Better he lived near the indians and he dealt with them there is Nothing Better than living sidebyside with them in peace to witness their culture and see their customs and thought it was fascinating. Hero positive and negative things and the reservation system having killed their spirit that the spirit of the indian is to be free then theyll lose their culture and by the way george does not drink or smoke because theyre ruined them. That the indians are much better when they were living their own lives in here is indian scouts one said he had the heart of an indian if he were one of them he would not be someone on the reservation he would be a dissenter like crazy horse these are the people that we acquired. That does not sound like an indian killer to me but they tried to reach an understanding but it is the things he saw in himself that is my take on custer and the indians he fought them and kill them. Why . He is a soldier and to their enemies and he went after the enemy to burn indian villages. Also the Shenandoah Valley. To do a body count adepts the deaths he was responsible for directly or indirectly. He killed a lot more confederates than he ever did so it is a superficial argument. That was his job in general sherman tells him to do something. That is true it would be much better but have the enemy and the orders to go fight them so that is what you did. So with respect to this issue keep it in perspective that bad things happen and no doubt. The custer was not a crazy genocidal keller killer. He spent time on the frontier and it in kentucky not like there were fighting all the time sometimes the cavalry was not even involved. He went on the yellowstone expedition to charter a route for the railroad he fought some of sitting bull a couple of battles and you have various lessons those that informed him when he was fighting at little big horn. But he did understand other things that they were better armed because the calgary was facing budget cutbacks from what the indians were buying on the black market. During yellowstone expedition that was started the chain of events is the 1874 black hills expedition in which custer led to discover gold and if it was enough to start a gold rush over custer was the cheerleader or the railroads but the fact is a gold rush happened. Because of that the black hills was supposed to be offlimits part of the sacred grounds. But you cannot keep out people who are pursuing gold during a gold rush during the economic downturn that was happening at the time. So the adm there would buy the black hills but they read interested. Some that this is the point where trees are worth less you break your word with us and try to guess to become press it with sacred ground we go out to the hinterland and you have to deal with it. That chain of events started to roll with which leads to a the battle of little big horn that gave to the others off the reservation if you dont get back we will send out the army and they did. But before we get to there you have to have the washington inkle everything is really about washington. But custer had a resentment it is now 10 years after is still a Deputy Commander and it went to older guys going through the career custer said i want to be the commandant. With that said second ranking guy at west point forget it. But then the election of 1784. Finally people he can work with so custer gets involved in 1876 with hearings on corruption and in particular testifying so you have a colonel of the hill giving testimony to the secretary of war and had to resign that was impeached that is how mad they were. He was not convicted but then implicating others you can guess the president was thrilled. In he was of a loose cannon social and at that point with the chief of staff tries to help custer out but then work something out with grant. I am taking off the expedition set you are off. Find. This was not so good so custer tries to get meetings with grant to plead his case and sherman says sit tight. The just decided to go back to his command. Wrong move. So is chicago he is arrested. So finally through the intervention that is literally pleating on his knees for clemency is allowed to go on the sioux expedition with to stipulations. Number one he is not in command just of his regiment and no reporters end of course, he blew those of the heated his own thing and of course, he you brought reporters that is what he does. That is the political background but if he had something to prove he didnt know it would end up there so we can talk a lot about this battle may be the most written about in history. This became the defining moment. And because of custer it would just have then a battle against people who have no business winning battles it just seemed inconceivable. How many had you been out to the of battlefield . They have markers were all the bodies fell. What other battle do know is that frozen in time they could mark all of the men on one side . It is incredible. It is amazing of even the native americans. And to hold that section custard made mistakes with intelligence preparation of the battlefield that he did not find enough ahead of time he should have done more scouting but he tried to do take them by surprise so he didnt and a port estimate of loral and thought maybe they would run. But inferior weapons that is not his fault but should have been aware against his own firepower. And most importantly to divide the forces and not properly coordinating and lost track and wound up isolated at last stand hill. That was his biggest mistake to go so far down the ridge either some of his men but they kept going further to be cut off. That is what killed him. When he could not regroup his men when they cannot show that Proper Initiative and did not like custer anyway in they showed a little more initiative but not enough bin custers part of the command but heres the final word to say to come on quick it is hard to read but it was the big village. It was too big. In the tragedy but sitting bulls account he was the last man standing of his command and he fired the final shot and then he laughed. The person who was interviewing city noble said he cried out . No. He laughed. Then when they found his body it had a smile on his face. So custer made his own death. In to go out in a break a blaze of glory in that cemented him in favor forever. So here is a statue of them directed at west point that later disappeared said youre ever at an art sale. [laughter] everyone is looking for it. It was currently over his grave but the actual statue liddy did not like it so after years of pestering people she prevailed on west point to take it down and there is a whole story but it is missing and no one knows where it is. It would be hard to hide but it is somewhere. So the unblemished hero all these things that are said and was none of those types of extremes. He was a selfmade man and did all these Amazing Things and to come through that ability and was the brave man as a lieutenant our captain or a general he would just move he would never ask is meant to do something he would not do. A natural born warrior and he was a colorful eccentric which is what made him memorable. But it is not the only reason. He got what he wanted. He craved admiration. But one problem is he got it too soon. Almost immediately at the peak of his fame and power and it went away to do with careers stagnation and delivered to a good life with libby but he had a taste that 25 to make things happen he was shaping world events then it was gone. Been the feeling is what he was chasing me that is what he was trying to find again. But thanks for coming out tonight and i will take your questions. [applause] please keep your questions brief. We will also sign books after word. How did you come to this subject matter . When i wrote. When i was junior studying history because my dad served in world war ii working for the marine corps so i had to get interested because that was my job. But i really developed more of an interest at that time. And this particular book and it came from gettysburg because we were talking about guys who were last in the class in hendry at gettysburg in thought how many are last in their class . It seemed like a lot but there were six so i thought that would be an interesting article. But with growth were to no doubt. George patton. But the statue of him at west point is where they. And then with world war one. In that patent and custer are similar . With the battle of little bighorn they say that the attributes to the arrogance that he did not have the preparations for that battle. But his skills on the plains where only onethird of what they were. Said reducing when they went out to on a plate and then eventually because of the missteps . Not necessarily. He could have survived little big horn writeup to the end but when he put it his battalion instead of going north he went south the way he came instead of being 4 miles away he was 2 miles or even if he was tracking more closely with the other battalions that was is failing he should have kept better attract he should have seen the movement and responded. The only thing i can think why he would keep going is that other column is coming south to meet them maybe there is a remote idea to me it is the final move had customer custer been able to make it that three battalions can. I dont think it was inevitable he made mistakes but some people say was he even alive at that point . At one point they say he was killed and his body was carried up. I dont know the debates are endless butted by opinion it is true they should have known where he was and should have pulled back but they didnt. I know there was supposed to be a threepronged attack and i am sure at that time custer had no idea the three days earlier they thought they were proceeding of birds all together at that time. But what surprised me is he does not want anyone to know. He really blew it that only did he fail in his battle and decide to stop and spent the next few weeks hunting and fishing