The Real Custer (65 page)

2
.
      
From the
Richmond Sentinel
, reprinted in Frank Moore, ed.,
Rebellion Record: A Diary of American Events; Documents and Narratives
, vol. 7, 549.

3
.
      
Lee's report of December 7, 1863.

4
.
      
Stuart's report, February 13, 1864; also D. H. Hill Jr.,
Confederate Military History, A Library of Confederate States Military History
, vol. 4,
North Carolina
, Clement Anselm Evans, ed. (Atlanta: Confederate Publishing Company, 1899).

5
.
      
P. M. B. Young, “The West Point Boys: Another Interesting Paper about the Men at the Military School, and Something of Their Careers; General Young Tells More of the Boys of '61,”
Atlanta Constitution
, March 19, 1893, 9.

6
.
      
From the
Richmond Sentinel
, reprinted in Moore, ed.,
Rebellion Record
, 549.

7
.
      
Quoted in Hill Jr.,
Confederate Military History
, vol. 4,
North Carolina
.

8
.
      
From the
Richmond Sentinel
, in Moore, ed.,
Rebellion Record
, 549.

9
.
      
“The Buckland Races” (to the tune of “Dearest May”),
Alexandria Gazette
, May 2, 1891, 4.

10
.
    
GAC to Nettie, October 20, 1863, in Marguerite Merington, ed.,
The Custer Story: The Life and Intimate Letters of General George A. Custer and His Wife Elizabeth
(New York: Devin-Adair, 1950), 68.

11
.
    
GAC to Nettie, October 1863, in ibid., 69.

12
.
    
“Army of the Potomac: The Cavalry Reconnaissance on Sunday. Brisk Artillery Firing All along the Lines. The Enemy Driven Out of Their Rifle Pits. Lee Believed to Have Moved His Main Force Back from the Rapidan. Two Divisions of Gen. Hill's Corps Gone Southward. Dispatch to the Associated Press,”
New York Times
, November 18, 1863.

13
.
    
Kidd,
Personal Recollections
, 129–30.

14
.
    
GAC to Nettie, October 9, 1863, in Merington,
The Custer Story
, 65.

15
.
    
GAC to Judge Bacon, October 1863, in ibid., 67.

16
.
    
GAC to Nettie, October 1863, in ibid., 70.

17
.
    
GAC to Nettie, October 27, 1863, in ibid.

18
.
    
In ibid., 72.

19
.
    
Libbie to GAC, December 27, 1863, in ibid., 75.

20
.
    
Libbie to GAC, October 1863, in ibid., 74.

21
.
    
Libbie to GAC, December 23, 1863, in ibid., 76.

22
.
    
Libbie to GAC, December 23, 1863, in ibid.

23
.
    
Libbie to GAC, December 27, 1863, in ibid., 75.

24
.
    
GAC to I. P. Christiancy, December 19, 1863.

25
.
    
Libbie to GAC, January 1864, in Merington,
The Custer Story
, 79.

26
.
    
GAC quoted by one of his officers in Arlene Reynolds, ed.,
The Civil War Memories of Elizabeth Bacon Custer: Reconstructed from Her Diaries and Notes
(Austin: University of Texas Press, 1994), 8.

27
.
    
Nettie to GAC, January 1864, in Merington,
The Custer Story
, 78.

28
.
    
EBC in Reynolds,
The Civil War Memories of Elizabeth Bacon Custer
, 7.

29
.
    
Judge Bacon to his sister Charity, February 11, 1864, in Merington,
The Custer Story
, 81.

30
.
    
Rebecca Richmond to Mary Richmond, February 1864, in ibid., 81–82.

31
.
    
EBC to Judge Bacon, February 1864, in ibid., 84.

32
.
    
EBC to Judge Bacon, February 1864, in ibid.

33
.
    
EBC in Reynolds,
The Civil War Memories of Elizabeth Bacon Custer,
35–36.

34
.
    
EBC in ibid., 44.

CHAPTER 10

1
.
      
EBC in Arlene Reynolds, ed.,
The Civil War Memories of Elizabeth Bacon Custer: Reconstructed from Her Diaries and Notes
(Austin: University of Texas Press, 1994), 50.

2
.
      
Quoted in D. A. Kinsley,
Favor the Bold
(New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1967–68), 139.

3
.
      
“From the Army of the Potomac,”
New York Tribune
, August 4, 1863, 1.

4
.
      
Quoted in Shelby Foote,
The Civil War: A Narrative
, vol. 2,
Fredericksburg to Meridian
(New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 1986), 572.

5
.
      
Lyman quoted in Eric J. Wittenberg, ed.,
One of Custer's Wolverines: The Civil War Letters of Brevet Brigadier General James H. Kidd, 6th Michigan Cavalry
(Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2000), 45.

6
.
      
See Thomas Lowry,
The Story the Soldiers Won't Tell: Sex in the Civil War
(Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1994), 154–55; and “Our Letter from Cairo,”
Daily Alta California
, October 30, 1863, 1.

7
.
      
For general background on the raid see Duane P. Schultz,
The Dahlgren Affair: Terror and Conspiracy in the Civil War
(New York: W. W. Norton, 1998).

8
.
      
J. B. Stalb, “The 11th Pa. Cav.: The Time That It Did Not Go into Richmond,”
National Tribune
, August 9, 1906.

9
.
      
