October 2, 2004 - Constancy is a virtue in a commander. So is confidence. A commander must have confidence in his troops and be consistent in his belief that they have the capacity to follow a plan to a confident conclusion. Colonel Custer was such a leader. His consistent and unwavering belief in his troops led them through scrape after scrape in the Civil War achieving objective after objective in feats of arms that others declared impossible. Audacious leadership and the resultant accolades made him one of the youngest US officers to wear a General’s star.

That morning in 1876 the Colonel was the victim of faulty intelligence. His mission was to round up the insurgent Sioux and Northern Cheyenne and herd them back onto the Great Sioux Reservation in the Dakota Country. More particularly the 7th Cavalry’s mission was to located the recalcitrant non-treaty Sioux and prevent them from fleeing until General Terry’s column arrived to bring the overwhelming force of the Army to bear upon the lightly armed insurgent Indians. He believed that he had uncovered a Sioux camp, mostly women and children and nothing that his troops could not handle. He believed that a show of force would overawe the few men of fighting age, disperse them and permit him to greet General Terry’s column having achieved the mission with a minimum of effort. Based upon that intelligence he devised a masterful plan. He divided the regiment into three battalions. Major Reno would drive into the village from the south. Captain Benteen would attack from the north while Custer and the remainder of the command patrolled the north bank of the Little Bighorn and prevent the insurgents from making an escape fording the river. It was a good plan and one in which the Colonel had supreme confidence.

Things went wrong from the start. Instead of sweeping into the camp Reno met fierce resistance. Instead of relieving the pressure on Reno, Benteen barely made it through the encampment to link up with Reno and join him in a desperate defense on the bluffs overlooking the river. When Custer spotted a party of about 40 Sioux he concluded that the small party was trying to escape, he never wavered, he never faltered and he went forward into the trap. We all know the result. When Terry’s column came up as scheduled the Sioux simply melted away to fight on another day. Colonel Custer was consistent, his belief was earnest, steadfast, and it was wrong because it was based upon false premises drawn from faulty intelligence. It was wrong because it ignored the reality unfolding on the ground in front of him.

Like George Bush today, George Custer sent his troops no mixed messages. Like George Bush today, George Custer was full of optimistic confidence. Like George Bush today, George Custer felt no need to wait until his regiment was part of a larger force capable of completing the mission in which he sought to prove his mettle has a leader of men. Unlike George Bush today, George Custer was on the field, sharing the fate of the men he was leading instead of standing on the sidelines leading cheers. Commander in Chief is a role different than that of Head Cheerleader shouting messages of victory even in the face of defeat. That is the role of a Baghdad Bob; shouting unmexed missages from the sidelines.