George Armstrong Custer

George Armstrong Custer (http://www.sonofthesouth.net/union-generals/custer/pictures/custer.jpg)

Have you ever wondered what the perfect hero would be like? Or what kind of qualities he/she would posses? I was thinking about those very questions not too long ago and when I received this report I knew right away who I was going to do my paper on, George Armstrong Custer. I believe this man is a hero because he gave his life for his country in what is probably the most iconic clash of American and Indian soldiers of all time. In this essay I will prove that George Armstrong Custer was a hero because, my definition of a hero is a person that you think of as a lifesaver or a great achiever. Someone you look up to. Anyone can be a hero, and I believe that George Custer meets my "standards" for a hero.

Custer was born on the 5th of December 1839, and he died on the 25th of June 1876 when he was killed during the battle of The Little Big Horn. Custer was born in New Rumley, Ohio. Since he was a soldier he didn't stay in one place for very long. He was in the military almost all his life, and died serving his country. It was something he felt he had to do. Custer’s actions changed history.

Symbolic Picture of Custer and Indians (http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/willow/george-a-custer0.gif)

I believe that Custer's actions during the battle of The Little Big Horn classify him as a hero. During this battle, since he was losing, he tried as hard as he could to save the lives of his soldiers. On June 25th and 26th Sioux and Cheyenne warriors defeated Col. Custer and his troops in the Little Big Horn valley. In the end, all of the Seventh Cavalry was killed except Custer’s horse, Comanche. The battlegrounds and surrounding areas are now referred to as Custer's Last Stand. The Indian warriors, led by Chief Sitting Bull, forged an attack on Custer and his men due to strong feelings caused by continued intrusions of white men on their sacred land, the Black Hills. People from then on looked at both Native Americans and American soldiers differently. Custer once said, "There are not enough Indians in the world to defeat the Seventh Cavalry". That quote is quite ironic since his men were outnumbered so badly. Also, Custer ordered his men to stack dead horses to form barricades as a defensive measure. Even though his men were getting slaughtered, he wouldn't retreat; he kept fighting, and finding ways to keep his men alive.

Custer also ordered his men to find “high cover”, which means to find a place where they could still fire upon the Indians, but have a smaller chance of getting hit by enemy fire. Custer then ordered his men to "push" the Indians down into the ravine, near the water in an attempt to defend his men against a lot of Indians in one quick maneuver. The actions of Custer, and his men, brought many casualties to both the Calvary men and the Indians. Custer also said, "You ask me if I will not be glad when the last battle is fought, so far as the country is concerned I, of course, must wish for peace, and will be glad when the war is ended, but if I answer for myself alone, I must say that I shall regret to see the war end."

People who wouldn’t have thought my person was a hero would have been almost every Indian alive at the time, as well as many white people. However, there was nothing they could do, there were no surviving Cavalry men, only Comanche, the only thing they could do was argue if Custer could be considered as a hero or not. No one tried to stop my hero either, since he was dead, and the government was handling the matter. During Custer’s life he didn't let people get to him, he was a military man.

I believe that if Custer were alive today he would give great advice to a 21st century child with a problem. He'd probably tell them things like; Stay strong and think straight no matter how bad or how big the issue. One of Custer's quotes, "My purpose is to make my narrative as truthful as possible", I believe, would be great advice to a child today, but only if it were explained so that the child could easily understand it.