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William Belknap
The legend of George Armstrong
Custer began at the First Battle of Manassas.
Custer would enjoy a spectacularly successful military career until
massacred by Sioux Indians in 1876 at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Custer is buried at West Point but some of
those involved in his legend are buried at Arlington.
William
W. Belknap was a Civil War Union Brigadier General, and later served as
Secretary of War during the Grant Administration. By 1875 allegations of bribery surrounded
Belknap because of his appointment of post traders who sold merchandise on
military installations. George Armstrong
Custer was called to testify before Congress in the matter.
Custer accused President Grant's brother and Secretary of War Belknap of
corruption. Belknap was impeached and sent to the Senate for trial. President Grant stripped Custer of overall
command of the column chosen to subdue the Sioux and placed him under the
command of Brigadier General Alfred Terry.
Custer lost his life trying to regain his career.
Views of Custer have changed over
succeeding generations. Custer has been portrayed as a callous egotist, a
bungling egomaniac, a genocidal war criminal, and the puppet of faceless
forces. For almost one hundred and fifty years, Custer has been a Rorschach
test of American social and personal values. Whatever else George Armstrong
Custer may or may not have been, even in the twenty-first century, he remains
the great lightning rod of American history. This book presents portraits of
Custer and the Battle of the Little Bighorn as they have appeared in print over
successive decades and in the process demonstrates the evolution of American
values and priorities.
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