Author Casts George Armstrong Custer In A Different Light

By John Henry Author Thom Hatch breaks all the rules in regard to Gen. George Armstrong Custer, whom history paints as a reckless combat commander whose arrogance led to tragic battlefield misjudgments, defeat and death at Little Bighorn.In Glorious War: The Civil War Adventures of George Armstrong Custer (St. Martin’s Press, $28.99), Hatch challenges the established historical narrative and provides a thoughtful reassessment of Custer’s military career by examining his early career as the “boy general,” the cavalry commander who became a national hero by playing significant roles in a Union victory at Gettysburg and in the turning point of the American Civil War during encounters with Confederate forces in the Shenandoah Valley.What the reader discovers is a bold and courageous commander and shrewd tactician who led his cavalrymen of the Michigan brigade from the front, not, as most of history interprets, simply for the sake of glory, but as a patriot who sought to be inspiration for them.“Come on, you Wolverines!” was his battle cry, always followed with him riding first into the fray.Instead of a brazen fellow of youth, Custer is portrayed as an obedient and selfless soldier who ultimately quits a bad drinking habit, not to further his career, but because he believed that he had embarrassed his family, particularly his sister, after a drunken romp through her hometown in Michigan.It’s easy to see how his leadership style would translate to an office environment today.Unlike many under MacArthur’s command, Custer’s men adored him.In fact, when Custer was promoted to major general and given the Third Division to command, many in the Michigan Brigade — which, Hatch contends, “had been molded into the most celebrated cavalrymen of the Army of the Potomac” — threatened to quit if they couldn’t come with him.“With Custer as leader we are all heroes and hankering for a fight,” said one man in the Third Division.