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In 1874, George Armstrong Custer published My Life on the Plains, an account of his
career as an Indian fighter to that time.
One story that Custer relates about his hunting a buffalo tells us much
about his military skills.
“Determined to end the chase and bring down my game, I
again placed the muzzle of the revolver close to the body of the buffalo, when,
as if diving my intention, and feeling his inability to escape by flight, he
suddenly determined to fight and at once wheeled, as only a buffalo can, to
gore my horse. So sudden was this
movement, and so sudden was the corresponding veering of my horse to avoid the
attack, that to retain my control over him I hastily brought up my pistol hand
to the assistance of the other.
Unfortunately as I did so my finger, in the excitement of the occasion,
pressed the trigger, discharged the pistol, and sent the fatal ball into the
very brain of the noble animal I rode…. (I) found myself whirling through the
air over and beyond the head of my horse.”
Custer now faced the buffalo on foot, but the animal
wandered off without further ado.
Custer continues, “In a moment the danger I had
unluckily brought myself stood out in bold relief before me….Here I was, alone
in the heart of the Indian country, with warlike Indians known to be in the
vicinity. I was not familiar with the
country. How far I had travelled, or in
what direction from the column, I was at a loss to know. In the excitement of the chase I had lost all
reckoning. Indians were liable to pounce
upon me at any moment. My command would
not note my absence probably for hours.
Two of my dogs overtook me, and with mute glances first at the dead
steed, then at me, seemed to inquire the cause of this strange condition of
affairs. Their instinct appeared to tell
them that were in misfortune.”
After wandering aimlessly “about three or four miles,”
Custer saw a column of dust that he knew had one of three causes, “...white men,
Indians, or buffaloes.” Fortunately for
him, on this occasion, Custer had stumbled on his own cavalry.
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