Journal Notes

On this day more than one hundred and forty years ago, Elizabeth Custer was reading a letter her husband had written to her on their anniversary. Elizabeth was in Monroe, Michigan and George was with his troops thirty-five miles from Fort Cobb. “I have made a long march since writing you,” his letter began. We have been to try to bring in Indian villages. But our provisions became exhausted; there was no game…. General Sheridan and staff just rode up to my tent. He got here a day before us. I selected my campsite about a mile from him, then what does he do this morning but pick up his tents and come over beside me. He has done this before. Today is our wedding anniversary. I am sorry we cannot spend it together, but I shall celebrate it in my heart.” Elizabeth loved receiving letters from George. She poured over them repeatedly. He kept her well informed about his activities in the field and made her feel as though getting back to her again was his only reason for living. When he died on June 25, 1876, she not only lost her husband, but her best friend. A friend she would fight for until she passed from this life. Elizabeth studied what happened to George at the Little Bighorn and weighed it against the men involved in the battle and what she knew of them. She believed men like Frederick Benteen turned their back on the General and let him die rather than help him. She was steadfast in the truth she knew and never let Benteen or the others forget what they had done to George. Because of Elizabeth’s devotion, Benteen and fellow officer, Marcus Reno, never had a moment peace. She was relentless. Elizabeth Custer believed that injustice never rules forever. I feel the same way. You stand and stick by what you know is right and that’s just what I’m going to do with my brother. Even after he’s gone. Right will win out – and that’s a promise.

In mid-February 1872, George Custer was missing his wife terribly. He was in Kentucky and she was with family and friends shopping for clothes in Ohio. “I expect my Sunbeam is so deeply interested in the mysteries of clothes that all thoughts of her dear Bo are vanished. The little bouquet-holder you gave me stands before me holding a delicate pink rose with buds, and a spray of white flowers-reminding me of you.” At the conclusion of George’s note to his wife he wrote a short poem to her. “Love born only once in living, Truth that strengthens in the giving, Constancy beyond deceiving…” I think it’s safe to say that George loved his wife even though he had trouble at times with fidelity. And Elizabeth loved her husband and the romantic poems he penned. I never cared much for romantic poetry. With the exception of one witty rhyme, I don’t care much for poetry as a whole. Like Groucho Marx, “My favorite poem is the one that starts ‘Thirty days hath September’ because it actually tells you something.” I’m not crazy about the typical romance movie either. The dialogue never rings true. Some of the best romantic dialogue is found in a handful of my favorite westerns however. The dialogue in film Lone Star with Ava Gardner and Clark Gable is suggestive, but not verbose. For example, “Have you never heard of the word discretion, Mr. Jones?” Ava’s character asks Gable’s character, a man she finds quite attractive. “Oh, often. But I don’t approve of it. Do you?” In the film Many Rivers to Cross, actress Josephine Hutchinson describes her daughter’s feelings about the character actor Robert Taylor plays. “If he asked her to bring him the Ohio River in a saucepan, she’d do it.” I like the exchange between Henry Fonda and J. Farrell MacDonald about the woman Fonda’s character is in love with in the film My Darling Clementine. “Mack, you ever been in love?” Fonda playing Wyatt Earp asks. “No, I been a bartender all my life,” MacDonald’s character responds. And finally, the film The Naked Spur starring Madeleine Carroll and Preston Foster, has one of the best romantic lines of all time. “Do you love me,” Carroll’s character asks Foster’s character. “I might,” he replies, “but I don’t want to.”