John Adolphus Bernard Dahlgren,
Memoir of Ulric Dahlgren. By His Father, Rear-Admiral Dahlgren
(Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1872), 211. Letter dated February 26, 1864.

10
.
    
Quoted in Reynolds,
The Civil War Memories of Elizabeth Bacon Custer
, 50.

11
.
    
The Soldier's Journal
, March 9, 1864, 28; and the
New York Tribune
, March 3, 1864.

12
.
    
Memphis Daily Appeal
, March 11, 1864, 1, reprinted from the
New York Herald
.

13
.
    
Dubuque Daily Democratic Herald
, March 3, 1864.

14
.
    
See the account in “The Cavalry Raid by Custer, Kilpatrick and Dahlgren,”
Transactions of the Southern Historical Society
, 1 (1874), 155ff.

15
.
    
The Soldier's Journal
, March 9, 1864, 28.

16
.
    
Memphis Daily Appeal
, March 11, 1864, 1, reprinted from the
New York Herald
.

17
.
    
Richmond Whig
, March 7, 1864, reprinted in the
New York Times
, March 12, 1864.

18
.
    
Memphis Daily Appeal
, March 11, 1864, 1, reprinted from the
New York Herald
.

19
.
    
Staunton Spectator
, March 8, 1864, 1.

20
.
    
March 1 report from the
World
summarized in the
Cleveland Morning Leader
, March 3, 1864, 1.

21
.
    
Memphis Daily Appeal
, March 11, 1864, 1, reprinted from the
New York Herald
.

22
.
    
James H. Kidd,
Personal Recollections of a Cavalryman with Custer's Michigan Cavalry
(Ionia, MI: Sentinel, 1908), 247.

23
.
    
Ibid., 249.

24
.
    
“He Was There,”
National Tribune
, May 31, 1894, 3.

25
.
    
Ibid.

26
.
    
Staunton Spectator
, March 8, 1864, 1.

27
.
    
“He Was There,” 3.

28
.
    
“Dahlgren's Raid,”
National Tribune
, December 3, 1885, 1. J. W. Landern believed that “the hanging of that poor black man was a cruel and cowardly murder.” He believed Robinson had misunderstood what Dahlgren intended, and said his “experience with the Southern blacks during the war proved to me they were truly loyal to us, and were ever ready and willing to peril their lives to aid a Union soldier.” “He Was There,” 3.

29
.
    
“Dahlgren's Raid,” 1.

30
.
    
Ibid.

31
.
    
Staunton Spectator
, March 8, 1864, 1.

32
.
    
Ibid.

33
.
    
Fitzhugh Lee to General S. Cooper, March 4, 1864.

34
.
    
Kilpatrick to Newhall, March 16, 1864.

35
.
    
EBC, March 28, 1864, in Marguerite Merington, ed.,
The Custer Story: The Life and Intimate Letters of General George A. Custer and His Wife Elizabeth
(New York: Devin-Adair, 1950), 88.

36
.
    
“How Custer Went to West Point,”
Hocking Sentinel
(Logan, OH), August 16, 1900, 3.

37
.
    
EBC, March 28, 1864 in Merington,
The Custer Story
, 89.

38
.
    
Quoted in Reynolds,
The Civil War Memories of Elizabeth Bacon Custer
, 52.

CHAPTER 11

1
.
      
EBC, March 28, 1864, Marguerite Merington, ed.,
The Custer Story: The Life and Intimate Letters of General George A. Custer and His Wife Elizabeth
(New York: Devin-Adair, 1950), 87.

2
.
      
GAC to EBC, April 16, 1864, in ibid., 89.

3
.
      
David S. Stanley,
Personal Memoirs of Major-General D. S. Stanley, USA
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1917), 18.

4
.
      
Wharton J. Green,
Recollections and Reflections
(Raleigh, NC: Edwards and Broughton Printing Company, 1906), 92–93.

5
.
      
James H. Kidd,
Personal Recollections of a Cavalryman with Custer's Michigan Cavalry
(Ionia, MI: Sentinel, 1908), 298–300.

6
.
      
John Hill Brinton,
Personal Memoirs of John H. Brinton, Major and Surgeon U.S.V., 1861–1865
(New York: Neale Publishing, 1914), 267.

7
.
      
Ibid., 239.

8
.
      
Grant to Halleck, May 11, 1864, 8:30 a.m.

9
.
      
Sheridan quoted in Merington,
The Custer Story
, 96.

10
.
    
“Sheridan's Grand Raid,”
Morning Leader
, May 28, 1864.

11
.
    
Supplemental report of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, in two volumes. Supplemental to Senate Report No. 142, 38th Congress, 2d session, 21.

12
.
    
Merington,
The Custer Story
, 98.

13
.
    
American and Commercial Advertiser
, May 18, 1864, 1.

14
.
    
In W. C. King and W. Derby, eds.,
Camp-Fire Sketches and Battle-Field Echoes of 61-5
, (Springfield, MA: King, Richardson, 1868), 250, 408–9.

15
.
    
GAC to EBC, May 14, 1864, in Merington,
The Custer Story
, 97.

16
.
    
See Jay Monaghan, “Custer's ‘Last Stand'—Trevilian Station, 1864,” in Paul Andrew Hutton, ed.,
The Custer Reader
(Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2004), 53ff.