447. Custer vs. Crazy Horse: The Winning of the West (Part 2)

概览

This episode follows George Armstrong Custer after the Civil War, testing the romantic image of him as a charming cavalry hero against a darker record of political misjudgment, racism, poor discipline, personal instability, and frontier violence.

The hosts argue that Custer did not simply dream of the Great Plains. After the war he wanted status, wealth, New York society, political influence, and possibly a future beyond the army, but his choices repeatedly damaged his standing with senior officers such as Ulysses S. Grant.

The episode then shifts to the Plains, where US expansion, railroads, military pressure, Cheyenne resistance, and earlier atrocities such as Sand Creek lead into the Hancock expedition and finally Custer’s attack on Black Kettle’s village at the Washita River.

分段落总结

[00:44] Custer’s Myth and the Question of Fun

[事实] The hosts open with Ian Frazier’s portrayal of Custer as a figure whose fame represents “fun and myth” overcoming complicated history. [事实] They question whether Custer’s superiors truly loved him and whether the Plains were ever his real dream. [推测] The episode frames Custer as both glamorous and troubling, using his appeal to explain why his failures were often forgiven.

[04:35] The 1865 Victory Parade

[事实] On 23 May 1865, Custer led cavalry in a Washington, D.C. parade after the Civil War. [事实] During the parade, a woman threw him flowers, his horse bolted, and he dramatically controlled it while still holding the bouquet. [事实] Newspapers praised him as a romantic cavalry figure, and one report compared him to a Sioux chief. [推测] The hosts treat this episode as an example of Custer turning risk, spectacle, and self-display into public fame.

[07:30] Texas, Mexico, and Postwar Frustration

[事实] Custer was sent to Texas with General Sheridan after the war. [事实] The army wanted to enforce Union authority in Texas and keep pressure on events in Mexico, where Maximilian had been installed by Napoleon III. [事实] Custer disliked Texas and proved poor at managing soldiers when there was no dramatic cavalry action. [推测] His talents fit battlefield excitement better than routine command or occupation duty.

[08:45] Reconstruction and Custer’s Politics

[事实] Custer was a Democrat and had sympathies toward the South before the war. [事实] During Reconstruction, he was out of step with radical Republicans such as Sheridan, who wanted a harder line against former Confederates and stronger protections for freed people. [事实] The hosts describe Custer, his father Emmanuel, and his wife Libby as holding racist views. [推测] Custer’s politics made him unreliable in the eyes of officers who saw Reconstruction as central to the Union victory.

[11:01] New York Ambition

[事实] After leaving Texas in early 1866, Custer tried to reinvent himself in New York society. [事实] He associated with wealthy figures including John Jacob Astor III and wrote that he longed for wealth because of the power it brought. [事实] He visited a fortune teller who told him he was lucky and would live to old age, predictions the hosts note were wrong. [推测] His ambition appears to have mixed social climbing, politics, money, and a desire for celebrity.

[14:02] Mexico Blocked, Kansas Assigned

[事实] Custer wanted to go to Mexico to fight against Maximilian, and Grant initially wrote him a positive reference. [事实] The US secretary of state blocked the idea because sending such a famous figure would be diplomatically risky. [事实] Custer was instead posted to Kansas. [推测] For Custer, Kansas represented a major disappointment after dreams of New York status and Mexican adventure.

[14:39] The Andrew Johnson Tour and Grant’s Distrust

[事实] President Andrew Johnson campaigned against radical Republicans during the 1866 midterm elections in the “swing around the circle.” [事实] Custer joined Johnson, appeared on platforms, shouted at hecklers, and gave speeches. [事实] Grant and other officers were disturbed by Custer’s partisan behavior. [推测] This episode helped fix Grant’s view of Custer as attention-seeking and politically unsound.

[16:02] Kansas and the Postwar Army

[事实] The army had been cut sharply after the Civil War and was stretched by Reconstruction duties. [事实] Conditions for frontier soldiers were described as terrible, with poor uniforms, unreliable weapons, boredom, drinking, gambling, and prostitution. [事实] The Seventh Cavalry was not simply made up of “all-American” soldiers; many came from Germany, Ireland, Canada, and several European countries. [推测] The hosts present frontier service as grim, chaotic, and far less heroic than later mythology suggests.

