Court Martial of General George Armstrong Custer by Douglas C. Jones

Author:Douglas C. Jones [Jones, Douglas C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Alternate History
ISBN: 9780446823333
Amazon: 0446823333
Publisher: I Books
Published: 2006-01-02T07:00:00+00:00

14

Monday morning. And Gardiner is still disturbed over the letters. He is more convinced than ever that the Army must somehow rid itself of George Custer, but it is distressing to him that someone is willing to use such things as the letters to help the process along. Over a long, cold Sunday he has stayed in his room, reading, lashing himself from time to time for not having taken the letters so he could bum them.

Now, as Elizabeth Custer re-enters the courtroom for the first time since Weir’s death, he looks at her closely. Her hair is waved back over each ear, a neat bun at the back, over which perches a dainty furtrimmed hat. Does she really dye it?

His eyes linger too long on the Custers—they now march down the aisle together, George no longer making the dramatic, solitary entrance of the first day. Standby and Autie!

“W’ell, Major,” Schofield says loudly.

Gardiner wheels around. “Sir, all parties to the trial present when the court was recessed are now present.” “Carry on, please.”

“I call Colonel John Gibbon.”

Gibbon is a handsome man, his face is angular with hair swept back across a high brow, clear, wellset eyes, and a generally pleasant expression to his lips, visible between moustache and chin whiskers which, unlike the hair on his head, have begun to turn white. His cheeks are clean-shaven. He wears the uniform of colonel, although during the war he had attained the rank of brigadier general and had won renown as commander of the Iron Brigade. He identifies himself as commander now of the 7th Infantry Regiment, stationed at Fort Shaw, Montana Territory. The members of the court attend his words carefully, for he is a highly respected officer throughout the Army.

“On June 25 my column and General Terry’s arrived at the mouth of the Little Bighorn and started our march south. On the 27th we came into the broad valley where the fight had occurred, although we didn’t know it at the time.” Gibbon sits comfortably, his hands laced across his flat belly. His testimony is unhurried and he gazes about the room confidently. “Our scouts told us there was a large encampment ahead. In a broad, open valley. Before we could arrive there, our scouts brought in some Crows who had been with Custer. We thought they had been sent by General Custer to communicate with us, but we soon found that not to be the case. They told a horrible story— wild in the extreme, it seemed to us—that General Custer and his entire regiment had been butchered by Sioux and Cheyenne. General Terry and I asked them many questions. We could hardly believe such a tale. But there was great apprehension. We had seen clouds of smoke up ahead and our Indians were acting scary. Finally, as we marched into the valley, we could see evidence of a large village. But all the Sioux had fled.”

Gibbon pauses, brushing down the ends of his moustache with his fingertips. Custer sits with a fur-lined cape pulled up around his shoulders.

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