Dutch hat styling circa 1635
Michael
It is said that Custer wanted a distinctive uniform so his men could see him during combat.
Custer's Rolling Block. Wonder if it is still around? A great mystery.Custer, the brevet Major (really only a Captain) in buckskins.
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Some years ago I saw one of Tom Mix's hats at a gun show, perhaps that very one. The seller was asking $1500 or thereabouts for it.
Poor Custer. His courage and impetuosity overcame his judgement. He didn't realize just how p---ed off the Native people were. I thought I had read somewhere that one of the Sioux women stuck an awl in his ear so he could hear better in the afterlife.The oral history of the Akta Lakota & the Oglala Sioux beginning with Crazy Horse's command that killed Custer & his men, is that Custer had cut his hair sometime before the battle & that he was wearing his buckskins instead of his blue uniform. In death Custer's body was accorded some small measure of respect that was not granted to the remains of the uniformed soldiers simply because the Lakota didn't know who he was & thought he might have been a civilian & not a soldier.
I went to the battlefield in 2014 for the 138th anniversary & the rededication of the monument to the Native American tribes.
http://aktalakota.stjo.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=8998
The guy graduated dead last in his class at Westpoint. He was nothing but a flamboyant baffoon. One of my best friends GG Uncle, Charlie Reynolds was a civilian guide with Custer & killed that day. You can find his name on the rolls.Poor Custer. His courage and impetuosity overcame his judgement. He didn't realize just how p---ed off the Native people were. I thought I had read somewhere that one of the Sioux women stuck an awl in his ear so he could hear better in the afterlife.
The battlefield is haunting.
I believe he may have had presidential aspirations.The guy graduated dead last in his class at Westpoint. He was nothing but a flamboyant baffoon. One of my best friends GG Uncle, Charlie Reynolds was a civilian guide with Custer & killed that day. You can find his name on the rolls.
The battlefield is very somber. I've been there twice. The only other place I have been where the same feelings & emotions overcome me is Shiloh Hill.