GDG- Custer (and Gettysburg) On the Tube Again

[Batrinque at aol.com]

In a message dated 1/19/2012 8:50:04 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
georgeconnell at mac.com writes:

Add to  that getting himself and everyone with him killed and I have to 
wonder what he  had to do to be judged incompetent! 
 
Perhaps not having a fundamentally very successful military career for the  
preceding decade and a half?
 
"incompetent", to me, describes a longterm, even permanent, level of  
performance.  Certainly Custer made mistakes at the LBH, given the  situation 
that actually existed rather than what he incorrectly believed to be  the case, 
but to me that one day does not equal incompetence, given his history  and 
regardless of how spectacular the consequences.  Robert E. Lee pissed  away 
far more lives at Malvern Hill and in the PPT Charge than Custer did at the  
LBH, but I don't view REL as incompetent.

Bruce  Trinque
Amston, CT