Why was custer court martialed

Other questions also remain. Was he court martialed because of jealous officers? It is important to look at the evidence. Hancock ordered his arrest. It sounds quite solemn to unaccustomed ears, but officers look on it as an ordinary occurrence, especially when one has done so little worthy of punishment as Aut has.

When he ran the risk of a court-martial in leaving Wallace he did it expecting the consequences…and we are quite determined not to live apart again, even if he leaves the army otherwise so delightful to us. On September 15 th the court martial convened at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. On the next day Custer himself would be present to hear the charges against him. September 16th, On September 16 th , at Fort Leavenworth Kansas, Custer heard the main charges against him as they were read out loud in the courtroom:.

Custer, Lieut. Colonel 7 th U. Absence without leave from his command. Specification first. In this, that he, Brevet Major General G. Cavalry, did at or near Fort Wallace, Kansas, on or about the 15 th day of July , absent himself from his command without proper authority, and proceed to Fort Harker, Kansas, a distance of miles, this at a time when his command was expected to be actively engaged against hostile Indians. Encounters between the Indians and the U. Fort Wallace, the westernmost military post in Kansas, was effectively under siege by Indians when Custer arrived there on July Finding its beleaguered forces short of food, medical supplies, and ammunition, and with men dying from cholera almost daily, Custer decided on his own to lead about 75 of his troops to Fort Harker, some miles to the east, to obtain vital supplies to take back to Fort Wallace.

He set off on July 15 and arrived at Fort Harker on July Smith placed him under arrest. On August 7, General in Chief of the U. Army Ulysses S. What had Custer done wrong? Young and the mare were found at Castle Rock and as the party came hurrying back to catch up with the main column it was attacked by Indians.

One man was shot and fell off his horse; another was wounded. The excited mare pulled her leader several hundred yards off the trail and the Indians moved to cut her off. By the time the mare was back on the trail the wounded man had fallen well back behind the rest. The sergeant wanted to go back and tie the wounded man on his horse and bring him in, but two of the troopers refused to come back and galloped ahead. In the melee of shouting and shooting the wounded man slipped off his horse.

With only two effective men left and the Indians closer to the wounded man than he was, the sergeant felt forced to go on and leave him. The Indians followed the party until they were about a mile and a half or 15 minutes from Downer station where the command had stopped.

When the sergeant's party came pounding into Downer's with its tale of Indians it made quite a stir. The men pulled themselves out of their lethargy and waited for the command to go out and find their fellow troopers and drive off the Indians. Hamilton reported to Custer but nothing happened. The griping in the ranks grew loud and mutinous, so much so that Hamilton went again to Custer. The general was not accustomed to consult his officers about his orders, nor did he welcome advice.

Now he merely said they would have to go on. Later Custer would give several accounts of this episode. In his general report of his summer's work on August 6, he wrote:.

My march from Fort Wallace to Fort Harker was made without incident except the killing of two men about five miles beyond Downer's Station.

A sergeant and six men had been sent back to bring up a man who had halted at the last ranch; when returning this party was attacked by between forty and fifty Indians, and two of them killed. Had they offered any defense this would not have occurred, instead however they put spurs to their horses and endeavored to escape by flight. Custer insisted all along that the two men had been reported to him as dead. The fact that he believed them to be dead seems to have removed them from any further consideration.

Any further duty he might have had was to punish the Indians. As for this, Custer had learned better: "I well knew, and so did everyone else who knows of Indian warfare, that any party I might send back, by the time it reached the scene of attack, would find no trace of the Indians. The latter would not even leave a trail to follow and it would have been the measure of absurdity to have undertaken such an errand.

Almost at every station we received intelligence of Indians having been seen in the vicinity within a few days of our arrival. We felt satisfied they were watching our movements, although we saw no fresh signs of Indians until we arrived near Downer's station. Here, while stopping to rest our horses for a few minutes, a small party of our men, who had without authority halted some distance behind, came dashing into our midst and reported that twenty-five or thirty Indians had attacked them some five or six miles in rear, and had killed two of their number.

