Year: 1876

The Slaughter Near the Little Horn
River-Death or General Custer.


The appalling news which reached this
city at three o'clock yesterday morning and
appeared in a later edition of the HERALD,
and of which we give fuller details to-day,
is of a character to ''give us pause and
raise the inquiry whether the present war
against the Sioux was wisely undertaken
and we'll planned. We had reason to expect
something better under President who is a
great soldier and has himself had experience
in the Indian country, and whose most i'm
portant subordinate in connection with
Indian affairs is the illustrious Sheridan,
an old and successful fighter against the
savages, charged with general superin-
tendence and direction of military affairs in
the present theatre of hostlities. Matters
have become so serious that it may
be necessary for General Sheridan him
self to go in person to the scene
of action, for it is too evident that
the campaign is blunder and muddle, if
indeed it be not disgrace. We cannot be-
lieve that General Sheridan is directly
sponsible for these shocking .fascos in his
military department. He is subordinate
officer, and if he has committed any fault
or is chargeable with any neglect it is in too
implicit Difference to the wishes or orders
of President Grant the eCommander-in-Chief
of the Army. But it is unfortunate and de-
plorable that with an officer of General
Sheridan's consummate ability and special
1~r<L <L.k la, rkvno
the country has not had the advantage of
his skill and efficiency. ''Some one has
blundered," and there are strong grounds
for ascribing the mismanagement to Presi-
dent Grant himself In fit of pique or
spite he degraded General Custer, and we
behold the result in the bloody massacre
near the Little Horn which sends thrill of
horror through the country.


The brave Custer the best Indian fighter
in the army next to Sheridan, may have
been rash in the desperate encounter in
which he and his three hundred comrades
dared death and scalping and met their fate,
but we must treat his memory with indul-
gence. Not the famous six hundred in the
charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklnva,
when


Boldly they rode and well,


Into the jaws of DEATH y


Into the mouth of hell,


performed more signal act OF uncalculating
heroism than the dashing Custer and his
Seventh regiment Of cavalry. The country
will give him its admiration, its tears its re-
grets; it will pardon his error, if he commit
ted one, and inscribe his name in bright let
ters on the roll Of fame. For the planning
of this mismanaged, ill-starred campaign he
was not responsible 1t was at first in
tended that he should command it, and in
that case the details would have been
committed to his discretion and experience.
But in an evil hour the President, acting on
an unworthy impulse, displaced and de-
graded the brave Custer, putting him in so
subordinate a position that the campaign
lost the benefit of his counsels and direction.
The result was q blundering and disjointed
plan of operations it's first fruit the sur
prise, repulse and retreat of General Crook
and his army /; the second fruit is seen in
the scalps of three hundred and fifteen
fallen soldiers dripping with blood at the
belts of Sioux warriors. Some one may have
Nv tuc I<lltlc IloIA DuI ILLS WIS
merely one consequence of the parent
/ blunder perpetrated by President Grant
when, in fit of undignifed wrath and
petulance, he degraded General Custer after
the latter had given his testimony in the
matter of the post-traderships in obedience
to the subpoena of committee of Congress,
and did not thereupon require General
q <oly 70 ~T =
Indian campaign. But it would have been
too great compliment to Custer to assume
that nobody but Sheridan could usefully re-
place him, and SO the President committed
the expedition to incompetent hands, with
the result which we see.


General Clusters desperate hardihood in
riding Unto the jaws of death, into the
mouth of hell, was a natural consequence
| of the treatment he had received from the
President. The honor of soldier is 'the
i'm mediate jewel of his heart" When his
honor is impugned, when stigma is pub
licly set upon him, in the face Of the whole
country, by his commander-in-chiefh he is
subjected to a torture such as only soldier
or n man of extreme moral sensitiveness
who "feels stain like wound" can fully
| understand. Civilians are sometimes tempted
to smile at the excessive punctiliousness of
army officers about questions of precedence
and relative standing; but it must be consid-
cred that honor and estimation are the chief
reward of the military class, and that it is
to their eager craving for distinction that
the world is indebted for the illustrious acts
of heroism which emblazon the pages of his
tory. If the intense, excruciating smart of
soldiers under disgrace be n fault it is
'failing which leans to virtues side"