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George Armstrong Custer had a major affect on the United States!. Our continent's noblest general was George Washington; it's most feared general was probably General Sherman; the most personally violent general was undoubtedly Andrew Jackson!. If we were to go on through the list of high titles and admirable qualities - most brilliant, most significant, most visionary, etc!. - we would not find General Custer on it untill we got to a title that is not normally associated with military life!. George Armstrong Custer was America's prettiest general!. His golden hair and his fine features made him a favorite of newspaper-men and newspaper-ladies alike, and he never hesitate to oblige them with a smile and a quote, and even a kiss should the occassion arise and the requester be not too offensive in manner or odor!.

Custer's physical attractiveness did much to soothe the conscience of the nation at a delicate time!. The treaties and agreements by which Native Americans had been removed from their ancestral homelands and confined upon reservations were causing a lot of problems on both sides!. The Indians were frustrated and wanted to go out more!. The whites wished they'd never signed the treaties in the first place!. Gold had been discovered in the Black HIlls, so the whites wondered why should they be bound by agreements they'd made before anybody know what was really at stake!?

Tension on both sides was running high, as evidenced by the interest in stories about scalping which circulated in those days!. Scalping - on obscure custom no longer much practiced today - involves removing a patch of skin from the top of a person's head, with the hair still attached!. The scalp can be kept at home in a box or sack, or it can be pierced with a needle attached to some thread and carried around, along with scalps taken earlier!.

(Though many people associate scalping with Native Americans, it is, in fact, a very old custom!. The Parthians, a war-like people who occupied what is now Iran, used to decorate their clothes with the scalps of their enemies!.)

Usually, the person who is scalped is already dead, although there are some recorded instances of the scalping of living people!. The most famous of these, as related by Evan S!. Connell in his biography of Custer, was William Thompson, who had the top of his head violently removed in 1867, and whose tanned scalp remained on display in the Omaha Public Library until at least 1967!. According to a book by John Hoyt Williams published in 1996, it was then loaned to the Unition Pacific Railroad Museum in Council Bluffs, Iowa, where, as of a dozen years ago, it could still be seen "perched on a Lucite skull!."

Custer, in his book "My Life on the Plains," wrote a great deal about scalping!. This barbaric practice exemplified the beastliness of the Indians he hunted!. But scalping was not only practiced by Indians!. In fact, scalping of Indians by non-native Americans and by Mexicans was an established method of punishment and control during these times of conflict!. In 1837 the government of Chihuahua offered $100 for the scalp of any young male Indian, and $50 for the scalp of a woman!. In Frederick Albion Ober's travel book, published in 1887, he reports that this policy of murder was very effective in reducing attacks by Apaches on the ranchers!. Custer was one of the leading Indian hunters of his era!.

To understand Custer's influence on the United States, you have to know what he looked like!. Evan Connell's biography includes a great description of Custer in 1867:

"!.!.!.mounted like a conquistador on a coal-black stallion, backed up by his regiment in dress unifrom!. He wore a blue tunic with gold epaulettes and tassels and stripes, yellow-striped gray trousers, white kid gloves!. A saber dangled at his side!. On his head stood a high polished helmet with an eagle insignia topped by a scarlet plume!. There he posed, stiff as a mannequin, this mustached hero with the chiseled face, electric blue eyes, long yellow hari - a magazine illustrator's dream!."

Note the "long yellow hair!." Custer was a good looking man, but his most important feature was his hair!. Usually, long golden hair is more important in a woman than in a man, but in this case the hair is crucial!. Remember, the key image of violence on the western frontier is the bloody, hairless scalp!. With his beautiful features, his blue eyes and his lovely blond hair, Custer helped the United States remember that it, not the Indians, was on the right side of the war!. A good way to understand this is to watch one of the Disny movies, and look at the various princes and princesses!. Don't they have beautiful hair!? Custer's hair was just such a bundle of perfect goodness!.

In 1876, while attempting to destroy an Indian village, Custer ran into trouble!. The village was in fact a large encampment full of Indian warriors, including Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse!. Ouch! Custer attacked, thinking he was going to have a quick murderous romp through the village, but things turned around, and suddely he was the victim!. Although his hair, by this time, had been cut short, later representations of the battle often show him with long, gleaming ringlets!. In the wake of his defeat, his curls look very vulnerable!. Only a few parts of his body were recoverd, and not very much of his hair!.

Custer became a martyr, and his delightful yellow hair made Americans feel better about the unpleasant steps they had to take (scalping, for instance), to rid the west of Indians!.

Now that so much time has based, the spell of Custer's hair has somewhat worn off!. This leaves the United States vulnerable again to guilt!. The solution: Indian gaming casinos! And the growth of the Indian casino industry since Custer has been more or less forgotten just shows how much work his yellow hair once did!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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He didn't really affect the United States at all!. He was a pretty good soldier in the Civil war as long as he was supervised!. But on his own with full responsibility for everything, he showed that he wasn't really good command material!.

The incident at Little Big Horn wasn't a turning point for either side, whites or indians!. The outcome of the battle might have been much different if Custer had paid attention to his business but the outcome of the white-indian conflict was inevitable!.

Custer had no more 'affect' on the U!.S!. history than any other Army officer of the time!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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He was a total military idiot -seeking glory that he did not get in the civil war
He was the same type as Frank Burns on mash when left in charge of the unit just an idiot
As far as affect he fill a page in history and not a very big page at that
Herodotu at least you think he was handsome!!! You worry meWww@QuestionHome@Com

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Custer had some limited effect during the civil war,he was a courageous and talented calvary commander in the field and thought well on the move, a good counterpart to the outstanding confederate calvary he faced!.!.!.Under the command of a great calvary commander like Phil sheridan he should have done well post war, however his flamboyance and big mouth along with no patience for peace time military politics kept him in one fiasco or another for the remainder of his life/career!.his wife had political ties and some influence and managed to get him recalled to duty after a year suspension when the army had planned to just cashier him out and let him rot, so he was reinstated but given a command buried in indian country with little or no chance of advancement back to general (he'd been a brevete general,but slid back to his rank of Lt Colonel after the end of the civil war) !. The ill advised ofensive into the black hills wasnt Custers fault or his plan, Gen!. Miles,Terry and Gibbon came up with that "brainstorm" where in 3 seperate commands would move into the region of the little big horn and force the "renegade" indians there back to their various agencies ,as any that hadnt returned on their own by the deadline were considered hostile!. Custer did however choose to leave his field guns (pack howitzers)and support weapons ( 2-3 gatling type guns) behind as they'd slow him down and he wanted to reach the hostiles first and grab some of the glory, for the same reason he chose to leave his supply train with his food and more importantly all his extra ammo behind under Benteens command, !.!.and so on into history!.!.as for any effect he had, he is a footnote, a very small footnote who played little or no importance,and if not for being killed at little big horn would be unknown to most today ( except for maybe a note or two in Foote about his civil war engagments)!.!.but thanks to the actions of his wife after his death and a few hollywood movies we are stuck with Geo A Custer !.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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