[133]. This is interesting, and is the first suggestion I have met with that the phrase refers to the position of Terry and Custer when the orders were prepared or delivered, and not to the time anticipated when Custer should meet the Sioux. I regret that I cannot agree with this interpretation. Still, it is possible that such an interpretation is certainly a point for Custer.—C. T. B.
[134]. Italics mine.—E. S. Godfrey.
[135]. At the risk of tiring the reader, but because I am sensitive in the matter and anxious not to be misunderstood, I append here a letter written by me to a sister of General Custer, who had expressed the hope that I would not take the position that he disobeyed his orders
July 13th, 1904.
My Dear Madam:
I have received and read and reread your letter of the 12th inst. That letter and the thought of Mrs. Custer, whose character, in common with all Americans, I respect and admire, taken in connection with the position which my conscience, much against my will, has compelled me to assume, has filled me with deep regret.
Having read thus far, you will undoubtedly divine that I am compelled to say that I believe General Custer did disobey his orders. I have nowhere stated that I consider him guilty of rashness. I have also made it plain, I think, that even though he did disobey his orders, the ultimate annihilation of his battalion was due to the cowardice or incapacity of Major Reno.
I remember to have seen General Custer when I was a boy in Kansas. My father, who was a veteran of the Civil War, had a great admiration for him. I was present when the bodies of the officers of the Seventh Cavalry were brought back for reinterment at Fort Leavenworth. My wife, a Southern woman, is a cousin of the late General Dod Ramseur, who was General Custer’s intimate friend. The family have never forgotten General Custer’s kindness when Ramseur was killed.
I did, and still have, a warm admiration for the brilliant and soldierly qualities of General Custer. He was, and is, my beau ideal of a cavalry soldier. When I began to write these articles, I would not hear the charge that he had disobeyed orders. But I have been compelled by my investigations to take that position. I cannot tell you how painful it has been to me, and it is, to come to this conclusion. I have thought long and deeply over the matter.
Of course I read General Hughes’ now famous article. I did not, however, allow that article alone to determine me; but I carefully considered every account. I examined every discussion which I could find. Not only that, I corresponded with a number of officers, among them being Lieutenant-General Miles, Major-General Hughes, Brigadier-General C. A. Woodruff, Brigadier-General Carrington, and Colonel Godfrey. The remarks of these officers were submitted to one another. Their statements were weighed and digested with the utmost care by me. I could come to no other conclusion than that I have arrived at.