As there was a detachment of infantry guarding the station, and time being important, we pushed on to our destination. The infantry captain, Arthur B. Carpenter, 37th U. Custer moved on without giving any directions concerning the bodies of these men, I sent out a detail to find them, they found one man killed and one wounded. I had the body buried and the wounded man is at this post under treatment. The cavalry column went on down the trail, the troopers adding one more sullen resentment to their accumulated misery.

There was now only a little more than 40 miles to go. The pace was very slow. Bone-weary and sleep-sodden the men and horses plodded on under the pitiless July sun. Lieutenant Cook remembered a stop somewhere along in the afternoon; Hamilton did not. Sergeant Connelly's horse gave out and he crawled into an ambulance and slept. They reached Big Creek station near Fort Hays on the morning of the 18th, one said at three o'clock, another said daybreak.

They had made altogether about miles in from 55 to 57 hours of almost steady marching. Custer had begun his summer's work with a march after fleeing Indians of miles in four and a half days, which both he and Hancock thought very good marching. Now he had ended his summer's work with a march of almost exactly the same distance in two and a half days.

And for what purpose? Custer was fond of recounting his fast marches but this one, he always insisted, was not a rapid march; it was "slow -- the average being less than three and a half miles an hour, which every cavalryman knows to be a slow and deliberate rate of marching.

When the contingent reached Big Creek station the men rested. That night 20 of them deserted. Custer, his brother Tom, Lieutenant Cook, the reporter Davis and an orderly boarded the two ambulances that had been brought along from Fort Wallace. All the rest of the day they sped along, the passengers undoubtedly catching up on their sleep. About nine o'clock in the evening near Bunker Hill the ambulances met another supply train under the escort of Cpt.

Charles C. Cox, 10th U. According to his instructions he was to remain based at Fort Wallace and operate between the Platte and the Arkansas. The orders were clear and incontrovertible. But Custer was too near his goal; the temptation was too great. The overriding desire that had colored his whole summer and influenced almost every move of his extended scout was still unsatisfied.

He would not face another sentence to the dry empty wastes without his comfort and his stay. Within a day or two he could pick up his wife and be back long before his men were able to travel again on the desert patrol. Custer went on into Fort Harker. He arrived about or A. He went at once to awaken General Smith. It will be remembered that at this time Fort Harker was in the grip of the cholera epidemic.

Due to the persistent Indian attacks along the trails and his shortage of manpower, Smith had been struggling to keep the supply trains going and the railroad protected. Surveyors, railroad officials, the newspapers, and the public were clamoring and complaining about the inadequacies of the military.

Pressed almost beyond reason by his cares and responsibilities, General Smith was sleeping heavily when Custer arrived. Custer had not been Smith's responsibility; Sherman had made the plans, taken him out of the department and directed his movements. Although Smith knew of Custer's imminent return under Sherman's orders, he could not know but what Sherman had also given the young officer a leave of absence. This nighttime appearance was confusing to the sleep-fogged Smith. But as usual he was kind and genial.

He asked Custer about his summer patrol and went to waken his adjutant, Lt. Thomas B. Weir, to take Custer to the train. Because he already knew, Custer did not ask where Mrs. Custer was; he talked fast, carefully not asking permission to go to Fort Riley but still making it plain that he was on his way. Smith who always wanted everybody to be happy, called out as his officers left, that Custer should pay his respects to the ladies.

Only the next morning, clear-headed and rested, did Smith again consider and investigate Custer's nighttime appearance:. Custer came to my quarters between two and three o'clock at night and I don't know that I asked the question how he came down. It was my impression he came by stage. I learned the next morning from my Adj. Weir that he came with an escort part of the way, and in an ambulance from Fort hays to Ft. Harker, and then I immediately ordered him back to his command.

He left for Fort Riley on the three o'clock train and from there I ordered him back the next morning after I learned how he came down. In Custer's new orders had been a request for an immediate report of his summer's scout. When this was not forthcoming promptly, Smith, knowing Hancock's desire for early information, gathered together as many details as he could and sent them to his superior under date of July In this report he also recited his further action in regard to Custer:.

