OCR Text |
Show 532 WESTERN WILDS. agely attacked Major Reno and Captain Benteen as being the cause of the General's misfortunes, and thus the many- sided fight went on. Before stating any facts bearing on this issue, a brief sketch of Gen-eral Ouster's previous experience on the plains is in order. George Armstrong Ouster was born at New Rumley, Ohio, Decem-ber 5, 1839, and was consequently but thirty- seven years old at the time of his death. At ten years of age he went to live with an older sister in Monroe, Michigan, and ever after considered that place his home. There, on the ninth of February, 1864, he married Elizabeth, only daughter of Judge Daniel S. Bacon. He entered West Point as a cadet in 1857, and graduated four years after away down in the list. Worse still, he was court- martialed for some minor breach of etiquette, and, badly as officers were needed just then, had some trouble in getting located in the army. But we long ago learned that rank at West Point by no means settles the officer's later standing in the army. Soon after graduating he was made Second Lieutenant, and assigned to Company " G," Second United States Cavalry, and ar-rived just in time to take a little . part in the Bull Run battle and stampede. A little later he served on the staff of General Phil. Kearney, and early in the summer of 1862 was made full captain and aid- de- camp of General McClellan. And this contributed not a little to some of his troubles in after years, as he was an enthusiastic " McClellan man," and by no means reticent in his views. Animosities were excited during that controversy which were not settled till long afterwards. Little by little Custer fought his way up, and the last year of the war the country was charmed and excited by the brilliant movements of Brigadier- General George A. Custer, of the United States Cavalry. After the Avar we almost lost sight of him. Except that President Johnson took him, along with a few others, as one of the attractions of that starring tour, " swinging' ' round the circle," we hear no more of Custer till the army was reorganized in 1866, and he was once more a captain in the United States Cavalry, this time on the plains. But it was a different sort of army to that with which he had Avon his early honors. Language fails to portray the utter demoralization of our regular army from 1865 to 1869 or ' 70. All the really valuable survivors of the volunteer army had returned to civil life; only the malingerers, the bounty- jumpers, the draft- sneaks and worthless re-mained. These, with the scum of the cities and frontier settlements, constituted more than half of the rank and file on the plains. The of-ficers, too, had been somewhat affected by the great revolution. The |