[katana]

Crazy Horse and Custer: The Parallel Lives of Two American Warriors was an excellent read. It stated that Custer, whose family in Michigan was heavily involved in Democrat politics, intended to hop a train back to St. Louis after "taking care of the Sioux and Cheyenne" and attend the Democratic presidential convention, he and his handlers hoping to win the nomination by acclamation.

Frankly, if it had gone that way he would have stood an excellent chance of succeeding Grant running on the Democrat ticket. The eventual nominee, Tilden, won the popular vote and only lost (by one EC vote) after all 20 disputed Electoral College votes were given to Hayes. The deal being a guarantee by Republicans to withdraw Federal forces from the former Confederacy, end Reconstruction, and let the Democrats resume unbridled control .

If all this was all in fact his plan and intention, my only sorrow is for the other men he misled to their deaths. By this account he was in a hurry for glory and the White House, and they paid the price for his hubris, ambition, and gross incompetence.

[Mariner]

“By this account he was in a hurry for glory and the White House, and they (the men) paid the price for his hubris, ambition, and gross incompetence. “

That’s the whole story right there.

A thoroughly incompetent, ambitious man in a military (or other) leadership position. We’ve seen it dozens of times in our history.

It’s one of the pitfalls of a democratic republic.

And testimony to the long term, endemic weakness of a professional military. Regrettably, necessary in an empire or emerging empire.