On the 19th I telegraphed him to return immediately to Fort Wallace and rejoin his command unless he had permission from higher authority to be absent. He telegraphed me to know if he could wait until Monday and I replied that he must return by the first train. He started by the first train but was delayed with no fault of his until the night of the 21st.

As soon as he reported to me, I placed him under arrest, his family and baggage were with him and under the circumstances, I deemed it best to send him back to Fort Riley, where he now remains in arrest. Charges against Gen. Custer will be forwarded to you tomorrow.

General Smith did not want Mrs. Custer at Fort Harker where she might contract cholera so, thoughtful as ever, he sent the Custers back to Fort Riley. As he related in the report above, Smith placed Custer in arrest on July General Hancock hearing indirectly of Custer's arrival had his adjutant telegraph Smith on July The Major General Commanding directs me to say that he presumes you did not allow Genl. Custer to go to Fort Riley. He should have been arrested as his action was without warrant and highly injurious to the service, especially under the circumstances.

The General thinks you should have preferred charges against Genl. Custer giving his instructions to his successor in command but if he has gone back without delay from Fort Harker lie leaves the matter in your hands. Hence, though Hancock agreed as to the necessity of discipline, he left the final decision to Smith who had already put Custer under arrest before he received the telegram from Hancock.

Custer always blamed Hancock for his arrest and court-martial, saying Smith had signed the charges but Hancock had ordered him to do so. Though Lieutenant Jackson had kept a careful log of the travels to the Platte and back, a more comprehensive report was due from the commanding officer. While under the circumstances Custer could not have been very busy he put off writing his report until August 6 and 7.

By that time Charles Johnson, the wounded deserter had died and Custer's mind was very much on the desertions. On the field of action he had always believed attack was the best defense. He blamed the desertions on the commissary:. The march from the Platte to Fort Wallace was a forced one, from the fact that although my train contained rations for my command up to the 20th of the month yet when the stores came to be issued they were discovered to be in such a damaged condition that it would be with difficulty they could be made to last until we should reach Fort Wallace.

And I take this opportunity to express the belief, a belief in which I am supported by facts as well as by the opinions of the officers associated under me, that the gross neglect and mismanagement exhibited in the Commissary Department through this District has subjected both officers and men to privations for which there was no occasion and which were never contemplated or intended by the Government when my command left Fort Hays for the Platte.

The officers were only able to obtain hard bread and bacon, coffee and sugar for their private messes although it had been known weeks, if not months, before that a large command was expected to arrive at Fort Hays; in the same manner it was known that an expedition was contemplated to the Platte.

On my return march to Fort Wallace all hard bread not damaged was required to subsist the enlisted men, while the officers were actually compelled to pick up and collect from that portion of the hard bread which had been condemned and abandoned, a sufficient amount to subsist themselves to Fort Wallace.

That this bread was damaged will not appear remarkable when it is known that some of the boxes were marked The core of the complaint seems to be that the officers had to subsist often on the troopers' ration of bacon, hardtack, sugar, and coffee and that the hard tack was damaged. It was true that fine stores for the officers had been nonexistent most of the time at Hays and probably Custer did not get all he ordered when he sent his wagons to Wallace.

Certainly this was a deprivation that Custer had not suffered before in his earlier army service and he must have felt it keenly. The ration of the soldier on the Plains was monotonous and unappetizing. If in it was also generally aged and defective, such evidence does not appear in the reports of any command of the Kansas posts. The charges made against General Custer by General Smith were first, "Absence without leave from his command," and second, "Conduct to the prejudice of good order and military discipline.

Captain West of the Seventh cavalry, still angry at the shooting and subsequent death of his trooper, Charles Johnson, preferred additional charges against Custer under that all inclusive head of "Conduct prejudicial to good order and military discipline," which specified particularly that Custer had ordered the shooting of the deserters without trial and afterwards denied them medical attention and care.

