Why not to ask general custer for battle advice?

Question

general custer advice

Answer 1

because he was not a very good general

he led his small army against 4,000 Indians, and his army was massacred  

Answer 2

because he'll tell you to stand your ground and you'll get slaughtered. All for the good of country, but still...

Answer 3

What's ironic is how many people over the years have said Custer made a huge mistake dividing his forces even though it was not an uncommon strategy, Robert E. Lee as well as other Civil War generals did it.

Something tells me that the survivors of his command were glad that he divided his forces, if he hadn't they too would have been killed.

The biggest problem at Little Bighorn was that the indians were better armed due to the superior weapons they were given by the U.S. government "to be used for hunting only" while Custer and his men had to use obsolete guns that routinely jammed.

Answer 4

There are several reasons why one should not ask General Custer for battle advice, and in my view it relates not so much to the fact that he lost his final battle, because many great warriors lose their final batte.  The following reasons for not seeking out his advice are more important:  firstly, he graduated last in his class at West Point and his entrance into the army was expedited so that he could join the Civil War.  The next reason would be he went AWOL at least once in his career and was court martialed.  He was kicked out of the army for a year and then rejoined once the Indian Wars were in full swing.  Another reason that I would not ask him for advice is because he hated his enemies (the natives) so much that he failed to respect them for what they were . . . intelligent and resourceful humans who were only defending their land and their way of life.  The final reason relates the fact that he failed to keep firm control of his troops at the Little Big Horn.  He was woefully out numbered and needed a much better strategy that he employed.  About one third of his troops panicked and fled or fought in isolation.  He failed to take charge and take command.  History has not always been kind to George Custer and I believe that his demise was both just and expected.

Answer 5

Not an expert but apart from his other failings already mentioned here, Custer, I believe, once he made a decision would not reverse his decision as he would not countenance being wrong. I seem to remember at Little Big Horn he was expecting support (from Terry?) that did not materialise due to encounters with bands of Indians, and Custer, rather than delay or reassess the situation went ahead with the attack.

So I might take advice from him, but only if I were able to make decisions ‘on the hoof’ that might conflict with Custer’s advice.

Answer 6

Basically because he was an idiot willing to trade the lives of his men for his own personal glory. His only motivation for joining the military was personal fame.  He obviously knew nothing about milltary strategy.

Answer 7

He divided his forces.  Never divide your force.  He was expecting to encounter a tribe that was getting ready to run, he was out numbered heavily.  And his main collumn paid the price.  

Answer 8

How'd he make out at Little Big Horn?

Then the Seventh Cavalry went to Wounded Knee to "avenge" him.

Shameless.

Answer 9

Custer fought brilliantly successful campaigns v the plains indians in the middle of winter that his colleagues thought impossible - his entire force was not wiped in 1876 only one of three squadrons led by Custer -the others survived.  Custer was not a racist murderer he was a zealous professional soldier fighting against an enemy who  broke treaties with monotonous regularity.

Answer 10

Look up The Battle of Little Big Horn. Custer got his entire troop wiped out.

Answer 11

Custer was an egotistical cowardly racist murderer and he got what he deserved!

Answer 12

I don't think he was bright, but very lucky, but in the end, he got his men killed.

Men like Custer, (who Graduated LAST in his class in 1863)  were referred to as Goats of their class in West Point. In other words they graduated at the bottom of their class. There are two basic types of Goat. Charles Nelson Warner, for example, Goat of 1862, was the type who struggles with his studies, finds himself in over his head, but hangs on to graduate at the very bottom. The other model was the intelligent and talented cadet to whom grades and class rank were less important than pranks, socializing, and other pursuits. These were men like George Custer, George Pickett, and Henry Heth, who might well have excelled at their studies had the pursuit of knowledge been more compelling than the lure of good times. They and their comrades lived on the edge, seeking new and inventive ways of skirting the rules, and rising to the occasion only when the situation absolutely demanded it.

James Whistler got expelled. Whistler was another good-time Charlie, a West Point legacy whom everyone loved but he could not stay out of trouble. In his third year he failed chemistry by misidentifying silicon as a gas. Superintendent Robert E. Lee reviewed his record and tried to be lenient (as he had been in the past), but Whistler had too many demerits and had to leave. "If silicon had been a gas,” he later said, “I would have been a major general." But, as Marcus Reno noted, if he had then no-one would have known about his mother.

How good was "Custer's luck"?

Pretty darn good until the end. Custer got out of many scrapes at West Point that led to the expulsion of others. And in the Civil War he was within inches of death many times. It says something that the expression became a commonplace throughout the Army. Custer took great risks, for great rewards. But ultimately his luck ran out.

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Answer 13

Would you want Frank Burns for a doctor ?? Thats about the kind of idiot Custer wasBoth my Grandfathers were on the winning side"That day"

Answer 14

Would you ask strategic advice from a man that graduated last in his class at West Point?