Legendary mountain man, Jim Felix Bridger, becomes the first white to lay eyes on the Great Salt Lake in Utah Territory. But when he goes back to his fellow mountain men, he tells them he has been all the way to the west coast because he thought it was a straight channel to the ocean.
Jim was of English ancestry, and his family had been living in North America since the early colonial period. He would come to know many of the major American explorers of the early west, including Kit Carson, George Armstrong Custer, Hugh Glass (a recent movie, “The Revenant”
Jim Bridger was one of the most famous and successful of the mountain men, trappers, scouts and guides who explored and trapped throughout the western United States during the time of the mountain man and discovery of the fullness of the land west of the Mississippi between 1820–1850. Jim also served as an interpreter and peacemaker between the native tribes and the encroaching whites. It was often said by many that no one knew as much or had covered as many miles as Jim.
To purchase a signed copy of Larry Auerbach’s novel “The Spirit Of Redd Mountain”, Click Here
Michigan today in 1864. Elizabeth Bacon met the dashing young Captain Custer, who immediately began a vigorous campaign for her hand shortly after graduating from a Presbyterian college in Monroe, Michigan. Initially, Elizabeth’s father disapproved of Custer’s courtship, but he changed his mind when Custer won a battlefield appointment to brigadier general and national fame for his fearless tactics fighting for the Union in the Civil War. The couple married while he was on leave on February 9, 1864 and Elizabeth Custer immediately became a strong advocate for her hus-band. Despite her inexperience in political and military affairs, she was able to charm important men in Washington, D.C., who used their influence to advance Custer’s career. After the Civil War ended, Custer reverted to the rank of lieutenant colonel. Elizabeth supported her husband’s desire to continue his ascent of the military ladder, and she agreed with his decision to accept duty in the only active remaining conflict: the Plains Indian Wars in the West. Whatever romantic images Elizabeth might have had of life in the West quickly faded as she faced the grim reality of making a home in a series of isolated western forts. She was often alone for weeks or months at a time, contemplating the very real dangers her husband was facing out on the Plains. Nonetheless, Elizabeth continued to support her husband’s Western career, through all the ups and downs caused by his ego and lack of discretion, and reckless disregard of the very rules he enforced rigidly for those beneath him in rank, right up until the dark day when she heard that her worst fears had been realized: Custer had been killed in the Battle of the Little Bighorn in June 1876.
When she eventually learned that President Ulysses Grant and others blamed Custer for the terrible massacre at Little Bighorn, Elizabeth was outraged. Determined to redeem his good name, she gave the writer Frederick Whittaker access to her husband’s papers. Six months after the disaster at Little Bighorn, Whittaker published a hagiographic biography that absolved Custer of blame and laid the foundation for his future legend.
Elizabeth herself then turned to writing, eventually publishing three books that portrayed Custer not only as an honest and dedicated Cavalry officer, but as a loving husband and devoted family man. Her books also defended the justice of the Indian wars in general. In Elizabeth’s version of history, the American soldiers suffered frontier privations in order to protect innocent Anglo settlers, and Native American braves were vicious killers who exploited their wives. Custer, her books claimed, had been a selfless martyr to the cause of American westward expansion.
Reluctant to criticize Custer while his celebrated widow lived, dissenters from Elizabeth’s biased view of her husband had to hold their tongues for a very long time. By the time she died in 1933, nearly 60 years after Little Bighorn, most of Custer’s contemporary critics were gone. Others soon appeared, though, and a year after her death, Frederic Van de Water published Glory Hunter, a revisionist portrait that painted Custer as a vain and foolish egoist. Since then, Custer’s critics have dominated, but Elizabeth’s dedication to her husband’s memory continues to win him supporters to this day.
To purchase a signed copy of Larry Auerbach’s novel “A MATTER OF HONOR”, Click Here
Photo courtesy of wikipedia.com
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Read MoreACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.