From past experience, Libbie had learned at these occasions to take refuge on top of the table. It was often that George picked up his darling wife and placed her there himself. With Libbie safely out of the way, this serious leader who marched men into disaster, and devout keeper of rules he often broke himself, would prance, dance, and generally raise merry cane.
As Custer cavorted it was not unusual for things to become broken, such as a chair he’d deliberately demolished himself. But that wouldn’t be the end of the shattered selection of his exuberance. As a finally, he’d throw the demolished item into the kitchen. This was his delighted way of telling the cook that good news had come—that is, good for him but not necessarily for the cook who would stick her head around the edge of the door and proceed to admonish this mighty military man.
"Chairs don't grow on trees in these yere parts, gen'l," Libbie reports the cook as saying.
Evidently, Libbie was rescued from her tabletop perch sometime during her husband’s frolic. She says, without going into detail, that all sorts of jokes were played upon her. But at last, even though she was too tired from laughing and all the fun, it was time to get back to the serious business of packing up their home for another move.
This time their military ordered move would be to a far remote part of the west, filled with more freezing blizzards and wild Indians than Libbie could only begin to imagine. She seems to have sheltered most of her fears of the unknown within the walls of her stoic heart, just as so many military wives throughout American history have done. But Libbie was lucky, at least for a time, for Mrs. Custer had her General to keep her heart warm and safe.
To learn more, on the Internet, about Libbie Custer, please see:
Elizabeth Bacon Custer http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/his...
Elizabeth Bacon Custer/The Handbook of Texas On Line http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/onli...
The major source for this article was:
Custer, Elizabeth B. Boots and Saddles. The entire text for Mrs. Custers delightful and emotional book can be view, or downloaded, at: http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/Cla... Boots and Saddles may also be purchase on line from Barns and Noble at: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/OopBook...
The author of this article also drew upon her own personal fifteen-year experience as the wife of a professional military man.
Don't Forget to Visit Our SUITE UNIVERSITY: your place for online learning! DO YOU WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT CUSTER?
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