On February 11, 1864, Judge Bacon wrote a short letter from Monroe Michigan to his nieces in Richmond, Virginia to tell them about his daughter, Elizabeth and her new husband, George Custer’s honeymoon schedule. “The wedding pair went from Cleveland to Buffalo thence to Rochester where they saw “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” Then to Onandaga, to the home of my brother-in-law, husband of my sister Charity. On Sunday afternoon they went to church, but, the weather being inclement, Libbie wore her traveling suit. But it cleared off, and at afternoon church the new things were exhibited…very gratifying to her friends (also to her Mother when she read about it). All the fixings were examined, and from the “Oh’s” and “Exquisites” in the letters I judge the friends were pleased (with her new wardrobe). Their time was divided between the Smiths and Dr. J’s, and at each they were feasted on turkey and sugar-coated cake. On Monday morning they left for Howlett’s Hill, but before train time the wardrobe was displayed to friends and relatives who had not seen it. At the height of the exhibition the porter called for their baggage, and all hands fell to packing. Armstrong among the number. He got entangled in a hoop skirt, whereon Amelia called “Surrender!”…” Judge Bacon missed his only child terrible after she married and moved away. No matter what he tried to do, he keenly felt her absence and envied George Custer’s time with her. I’m trying desperately to allow God to take away all bitterness from my heart over my brother’s absence. I continue to miss him terribly. I feel it more so now because I will be making a trip to see him soon. I don’t relish seeing the way he’s changed. His face is large, bloated from the medication, he has no teeth, and he shakes all the time from Parkinsons. I envy Judge Bacon because he knew his daughter would come home to him. I do not have the same hope about Rick.

The Elizabeth Custer book Howard Kazanjian and I wrote entitled None Wounded, None Missing, All Dead will be in bookstores everywhere in May. In preparation for the release of this title I am going to chronicle what George and Elizabeth Custer were doing at this time in 1864. Fortunately, Elizabeth kept a journal and the letters George wrote survived the years, so keeping track of what they were doing some 147 years ago is easy to find out. The two were married on February 9, 1864. Elizabeth’s father wasn’t sure at first that George was the perfect man for his daughter, but as time went on he grew to appreciate the brash, young Civil War hero. Judge Bacon, Elizabeth’s father, wrote a friend about the ceremony and how he was dealing with losing his only child. “On Tuesday evening Libbie was married. All went off remarkably well, and no mistake made. It was said to be the most splendid wedding ever seen in the State. From one to two hundred more in the church than ever before and as many unable to enter for want of room. The number at our house afterwards estimated at three-hundred. I did not act the babe as I had feared I might at parting, for I had schooled myself beforehand. None of us slept that first night, fearing burglars, by yesterday I placed the silver in the Bank, and we went to bed at seven to make up for lost sleep. My wife looks well. Everybody said the house and fixings were all right, and the entertainment elegant.” Judge Bacon and his wife gave the newlyweds a Bible as a wedding gift. I believe that Bible is on display at the museum in Elizabeth’s home town of Monroe, Michigan. Elizabeth had two nieces that she was particular fond of and who helped take care of her in her old age. She was quite proud of them. Reading about their dedication to her made me think of my own nieces and how special they are to me. My niece Melissa suggested I write about the five of them instead of focusing on the sadness and loss in life. I think she’s right. It doesn’t seem possible that my nieces Melissa, Naomi, and Amanda could have children of their own now. My twin nieces, Taylor and Jordan are now Juniors in high school. I am proud of all of them and love them deeply. Elizabeth bragged that her nieces were “extraordinary women who far and away exceeded her dreams for them.” I look forward to saying the same about my girls.