[19:19] Frontier Boredom and Custer’s Restlessness

[事实] The hosts describe frontier life as intensely dull when it was not violent. [事实] Custer kept many animals, including dogs, and later had a menagerie with dogs, a pelican, and a porcupine. [事实] On a buffalo hunt, he accidentally shot his own horse while pursuing a buffalo, then found his way back to the Seventh Cavalry by luck. [推测] These stories reinforce the hosts’ view of Custer as impulsive, theatrical, and unusually able to turn danger into entertainment.

[23:12] Frederick Benteen’s Hatred of Custer

[事实] Captain Frederick Benteen despised Custer and also disliked Libby Custer. [事实] Benteen later became important because much evidence about Custer’s final days and the Little Bighorn comes through him. [事实] The hosts note that Benteen’s later choices at Little Bighorn have been heavily debated. [推测] Custer’s internal enemies within the army mattered because they shaped both events and later memory.

[25:18] Cheyenne, Railroads, and Expansion

[事实] The Cheyenne had moved across areas later known as Montana, Wyoming, the Dakotas, Colorado, Kansas, and Oklahoma. [事实] Horses and bison hunting became central to their way of life. [事实] Railroads and migration threatened Cheyenne land, buffalo, and mobility. [事实] Black Kettle represented negotiation, while the Dog Soldiers represented a more militant response. [推测] The hosts present Cheyenne resistance as a response to existential pressure rather than simple lawlessness.

[29:15] Sand Creek and Sherman’s War Policy

[事实] In 1864, a US volunteer cavalry unit attacked a village at Sand Creek and killed about 150 people, two-thirds of them women and children. [事实] The hosts describe Sand Creek as a horrific atrocity and say it helped inflame Cheyenne resistance. [事实] General William Tecumseh Sherman viewed conflict with Plains peoples as part of a larger racial and territorial struggle. [事实] Sherman sent Winfield Scott Hancock to command an expedition against the Cheyenne. [推测] The episode suggests that Civil War-style total warfare was being redirected toward the Plains.

[33:42] The Hancock Expedition

[事实] On 27 March 1867, Hancock marched out of Fort Riley with about 1,400 men. [事实] The expedition included famous figures such as Wild Bill Hickok, Henry M. Stanley, and Custer. [事实] Custer appeared in buckskin, carried revolvers, wore moccasins, and brought several hunting dogs. [推测] The expedition is presented as military theater as well as a campaign.

[35:30] A Failed Meeting with the Cheyenne

[事实] Hancock met Cheyenne leaders around a fire and spoke aggressively about war, railroads, and military power. [事实] Tall Bull explained that railroads harmed the buffalo and exposed Cheyenne people to attacks from travelers. [事实] Hancock dismissed these concerns and told them the railroads and roads had to continue. [推测] The hosts imply Hancock interpreted the meeting as disrespectful because he was already looking for a confrontation.

[37:41] Village Burning and Escalation

[事实] Hancock marched on Cheyenne villages and found them deserted. [事实] He ordered Custer to pursue the Cheyenne. [事实] Custer found a ravaged lookout station where several men had been killed and mutilated. [事实] Hancock then burned the Cheyenne villages, despite no proof that the villagers had committed the killings. [推测] The reprisals helped turn a tense confrontation into wider Cheyenne attacks across the territory.

[39:36] Custer’s Personal Crisis and Harsh Discipline

[事实] During the campaign, Custer was distracted by letters from Libby after some kind of marital conflict. [事实] His letters suggest he had looked at or pursued other women, though the exact conduct is unclear. [事实] He punished deserters and drunken soldiers harshly, including shooting at deserters and using barrel punishments. [推测] The hosts portray him as emotionally unstable and increasingly erratic during this period.

[41:12] Kidder’s Death and Custer’s Court-Martial

[事实] Sherman sent Lieutenant Kidder with orders for Custer, accompanied by a Lakota scout and ten men. [事实] Kidder’s party was ambushed and mutilated by Cheyenne warriors. [事实] Custer did not express guilt in the account discussed by the hosts, even though Kidder had been sent because Custer had not followed orders. [事实] Custer then ignored orders again, drove his men hard across the Plains, failed to search properly for missing men, and was arrested. [事实] In October 1867, he was found guilty of gross dereliction of duty and suspended for a year.