Beginning on September 15 the court-martial sat for almost a month at Fort Leavenworth. General Custer was found guilty on all charges, [] and sentenced "To be suspended from rank and command for one year, and forfeit his pay for the same time. Custer's action in regard to the deserters may have been unwise and unnecessary but the army believed that the commander of a military detachment in the field must be the sole judge of the measures necessary to preserve his command from danger even if he had to shoot someone.

This was made clear in the review of the court-martial proceedings by the judge advocate general in Washington. Joseph bit wrote first in regard to the charges preferred by General Smith:. The conclusion unavoidably reached under this branch of the inquiry, is that Gen.

Custer's anxiety to see his family at Fort Riley overcame his appreciation of the paramount necessity to obey orders which is incumbent on every military officer; and that the excuses he offers for his acts of insubordination are afterthoughts. For this offense alone it is believed that the sentences pronounced by the court is in no sense too severe, especially when considered in connection with the finding under specification 4th of charge 2, alleging neglect to pursue and punish certain Indians who had attacked a small party detached from his command, though he was officially informed at the time or within less than an hour after, of the death of one and probably two of his men in consequence of this attack, he is shown to have taken no measures to verify the statement or recover the bodies of the killed, but within half an hour afterwards to have continued his hurried march towards Fort Riley, and to have left this imperative duty to the officer of Infantry in command of the Post at Downer's Station.

Holt then took up the additional charge of a "graver character," the "shooting down without trial of three enlisted men, on the supposition that they were deserters. Should Gen. Custer's act be considered as an unwarranted exercise of lawless power, the result of habits of thought acquired while controlling in time of open war a large command, [] and when accustomed to this doing of those duties of military emergency which war sometimes necessitates, and not as justified by the peculiar and difficult circumstances tinder which this deed was committed, the sentence pronounced by the Court in this case is utterly inadequate and measures should be at once taken for Gen.

Custer's trial before a Court of competent jurisdiction. Custer's superiors thought he needed disciplining but they were not about to take his case any further. General Grant approved the sentence as it stood, though he commented on its leniency.

In effect Custer was punished for absence without leave and for flouting the old army tradition that the army saves its wounded, buries its dead, and punishes its enemies; for his impulsive order to shoot the deserters he escaped penalty.

When West, still unsatisfied, brought a charge of murder in civil court against his commander and Lieutenant Cook, who actually fired the shot, General Smith and Surgeon Madison Mills, medical director of the Department of the Missouri, came forward to sign Custer's bond. Such was not the case. In assembling the evidence and constructing a defense he quite convinced himself of his innocence and was indignant at his conviction and sentence.

He publicly charged that his judges had been prejudiced rather than judicious. The court had been improperly constituted -- too many of the officers were below him in rank and too many were from Hancock's staff, some from the commissary department and therefore hostile towards him for his complaints about army supply.

His accusations were printed in the New York newspapers and widely distributed. In apparent retaliation, Custer brought charges of "drunkenness on duty" against Captain West. West was undoubtedly a heavy drinker, though according to the testimony of his fellow officers he still managed to be one of the best company commanders in the regiment. Convicted on a part of the charges, West was suspended from rank and pay for two months and confined to the limits of the camp or post occupied by his company.

All in all Custer's first year in the West had not been a success. He had displayed none of the aggressiveness and willingness to do and fight that Sherman had expected. A reluctant warrior, his only interest seemed to be in getting over the prescribed course as quickly as possible.

He was annoyed at the discomfort of harsh weather and the uncertain supply which was almost inherent in Plains service. Irritated by the continuing desertions he overreacted by ordering drastic measures. Finally he had fled towards family and civilization in a journey so irrational in its haste that it could not fail to bring down upon him disciplinary charges. Faced with a mild sentence he had reacted publicly and petulantly with accusations of jealousy, bias, and injustice. Yet who can say but that Custer was well-broken in.

After his exile the young general would return to his regiment under the aegis of his former commander, admirer, and friend, Gen. Philip H. He was given every opportunity to show his mettle and responded vigorously. He followed Indian trails doggedly -- some weeks' old -- and discovered the tribesmen in their camp. When he found the enemy he attacked.