It wasn’t until I began working on the book about Elizabeth Custer that I knew how much she and George wanted a child. Elizabeth often wrote her husband about her desire to have a son or daughter. She reproached herself for not being able to get pregnant. George was sweet and reassured her that in time, they would be parents, but it never happened. As years past they grew to think that it was a blessing they couldn’t have children. The discomforts associated with childbirth and raising a baby in army life in the 1800s, and the many separations they endured helped to convince Elizabeth it was for the best. The couple was married for more than 12 years before George was killed at the Little Bighorn and although they were devoted to one another, I can’t help but wonder if their marriage might have been stronger if they’d been able to have a child. George had a bit of a roving eye – who knows if having an heir might have made him see things differently. Times were different in the Old West, but the desire to have a child at one time or another hasn’t seemed to dissipate as the centuries have rolled on. People long for a sense of family. I lost a child years ago and could never have any again after that. I always wonder how that would have changed my life and how it would have changed my ex-husband’s life if he had known. It doesn’t necessarily follow that your child will love you or be devoted to you I don’t suppose. I’ve seen enough of that in my lifetime to know that’s true. I never imagined children would make false accusation that would send a good man to his death. However, it happens all the time and recent news stories bear that out. It doesn’t stand to reason that those children will be quality individuals at all and not manipulate relatives with proclamations of “I love you and care about you” then announce “they are done trying to have a relationship with you.”  Given all the horrible things, those children have done how could I have believed that anyway?  (By the way, one of those grown children check this website daily).  It doesn’t necessarily mean that people who have children are going to love their child either. My biological father left when I was seven and never looked back. He had a roving eye too and like George Custer, rumors that he had children with women other then his wife continue to swirl about. George’s nieces helped to take care of her in her old age. They were a great comfort to her and she remembered their faithfulness in her will. No matter how she reasoned the desire away, I believe Elizabeth would have preferred to have her own children around her. A physical presence to remind her of the love her and George shared. She spent a lifetime defending his reputation. It would have been nice to look on the faces of their offspring and see George in their eyes. I think that would have made her immensely happy.

The Yuma Territorial Prison was a brutal place for criminals to be sent. The first seven inmates entered the Territorial prison at Yuma, Arizona on July 1, 1876. They were locked into cells that they had constructed with their own hands. In the coming 33 years, a total of 3,069 prisoners, including 29 women, lived in the prison. Their crimes ranged from murder to polygamy, with grand larceny being the most common. During that time, 111 of the prisoners died, mostly from tuberculosis, but even so, the stories indicate that some of them never left this place, even in death. Prison officials considered the punishments they imposed on the prisoners to be very humane for the time and mostly consisted of the “dark cell”, a place of isolation for the rule breakers, and a ball and chain for those who tried to escape. By 1907, the prison was severely overcrowded. The convicts constructed a new facility in Florence and the last of them were transferred away from Yuma by September 1909. Because of the situation with my brother, I’ve been a frequent visitor of prisons around the United States. The federal facility in Beaumont, Texas was only slightly worse than the prison in Leavenworth, Kansas and both places are worse than any Old West prison I’ve researched and that includes the Yuma Territorial Prison. It has been seven years now and I still cannot come to terms with what has happened to Rick. Over the last two years, I’ve prayed that I would die rather than endure anymore of the heartache. Nevertheless, here I am. I work nonstop on a series of western books and have found at times it’s the only thing that keeps me going. Today I’ll focus again on the book about Sam Sixkiller and outlaw Jack Powers. Justice comes a lot more swiftly to the people I write about than it does to the bad in real life.

With rare exception (Bill Tilghman, Nellie Cashman, Sam Sixkiller), writing about outlaws is much more interesting to me than writing about the good guys. Perhaps it’s because finding a truly good guy to write about is a bit more difficult. At the beginning of his career in law enforcement, Sheriff Henry Plummer struck people as being a good guy, but he quickly dispelled that notion. In January 1864, a gang of holdup men and murderers known as ‘road agents,’ led by Sheriff Plummer, were preying on traveling miners who had found gold near Bannack and Virginia City, in eastern Idaho Territory. A Committee of Vigilance was quickly formed in haste and the gang was destroyed, as more than two dozen outlaws were hanged in accordance with ‘hemp justice.’ It seems to me that catching up with the true bad guy was much more simpler back then and dealing with them much more swift. Now of days the worst of the bad guys hide behind a computer screen. The internet has spawn so many cowards. I think about the cowards that posted threats on my website a few years back, leaving behind false names. A sophisticated tracking device led authorities to the coward, but the point is the threats were still made and left by a coward with a false name for all the world to see. They sit out there in the dark writing their vile emails and leave no way for the person they sent them to to respond. At least when Henry Plummer struck there was no mistake it was him. Toward the end of his career he admitted what he had done. Of course that confession came at the end of a rope, but he did confess. If the Old West teaches anything it’s that justice comes to outlaws, thugs, manipulators, cheats, and liars. It may take awhile, but justice does come. After doing an interview this morning for the Chronicle of the Old West radio program, I’ll go back to writing about a good guy who made sure criminals of all kinds were introduced to justice. Sam Sixkiller was a lawman who didn’t tolerate duplicity. How satisfying it must have been to see a coward get what was coming to him.

