The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1929-06-14

SluU6uL VI oSACh%C
will turn for lessons in tactics. It was
an affair of a handful of United States
.cavalrymen pitted against an over
whelming force Of Sioux, Cheyenne
and Arapahoe Indians, and if it has
any particular Importance in American
history, it is only because it marked
the last outstanding success scored by
the red man against the white.
For this was the engagement Off
cially known as the battle Of the Lit
tie Big Horn River, Mont, June 20,
1876, but familiar to most Of us under
the name of Clusters Last Fight"
Thereby is revealed the reason why
this battle seems destined to be re-
membered when greater and more i'm
portant military conflicts are long
since forgotten. The reason centers
around the flaming personality of Gen.
George Armstrong Custer.
"a brigadier general at twenty-three.
a major general at twenty-five, great
Indian fighter at twenty-seven, he went
to his death at thirty-seven, the i'm
mortal hero of American youth, and
the mystery and gallantry of his death
will keep his name shining when all
but scant dozen of the great figures
Of American military history will be
forgotten forever" So writes his
latest biographer, Frazier Hunt, in the
book Custer published by the Cos
m0politan Book corporation, and Hunt
happily and aptiy characterized this
soldier as nolother blographer has vet
done when he uses as subtitle for
his book the phrase .'The Last Of the
Cavaliers
For George Armstrong Custer was
truly the last of the Cavaliers. He
was born in 1889 and died in 1876.
There are men still living who saw
him often and knew him well. But he
does not belong in this period Of re-
cent American history. Among the be-
whiskered, black-hatted blue-uni-
formed generals of the Union army,
this boy general with his coat of black
velvet, his wire-brimmed hat, his navy
blue shirt with a broad collar adorned
with gold stars and held together at
the throat with a wide flowing scar
let necktie, his trousers stuck in great
cavalry boots, and with his golden
curls reaching to his shoulders, is sad
ly out of place. More appropriately
should he have led charge against
Cromwell's Roundheads and after rout-
ing them received the thanks of that
gay monarch, King Charles the Sec
Ond, or he should have been follower
of the fortunes of Bonnie Prince
Charlie and ended his short career
amid the flashing claymores at Gull
lOdenmoor.
"A fighter Of fighters and a soldier
of soldiers, he was the beau sabreur
Of the American army" one historian
has called him. He was born of SOL
der ancestry; he grew up surrounded
by soldier traditions; he became a sol.
der by choice and he died as a SOL
der would choose to die. The Gus
tiers were fighting stock. His great
grandfather had been Hessian mer-
cenary in the Revolutionary war. "He
was a curly-haired blond giant who
was fighting for the fun of it," writes
Hunt. When the war was over and he,
with his fellow Hessians, was paroled,
he decided to settle down and grow up
with the country. The family name
Of Kuster was changed about the time
this good-natured Saxon fighter moved
from Pennsylvania to Maryland. His
grandson, the blacksmith and farmer,
Emmanuel Custer, felt the call of the
frontier and migrated to Ohio, and
here it was that the sturdy tow-headed
boy was born in 1889.
"War was in the air again. The fall
of the Alamo down in San Antonio
and the great stretch of country north
of the Rio Grande owned by Mexico
had burned its way into the hearts of
the country. A bitter hatred was far