He rescued white women captives from the Indians and seized red women as hostages. When on the trail the food supply was reduced to mule meat without bread, the general did not complain. His wife was with him in camp but not on his scouts. The pervasive theme of both of them in their memoirs would be the gayety and fortitude with which they had met the challenges, hardships, and deprivations of army life on the Plains.

She now resides in Topeka and continues to contribute articles to newspapers and magazines relating to the history of the American West. One of her research projects is a biography of Mrs. George A. Elizabeth Custer. Elizabeth B. George Armstrong Custer was graduated from West Point in June, , and went immediately into the army as second lieutenant in the Second U. In June, , Custer received an appointment as brigadier general of volunteers, and in April, , major general.

Meanwhile, though his rank in the regular army advanced only to captain, he was awarded for meritorious services several brevets, the highest one of major general in Brevets were most often honorary ranks, which bestowed the title and the right to wear the insignia upon the officer, but not the pay or duties of the brevet rank except in special assignments.

After the Civil War, officers customarily went under the title of their brevet rank. Winfield Scott Hancock was graduated from West Point in Most of his early service was in California and the West where he worked in the quartermaster corps.

When the Civil War opened he was made a brigadier general of volunteers, in recognition of his known ability. He was a handsome man and that together with his able handling of his troops earned him the sobriquet of Hancock the Superb. He was given much credit for the Union victory at Gettysburg where he was wounded on the second day. After the war he was made a major general in the army.

He had political ambitions and was nominated for President in by the Democratic party. He was in a number of the early cavalry movements in the West-with Stephen Kearnv to South Pass in and with the Mormon battalion in their march from Fort Leavenworth to Santa Fe and on to California in His Civil War service was primarily in the Western campaigns where he commanded an army corps and several divisions.

He was one of the few to defeat Nathan B. Forrest, whom he stopped at Tupelo in He attained the rank of major general of volunteers and major general by brevet in the regular army. He was appointed colonel of the Seventh U. The District of the Upper Arkansas was a temporary district created for this one season. Smith reported to Hancock and the records of the District can be found in the National Archives with those of the Department of the Missouri.

William Tecumseh Sherman, next to Grant, was the most famous of Union generals. The Military Division of the Missouri covered all the states and territories between the Mississippi and the Rocky mountains except Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. Bradley to Brig. Easton, March 3, , "Letters Received, Dept. Other sources that stress the bad rainy weather of the spring and early summer of are: Elizabeth B.

Custer, Tenting on the Plains New York, , pp. Cantrill's testimony. This hook contains a transcript of the entire court-martial proceedings. Hereafter it will be cited simply as Court-martial. Reports of Major General W. Berthong, The Southern Cheyennes Norman, , pp. In number they probably aggregated more than the Cheyennes since they left lodges when they ran away while the Cheyennes left but Junction City Union, April 20, Difficulties With Indian Tribes, p. Hereafter this will be cited as Difficulties.

Custer to Lt. Weir Smith's acting assistant adjutant , May 4, , Hancock's Reports, p. Hereafter this source will be cited as My Life. Custer, Tenting.

There were no new buildings or other improvements at Fort Hays as at the other posts because the fort was to be relocated nearer the route of the railroad Theodore R. Custer to Elizabeth, April 22, , Tenting, p. Custer to Elizabeth, April 8, , ibid. This letter could not be found among the records hut it probably got the same reception as an earlier letter of Custer's to General Hancock stating that the army was too lenient with deserters-the lack of severe punishment encouraged desertion.

Hancock answered rather tersely that he did not make - the policies of the army-he only followed orders. Custer to Elizabeth, May 2, , Tenting, p. Alfred Gibbs was the senior major of the Seventh U. Like all the young army officers of his time he was sent west and had some service in the Mexican war where he won two brevets.

He was badly wounded in an Indian skirmish. Early in the Civil War he was captured along with Maj. Though he therefore had a late start in the Civil War he rose to become a brigadier general with a brevet of major general in Sheridan's cavalry.