There have been many frauds perpetrated on face book. Not too long ago, a friend of mine in Texas had a video posted to her site and a message under the video that read, “Chris, what are you doing in this video?” If you clicked on the video, you were quickly led to a site where someone tried to sell you life insurance. My friend from Texas didn’t think anything of it at first because the initial posting was in keeping with her interests. I’m sure she received all kinds of irritated response for reasons she could not immediately understand. I had something similar to that happen yesterday. The post hacked into my site brought up no initial flares because it was a posting in keeping with my interest anyway. Anyone who has read the face book posting about supporting my brother Rick would have known that. At first, I was devastated by the response I received from an angry, self-righteous individual. I took a long look at the article associated with the post and decided it was wrongly placed on the face book page – it really belongs on this site. It is an amazing news story. Since I deleted the post on face book I can’t remember the address for the link, but the story itself was fascinating. “A young mother who falsely cried rape, sending an innocent man to prison for nearly four years, will experience firsthand what he suffered — she’ll spend one to three years behind bars for perjury. “I wish her the best of luck,” said William McCaffrey last night of Biurny Peguero Gonzalez. “Jail isn’t easy.” McCaffrey, 33, of The Bronx, was locked up after Gonzalez accused him of raping her at knifepoint on a Bronx street back in 2005. It was a lie she repeated to doctors, cops, prosecutors, a grand jury and the jury that convicted McCaffrey. Steven Hirsch THE PRICE OF DECEIT: Biurny Peguero Gonzalez gets slapped into cuffs yesterday in Manhattan court for concocting a “rape” that ruined a man’s life — all to cover herself for ditching her girlfriends. “What happened in this case is one of the worst things that can possibly happen in our criminal-justice system,” Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Charles Solomon said as he pronounced sentence. McCaffrey said he has some sympathy for Gonzalez and hopes she “doesn’t go through what I went though. “I was an accused rapist in prison,” he said, adding that in prison, “rape is the worst crime possible.” All is clearly not forgiven. A person who would “lie and paint somebody as a rapist is worse than a real rapist or a real murderer,” McCaffrey said. He also blamed “the arresting officers, the prosecution.” Everyone, he said, “wanted to believe the lie, the ADA [assistant district attorney] first and foremost.” Judge Solomon said, “It’s hard to imagine why anyone could have done this.” It turned out Gonzalez robbed McCaffrey of four years of his life for the most trivial of reasons. She’d been hanging out with a group of girlfriends when she accepted an invitation to get into his car. After she returned, her pals were furious that she’d ditched them — so she made up the rape story to gain their sympathy. She will be eligible for parole in a year — after serving a one-quarter of the time her victim was imprisoned. Gonzalez was taken away after making a tearful apology to McCaffrey, who was not in court. She also begged for mercy on behalf of her two sons, ages 3 months and 7 years. “To Mr. McCaffrey, I am aware that nothing I do or say to him can bring back the years he spent in jail,” she said. “I want him to know I will carry this guilt for the rest of my life.” Given everything that’s gone on with my brother, I can see why this article would not raise any initial flags with me. I am sorry for anyone who might have been bothered by insurance sales representatives and then thought to email me to tell me “They were through trying to have a relationship with me.” Maybe what bothered them had nothing to do with the insurance angle at all. Either way, what is done is done. From what understand that’s the mantra of the person who emailed me anyway.