Posted by Don on March 18, 2000 at 09:36:38:
No matter what you may think about Custer and his behavior, you will not believe what I am about to suggest. Whether you villify, or heroicize the man, you will call me a nut. Well, I resemble that remark.
I have unearthed several secondary-source documents which prove almost conclusively that Custer was gay, or at the very least, bisexual.
Immediately, those of you who purport to be knowledgable on the subject of this colorful Colonel, want to remind me of the report that he may have fathered a daughter with an Indian girl. The above mentioned documents show that report not only to be true, but to be an attempt by Custer to prove to his men that he was "normal". How is this in any way related to Little Big Horn and its being "Against All Odds"?
At a conference this summer (2000) at the University of North Dakota, on the subject of Custer's behavior with and against American Indians, I will assert:
a) Custer's aggressive, even suicidal, and certainly cruel at times, behavior toward native inhabitants of the frontier, was fueled by a desire to appear heroically masculine; this being necessary because of the slowly spreading rumor concerning sexual relationships with several men, one of which was a soldier in his command.
and
b) Custer had reason to believe that the fair-haired, olive skinned daughter he fathered, was traveling with the group of Indians being sought by the "Three-pronged" advance. No one in his immediate command could understand why he almost obsessively insisted upon charging forward, when prudence would have dictated a more cautious approach. The theory about his not wanting the enemy to scatter is correct, but not for military reasons; his goal that day was to scare the enemy into surrendering (albeit with a few Indian deaths), to find his daughter, and to arrange for her adoption by some family with whom he could stay in contact, thus monitoring his daughter's progress without arousing suspicion in the public or, obviously, in Libby.
Assuming the validity of my assertions, the attack by the 7th Cav was not bucking any odds since it did not have to occur the way it did. [It was not even doomed from the outset, as oral traditional evidence from Indian veterans of the battle says that Sitting Bull arranged for the troopers to have an escape route to the east, away from the river. In Tatanka Yotanka's mind, this would have enabled the survivors to return to their civilization to report to their people that it was futile to attempt to corral the Nations. As we now know, the troopers were either confused, afraid, or both, and ignored the avenue of escape.]
This new information will undoubtedly ruffle some feathers (no pun intended) but I believe it will put to rest much of what has been asserted over the last 124 years concerning Custer's motivation/behavior.