Due to the old lance wound his health was poor. An excellent administrator and able handler of men, he played a most important part in the organization of the Seventh cavalry. Custer's first orders in regard to this scout are reproduced in Court-martial, pp. Sherman to John Sherman, February 24, , "W.

Sherman Papers," Library of Congress. Difficulties, p. Hancock to Smith, May 15, , Department of the Missouri. Smith to Hancock, May 23, When no other source is indicated for letters and dispatches in this paper, they are from the National Archives as above. There was a great deal of discussion in the quartermaster corps in regard to this new system of furnishing fine stores for officers to purchase at reasonable prices.

It would he impossible to know how much and what items to forward. One comment was that "perhaps it was unfortunate for the Officers of the Army that the authority to the subsistence department to supply the officers with canned articles was not deferred until all the officers who entered the army since had an opportunity to learn by experience how officers were supplied before that time.

Smith to Custer, May 31, Report of the Secretary of War, , 40th Congress, 2d sess. My life, p. Custer aimed to average about 25 miles a day "when not in immediate pursuit of the enemy. Custer wrote, "A cavalry column marches at the rate of four miles an hour, and the length of a day's journey varies from twenty-five to forty miles. Custer, Following the Guidon New York, , p.

It would seem that this was considerably in excess of the usual cavalry rate in summer patrols on the Plains, which was governed by the necessity of keeping the horses in condition.

See, also, "Lieutenant J. The extent of the daily march was as carefully kept on this journey, as was that of Custer's in The average daily march was just under 18 miles. Custer to Elizabeth, June 12, , quoted in Court-martial, p. Both Sherman and Hancock disapproved of Custer's handling of this situation.

On June 26, , Hancock wrote to Smith, "We will have no talks with Indians nor make any terms except absolute submission.

Custer has accepted the surrender of Pawnee Killer and band to be placed at Ft. McPherson what I entirely disapprove, as also does Gen. Sherman's attitude towards the Indians, which he must have communicated to Custer were expressed in a dispatch to Hancock, June 11, "I hear that Custer is arriving at McPherson.

After a very short rest, I will have him to scour the Republican to its source to kill and destroy as many Indians as possible, He will then come into the Platte here or above for orders. Look out on your line in case they run that way. You may reduce to submission all Indians between the Arkansas and Platte or kill them. All are hostile or in complicity. Keep our people as active as possible. My Life, pp. Davis, "Summer on the Plains," p.

In Custer's account of this scout, he designates his officers by their brevet rank. That designation is not used in this paper except for the Generals Custer, Smith, and Gibbs, which conforms with the practice of the time.

In army correspondence and records regimental officers are usually spoken of as in their regular rank. So too in the Custer court-martial record. Most of the better-known officers of the Seventh cavalry carried the brevet rank of lieutenant colonel, only Cpt.

Benteen being a brevet colonel. Samuel Robbins had no brevet rank because, as he wrote General Hancock, he had served in the First Colorado cavalry out west where no brevets had been recommended. Yet he had participated in many stiff engagements and was as deserving as the rest. Hancock recommended him for a brevet. Tenting, pp. Frost in Court-martial states this letter shows Custer's anxiety about the spread of cholera. The cholera did not come to Kansas until June 28, so Custer could not possibly have known anything about it at this time.

This is Custer's own phrase. My Life, p. This careful record with maps of each day's march and camp is in the National Archives. Though Jackson seldom gave any details beyond his log of distances, his work is a valuable check on other accounts. It has never been satisfactorily explained why Mrs. He said My Life, p. Custer says Tenting, pp. It is doubtful that Mrs.

Custer ever went to Fort Wallace. This is an almost incredible statement since Custer had been seat to attack and kill any Indians found between the Platte and the Smoky.

Augur to Custer, telegram, June 25, , Court-martial, p. The account of this march follows Jackson's "Itinerary" rather than that of Custer in his memoirs. He also states that the column arrived at the Platte at eight P. Report of the Secretary of War, , p. Captain Keogh commanding at Fort Wallace, gives an excellent account of Fort Wallace and the stations tinder his superintendence, he reported almost every other day until he went with General Hancock to Denver on June