UBC: With Custer's Cavalry

[truepenny]

Fougera, Katherine Gibson. With Custer's Cavalry. 1942. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1986.

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This book is the memoir of Katherine Garrett Gibson; since it has no critical apparatus, it's impossible to tell how much of what we get is what she herself wrote and how much she was edited and/or expanded by her daughter (Katherine Gibson Fougera). I don't say this because I suspect Fougera of misrepresenting her mother's text, but just to signal that there is no way to tell.

Katherine Garrett Gibson went west to live with her sister, Mollie Garrett MacIntosh, a year or two before Little Big Horn. As Mollie was the wife of one of Custer's lieutenants (also killed at L.B.H.), Katherine's narrative is full of the officers of the Seventh Cavalry; General Custer himself, with his brother Tom, teaches her how to ride and shoot, and her friends are all officers who will die at L.B.H. and their wives. (Her own eventual husband, another of Custer's lieutenants, would have been at L.B.H. except for a premonition which caused her to nag him into rejecting the transfer.)

Katherine Gibson and her narrative are very much products of her time, with all the racism, classism, sexism, and other toxic ideologies that implies; this is not a deep or thoughtful look at Custer's Seventh Cavalry and its fate (she clearly idolizes Elizabeth Custer, and she remains unthinkingly loyal to the closed society she married into, even when her narrative itself suggests points of criticism). But it is keenly observed and full of fascinating details: my favorite is Senora Nash, the Mexican wife of one of the sergeants, the best laundress, cook, and midwife in the regiment--who is revealed upon her death to have been a man. (Katherine Gibson is baffled by this, and offers an elaborate explanation about a Mexican bandit escaping justice and Sergeant Nash's gluttony.) And since apparently I'm researching something to do with Custer, this was an excellent book to have on the plane.

Comments

[fidelioscabinet.livejournal.com]

I didn't realize until I read Son of the Morning Star that one of the principal reasons we are not allowed (for certain values of "we" and "are not allowed"*) to think of George Armstrong Custer as anything other than a gallant hero is the result of Elizabeth Custer's diligent propaganda work.

I do hope that whatever you do includes Senora Nash--the Old West was a must more complicated place than the dime novels ever hinted--shall we consider Charlie Parkhurst of the Wells Fargo?

*Despite all the people who could provide contrary first hand evidence, including the majority of Custer's commanding officers and most of his contemporaries in the service. It's amazing how long it took to go back and re-evaluate the man, and he was a great big fat target begging to be dismantled.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

The cult of Elizabeth Custer is even stronger in With Custer's Cavalry than the cult of Custer himself. I find it a little creepy.

[disassembly_rsn]

It's amazing how long it took to go back and re-evaluate the man, and he was a great big fat target begging to be dismantled.

I was told once during a lecture at university that this was because Mrs. Custer lived to be 90+, and thus outlived most of her husband's colleagues. (In other words, I don't have a reference to back this up.)

[fidelioscabinet.livejournal.com]

That sounds about right, from what I recall. She wrote a great deal, both while he was a live and after Little Big Horn, and many who felt differently hesitated to say much, partly because it would be rude, don't you know, grieving widow and all that, and it wasn't as if disputing things would bring anyone back to life anyway, after all...so her efforts at maintaining a carefully-scripted legend stood.

[sovay]

Senora Nash, the Mexican wife of one of the sergeants, the best laundress, cook, and midwife in the regiment--who is revealed upon her death to have been a man.

That's awesome.