Killing Custer Reflection

The second chapter of the book begins to describe Custer more in depth, rather than just as the myth that he is portrayed to be through history and in American media at the time. Especially from pages 57-62, I think that Welch really drives home Custer's view of the war. To him, being commander of the Indian raids was really no more than a game. He would leave his troops to go off hunting and kept the moral down (pg 58). He was so involved in his fantasy of war being a game that he can't see reality. To him, his soldiers and the Indians, are not viewed as real people, but rather players or pawns in a game. The Civil War provided the structure of a game that he needed, with rules and etiquette. On pg 57 it says that Custer "complained that the Indians never stood and fought...He wanted them to stand and fight like men." The Indians don't follow his rules. Perhaps that is why he ultimately failed as a commander and died at the Battle of Little BIg Horn.