Readorama: Custer no ‘arrogant fool’ in new biography

Only days before the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg, Union army cavalry Lt. George A. Custer dug a black velveteen jacket out of his bags.

The coat was double-breasted — the kind generals wore — and featured eight buttons on each side, as well as five parallel lines of gold embroidery on its forearm sleeves.

When a telegram arrived confirming Custer’s promotion to brigadier general he pulled the jacket on, accessorizing it with a red cravat.

T.J. Stiles, author of “Custer’s Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America,” believes Custer had secured the coat much earlier and stowed it away, waiting for the appropriate moment.

If Custer’s fashion choice illustrates his flamboyance and perhaps unseemly hunger for advancement, it also suggests he was a shrewd commander, Stiles said.

“Custer, by putting on this attention-getting costume, was sending a signal to his men that he would be at the front of them,” Stiles said.

“It was an expression of confidence, but also a way of motivating his men, who knew that the enemy would be able to pick Custer out. It says something about Custer’s ambitions, but it also says something about his confidence and his understanding of the Civil War battlefield, where men are fighting within sight of one another.”

After a subsequent successful cavalry charge at Gettysburg, the long-haired Custer emerged a romantic hero. “Boy General of the Golden Locks,” read one headline. During the May 1865 review of Union Army troops in Washington, a Pennsylvania newspaper described Custer on a horse as a heroic figure who “should have lived in a less sordid age.”

That, Stiles said, is “certainly the way Custer saw himself.”

Custer, among the most examined of American historical figures, today is chiefly known for his 1876 death at Little Bighorn. Stiles, however, decided to examine Custer from a variety of perspectives.

That includes his complicated relationship with women and his unsuccessful quest for wealth on Wall Street. It also includes Custer’s contemporary perception as a careless officer who led his soldiers into disaster in Montana, which Stiles believes is too convenient a shorthand.

“When people make Custer the symbol of how they feel about the federal policies toward Native Americans, Custer is made to bear the weight of that history,” Stiles said.

“He has some culpability. But to deride him and dismiss him as an arrogant fool comes from the same desire to express disappointment and anger at the long history of dispossession of American Indians.

“Ironically, running Custer down diminishes the magnitude of the Indians’ victory at Little Bighorn. The Sioux and Cheyenne warriors defeated Custer in an act of skill, courage and tactical leadership.”

Stiles speaks at 6:30 p.m. Monday at the Kansas City Public Library’s Plaza branch, 4801 Main St. RSVP at kclibrary.org.

Real magic

Cisley’s Uncle Asa, an illusionist, operates a popular magic show.

But Asa’s sister, Marina — Cisley’s mother — is the real deal. She has the true gift of magic and she knows Asa is jealous of it. “… I know how much you want what I have,” she writes Asa before disappearing, quite literally, before an audience.

Cisley finds this note and reads it. What to do?

The readers of “A Bitter Magic,” the eighth children’s novel written by Roderick Townley of Leawood, would forgive the 12-year-old Cisley for a few major eye-rolls.

“The book is for middle-grade readers, ages 9 and up, with the emphasis on the ‘up,’ ” Townley said.

“It gets complex, dealing with class prejudice and a child’s isolation. The story is about the distinction between illusion and real magic, which is … deeper than pimples on prom night.”

“I especially like the growth of Cisley from an isolated child to someone very powerful, as she realizes she has powers she never really thought about before, not realizing that she may have some of her mother’s abilities.”

A launch party begins at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Leawood Pioneer Library, 4700 Town Center Drive. Townley also will speak at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 16 at the Lawrence Public Library, 707 Vermont St.

This story was originally published November 8, 2015 at 2:00 AM with the headline "Readorama: Custer no ‘arrogant fool’ in new biography."