Custer Captures a Confederate Washington

 

                                                    Washington                            Custer

James Barroll Washington was born in Baltinore, Maryland in 1839.  His father, Colonel Lewis Washignton was a grandson of General George Washington’s brother, John Augustine Washington.  James entered West Point in 1859 and was a classmate of George Armstrong Custer.

When the Civil War broke out, young Washington left West Point and joined the staff of Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston.  On May 21, 1862 at the Battle of Seven Pines, while delivering orders from General Johnston to General Longstreet,  Lieutenant Washington was captured by a company under the command of Captain George Armstrong Custer.  Custer took the opportunity to have a picture taken with his old classmate before sending him the rear as a prisoner of war.  Washington was subsequently exchanged and continued to serve in the Confederate army until the end of the war.

The Great Northern Rebellion of 1860 (alternate history)

Captain Benteen Describes Panic at the Battle of the Little Bighorn

 

“I went over the battlefield carefully with a view to determine how the fight was fought.  I arrived at the conclusion I have right now-that it was a rout, a panic, till the last man was killed; that there was no line formed.

“There was no line on the battlefield.  You can take a handful of corn and scatter it over a floor and make just such lines.  There were none. The only approach to a line was where five or six horses were found equal distances like skirmishers.  Ahead of them were five or six men about the same distances….That was the only approach to a line on the field. (This was on Calhoun Hill).

“There were more than twenty killed there to the right; there were four or more all within a space of twenty to thirty yards.  That was the condition all over the field.  Only where General Custer was found was there any evidence of a stand.

“ I counted seventy dead horses and two Indian ponies.  I think, in all probability, that the men turned their horses loose without any orders to do so.  Many orders might have been given, but few obeyed.  I think they were panic stricken; it was a rout….”

Custer’s Last Stand Re-examined

Captain Benteen's Testimony about George Armstrong Custer

 

“The battalion organization was made after we had marched about four hours.  I think at the first halt an orderly came to me with instructions for the officers to assemble.  General Custer told us that he had just come down from the mountain; that he had been told by the scouts that they could see a village, ponies, tepees and smoke.  He gave it to us as his belief that there were no Indians there; that he had looked through the glasses and could not see any, and did not think there were any there.

 “Now, in 1875, I had a very similar experience with Indians in Dakota, and as the statements of the Indians then were absolutely confirmed by what was afterward proved, I was strong in the belief that the Crow Indians only reported what was shown them by their superior keenness of vision, and that the hostile village was where they located it; but as no opinions were asked for, none were given.”

Custer’s Last Stand: Portraits in Time