The Price of Glory: The Parallel lives of Wesley Merritt and George Armstrong Custer

 

 

Merritt and Custer opposite each other across the table

     Two outstanding Civil War era cavalry officers had remarkably similar careers: Wesley Merritt and George Armstrong Custer.  One became a footnote in history.  The other became a legend.

     Merritt was born in 1836.  Custer was born in 1839.  Both men graduated from West Point.  Merritt in 1860, Custer in 1861.  Both were commissioned as second lieutenants.  Both men became captains in 1862.

     In 1863, Merritt was appointed brigadier general of volunteers for his "gallant and meritorious service" at the Battle of Brandy Station.  Being promoted directly from being a 26-year-old captain to brigadier general was unusual, but in addition to Wesley Merritt two others attained this distinction in 1863, Captain Elon J. Farnsworth and 23-year-old Captain George Armstrong Custer. Custer became a brigadier general of volunteers, commanding the Michigan Cavalry Brigade (the "Wolverines").

     Both Wesley Merritt and George Custer were in the thick of the fighting in the East for the duration of the war, and both became brevet Major Generals, Custer in March 1865 and Merritt in April 1865.

     After the war both Merritt and Custer reverted to their permanent ranks in the regular army.  Merritt was appointed lieutenant colonel of the newly raised U.S. 9th Cavalry on July 28, 1866, and in July 1867 was sent to command Fort Davis, Texas.  On July 28, 1866, Custer was appointed lieutenant colonel of the newly created 7th Cavalry Regiment.

     In 1868, Custer led the 7th Cavalry in an attack on the Cheyenne encampment of Chief Black Kettle at the Battle of Washita. The Battle of Washita was regarded as the first substantial U.S. victory in the Southern Plains War, and it helped force a large portion of the Southern Cheyenne onto a U.S.-assigned reservation.  In 1873, Custer was sent to the Dakota Territory to protect a railroad survey party against the Lakota. In 1874 Custer led an expedition into the Black Hills and announced the discovery of gold. On June 25, 1876, George Armstrong Custer and all the men under his direct command were killed at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

     Wesley Merritt was made colonel of the 5th Cavalry on July 1, 1876, which he commanded in the Battle of Slim Buttes. The Battle of Slim Buttes was fought on September 9–10, 1876, in the Great Sioux Reservation between the United States Army and Miniconjou Sioux.  It marked the first significant victory for the army since the stunning defeat of Custer at the Little Bighorn. 

     As colonel of the 5th Cavalry, Merritt was a member of the court of inquiry convened to consider the behavior of Major Marcus Reno at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. The court of inquiry did not find Major Reno remiss in his duty.  The court found that Reno had been confronted with so overwhelming a force of Indians that to have charged into the village would have resulted in the total annihilation of his battalion.  The court found that had he held his second position in the timber, the same result would probably have occurred. 

     In the later career of Wesley Merritt, we get an inkling of what might have happened to George Armstrong Custer had he not been killed at the Little Bighorn. Merritt served on the frontier until being appointed superintendent of West Point, a post he filled from 1882 to 1887. In 1887, he was appointed brigadier general in the Regular Army. He was promoted to major general in the U.S. Army in 1895.

     Merritt served during the Spanish American War of 1898 and became the first American military governor of the Philippines.  General Merritt retired from the Army in 1900 and died from natural causes at the age of 74 in 1910. He is buried at West Point Cemetery.

    After the Battle of the Little Bighorn, the bodies of George Custer and his brother Tom were wrapped in canvas and blankets, then buried on the field in a shallow grave.  When soldiers returned a year later, the brothers' grave had been scavenged by animals and the bones scattered. "Not more than a double handful of small bones were picked up." George Custer was reinterred with full military honors at West Point Cemetery on October 10, 1877. 

     Today, the highly successful, respected and decorated Wesley Merritt is remembered, if at all, as a footnote to history.  George Armstrong Custer is, for good or ill, a household name.

Custer’s Last Stand: Portraits in Time

Custer’s Last Stand Re-examined