LOT Old Heritage Auctions  /  2006 October Grand Format Autographs #629  / 

25328

George Armstrong Custer 1874 ALS

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:1,500.00 USD Estimated At:6,000.00 - 9,000.00 USD
George Armstrong Custer 1874 ALS
<B>George Armstrong Custer Autograph Letter Signed,</B></I> "<I>G A Custer</B></I>", 8 pages, 5" x 8", Monroe, Michigan, November 7, 1874, to "Stillson", probably Jerome Bonaparte Stillson, a <I>New York World</B></I> reporter. It is highly likely that Custer, ever the publicity hound, would have cultivated a friendship with Stillson. The reporter was a highly regarded correspondent who had made his mark during the Civil War by covering Sheridan's cavalry operations in the Shenandoah Valley. This highly important letter gives Custer's various takes on the army and politics, naming many of the personalities involved. It reads: "<I>Private-- My Dear Stillson: I leave this morning with Mrs. Custer for Fort Lincoln, Dacota, stopping a few days in Chicago and St. Paul. Fort Lincoln will be my headquarters during the winter. I wish that you would send me The daily World commencing with November 1st. My address will be Gen G A Custer Fort Lincoln Dacota. I am glad to see that the World is after Merrill and his iniquities. I know him well he being an officer of my command. His character is most unstable and his conduct in the South as well as previously has been such as to bring upon him the contempt of all fair-minded officers in the army. I am glad to see by the press dispatches that the government has finally ordered him to cease making arrests upon his own affidavit. Now that we have a majority in the House, I trust that some member will introduce a resolution similar to that which Senator Bayard ineffectually endeavored to secure action upon in the Senate, looking to an investigation by committee, of Merrill's high-handed proceedings in South Carolina & those later in Louisiana, as well as to investigate and determine the propriety of an officer of the Army lobbying a bill through a State legislature to pay himself for services rendered by him and for which he receives his pay regularly fromthe general government. Officers on the frontier serving against the Indians might with much more reason & justice go to the doors of the legislatures of frontier states and demand compensation in state bonds for protecting the settlers against Indian incursions. With most of the Officers of the Army, I think Merrill a disgrace to the service, hence my indulgence in this discussion of his conduct. If anything occurs in the west near me, of public interest, I will keep the World informed. I was on the point of sending you an article on Grant's desire for a third term, but feared I might not be able to cover up my association with the article. I have undoubted evidence that he not only, as the public believes, desires a third term, but has said so to members of his family and I obtain my information direct from his family. One reason assigned by Grant for desiring a third term was that no other president had ever served a third term. So much for his regard for established precedent. I am often situated where I could telegraph you important bits of interesting items had I only arranged to have done so over another signature than my own. For instance, I was at Springfield, Ill. Attending the unveiling of Lincoln's statue, and as you may know, a host of prominent radical leaders assembled there, including the President, a number of the cabinet, the Vice President & ex-Vice Pres, Senators, Governors, etc. Their consternation when the news of the victories in Ohio & Indiana came in and their expressions of alarm in the future and 'what will become of the republican party?' were so unqualified and positive, that they would have been vulnerable if they could only have been made available. Sherman is fishing for a presidential nomination, but I think he is so unstable in his opinions that he would like Grant did, accept from the first party that offered - with any chance of success. Sheridan would make a much stronger radical candidate than Sherman as afar as controlling the soldiers' vote goes, but he would be even more radical in his administration than Grant has ever been. I asked Sheldon & Co. to mail you a copy of my book Life on the plains. I hope that you have received it and that your critic may find it in his heart to give it favorable notice. Truly your friend,</B></I>". Folds as expected with light soiling. Overall fine condition. Housed in a custom library case having a gold foil stamped title on the front cover and spine.
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