[44:19] Sheridan Brings Custer Back

[事实] Sheridan was moved west after political conflict over Reconstruction. [事实] Sheridan wanted Custer back because he valued his Civil War record and cavalry skill. [事实] Custer nevertheless campaigned against Grant in the presidential election by endorsing Horatio Seymour. [推测] Custer’s ability to survive repeated self-inflicted political damage shows how much his Civil War reputation still protected him.

[46:36] Medicine Lodge and the Dog Soldiers

[事实] A treaty at Medicine Lodge Creek put much of the Cheyenne onto a large reservation with schools, Western-style clothing, and farming. [事实] The hosts describe this as effectively ending the Cheyenne as an independent nomadic hunting people. [事实] The Dog Soldiers rejected this settlement and carried out violent raids in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Colorado. [事实] Sherman and Sheridan decided to campaign in winter, when Plains fighters were less likely to expect an attack. [推测] Winter campaigning gave the US Army a tactical way to strike settled villages rather than chase mobile war parties.

[48:17] The Washita Setup

[事实] Custer led his men through snow and blizzards and found a Cheyenne village on the Washita River. [事实] The village belonged to Black Kettle, who was associated with peace rather than war. [事实] Custer divided his force into four groups and ordered a dawn attack signaled by the tune “Garryowen.” [事实] When warned there might be more Indians than expected, Custer said there were not enough in the country to defeat the Seventh Cavalry. [推测] The hosts treat this confidence as a foreshadowing of Little Bighorn.

[50:13] The Attack on Black Kettle’s Village

[事实] Custer’s men attacked at dawn while the village was unprepared. [事实] The soldiers and Osage guides killed Cheyenne people, and the hosts describe atrocities including attacks on women and children. [事实] Custer told men to stop shooting women and children, but also ordered the men of the village killed. [事实] The soldiers killed 875 ponies and burned the village. [推测] The attack is presented as a massacre rather than a conventional battle.

[52:34] Hostages, Elliott, and Controversy

[事实] Custer’s force realized there was a larger village nearby and used captured women and children as hostages while withdrawing. [事实] The hosts identify this use of women and children as a tactic that may help explain Custer’s thinking at Little Bighorn. [事实] Major Elliott and 17 other men were later found killed after Custer did not search for them. [事实] Custer claimed 103 people were killed at Washita, though the hosts say others give lower numbers. [事实] The attack was controversial even in East Coast newspapers at the time.

[57:08] Captive Women and Allegations of Sexual Exploitation

[事实] Black Kettle’s 17-year-old niece Monahsetah was among the women captured. [事实] The hosts discuss reports that captive women were divided up and sexually exploited after Washita. [事实] They say these reports came from Cheyenne accounts and also from Custer’s own scouts, though some details remain uncertain. [推测] The episode treats the allegations as plausible but not fully provable in every detail.

[59:26] Custer Redeemed and Grant’s Peace Policy

[事实] Custer’s superiors were pleased with Washita and saw him as redeemed. [事实] Sheridan praised the action as one of the most complete and successful battles fought by the army. [事实] By 1869, the Dog Soldiers had been beaten, western Kansas and southern Nebraska had been cleared, and railroads and settlement could continue. [事实] Grant became president in March 1869 and promoted a “peace policy” involving Quakers, Methodists, evangelical Protestants, reservations, supplies, and assimilation. [推测] The hosts suggest that despite claims of a new peaceful era, the story is clearly moving toward renewed conflict with the Lakota Sioux and Little Bighorn.

播客点评/总结

This episode is valuable because it refuses a simple heroic or villainous portrait of Custer. It shows why he was admired, why he repeatedly survived disgrace, and why his charm, recklessness, politics, and violence are inseparable from the mythology around him.

Its strongest material is the connection between personal character and larger structures: Reconstruction politics, white supremacy, military expansion, railroads, Cheyenne resistance, and the export of Civil War methods to the Plains.

The main limitation is that the episode itself says a fuller treatment of Plains peoples, especially the Lakota Sioux, is still to come. Some issues, such as the exact treatment of captive women and Monahsetah’s later story, are presented as contested or uncertain.

[推测] This episode is best suited to listeners interested in Custer, the Indian Wars, Civil War aftermath, or how national myths form around violent and morally compromised events.