What if Custer was court-martialled for his actions at Little Bighorn?

bard32

Banned
You probably saw the movie thirty years ago. The one called The Court-Martial of George Armstrong Custer. The plot was simple. It asked what if Custer had survived Little Bighorn? IOTL, Custer led the 7th Cavalry to ruin at
Little Bighorn. He was killed with his brothers Tom, Boston, and all his men,
at the Little Bighorn in Montana. So what if Custer was actually court-martialled for his actions at Little Bighorn? What would the charges and specifications, (indictment in a civilian court,) be? Well, to start with, it would
begin with disobedience of orders, and continued from there to dereliction of
duty. IOTL, there were three survivors, Major Marcus Reno, Captain Frederick
Benteen, and a horse named Comanche. Would Custer have been saved had
Reno and Benteen come to his aid? We don't know but we do know that Custer
sent a message to Benteen to "bring packs." Meaning the pack trains of ammunition. So who would Custer's witnesses be? His brothers, Tom and Boston, for one, and maybe even Miles Keough, his interpreter, and his scouts.
Who would testify against him? We know that Custer founded Deadwood, South Dakota, two years earlier. He was also almost court-martialled then. Would Custer have made a good President? That's a subject for another post.
 
actually, not all of Custer's men were killed... he split up his troop into three forces (one under Reno, one under Benteen, one under himself) and tried to carry out a complicated surrounding of the native camp... and he and the 215 men he led were all killed, the only survivor being the horse Commanche. Reno's troop attacked the south end of the village and were driven off by the Sioux... most of his men survived by entrenching in the bluffs along the Little Bighorn. Benteen joined him, and most of the men in these two troops survived.

To answer your question... I think Custer might have blamed Reno for his problems.... Reno's attack was supposed to be coordinated with Custer's, and wasn't, and his attack was not pressed very hard. Custer might also have noted that no one told him of Crook's withdrawal after the battle on the Rosebud a few days earlier... he assumed that Crook was out there somewhere to support him. But it would also come out that his native scouts warned him about the large number of natives in the camp, so he should have had a notion of what he was facing...
 

bard32

Banned
What if Custer was court-martialled for his actions at Little Bighorn?

I've seen it on Amazon. The movie version of the book was on The Hallmark
Hall of Fame in 1978. You can find my review of it at www.imdb.com .
 

bard32

Banned
What if Custer was court-martialled for his actions at Little Bighorn?

I'm aware of that, Dave. When I was little, I had a record about General Custer with the story of Custer on one side and the story of Geronimo on the
other. During the Civil War, Custer was the ADC to General McClellan. A little
known fact about Little Bighorn, is that Terry was supposed to lead the attack
on the camp. He was jumped by Indians when he and his men were eating
breakfast. Another little-known fact is that Custer was offered the use of
Gatling guns, hand-cranked machine guns, but refused them saying that they'd
only slow him down. That decision's still a hot potato today. Crazy Horse,
the leader of the victorious Sioux and Cheyenne, was killed by a soldier when
he surrendered.Custer was also supposed to be relieved by a relief column that didn't arrive until a day later. Reno and Benteen were both questioned as to why they didn't reinforce Custer or send him the packs. Custer sent most of
his men away. The bugler was an Italian immigrant and he survived because he was sent on the errand to Reno. Custer's brothers, Tom, and Boston, were
also killed. Boston was with a civilian contractor.
 
Main difference, in my opinion?

No 'Custer's Last Stand'. The fact that Custer survives means he isn't a matyr to the cause, slaughtered by the ruthless 'injuns'.

While political capital can be made from the other deaths, the army will have to find a scapegoat for their failure. Custer may shift the blame, in which case Reno probably takes the bullet.

All this leads to it being less than the 'heroic boys being massacred' as in our timeline. The propaganda machine may get them off the hook (after all, it's incredibly likely that Crockett survived the Alamo) but it will be a much harder job.

This may give the Sioux a better chance, with less public pressure to 'solve the problem', but the Army could become more ruthless, to try and erase the memory of defeat.
 
Main difference, in my opinion?

While political capital can be made from the other deaths, the army will have to find a scapegoat for their failure. Custer may shift the blame, in which case Reno probably takes the bullet.
In OTL Reno "bit the bullet". He was Court Martialed and convicted.Some time after 1970 the conviction was overturned.

My bad he was CMed in 1880 for other charges and had it over turned in 1967.
 
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