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George Armstrong Custer
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. An enraged President Grant stripped Custer of
overall command of a column chosen to subdue the Sioux and placed him under the
command of Brigadier General Alfred Terry.
Before Custer became the mythic figure we
know today, he was a lieutenant colonel desperate to find a way to salvage his
reputation after this run-in with President Grant. Custer was on the brink of professional and
financial ruin, having run up massive gambling debts (which took years for his
widow to pay off) and then having alienated the President of the United States.
Only one thing could save Custer, victory
on the battlefield. If Custer could win
a smashing victory over Indians in the West, all would be well again. In his
most hopeful fantasies Custer imagined a draft Custer for President Movement at
the Democratic convention which was to open in St. Louis on June 27, 1876. Custer had spent part of his trip East jawboning
with political “King Makers”. More
realistically he could expect accolades at the Centennial Exhibition in
Philadelphia and big box office receipts for a lecture tour for which he was
already booked.
Instead of being swept into the White
House in a wave of martial euphoria, George Armstrong Custer met his death along
the bluffs overlooking the Little Bighorn River, in Montana, on June 25, 1876. Custer’s death was immediately
politicized. Enemies of the
administration …pointed accusing fingers at President Grant, blaming him for
Custer’s death, urging voters to settle with Grant and the Republican Party in
the fall elections. Grant’s partisans
struck back vilifying Custer. Grant
weighed in personally claiming that Custer overextended himself and his men to
deprive fellow officers of their share of victory.
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