final+copy+of+custer+paper

 In my mind a hero is a person that you think of as a lifesaver or a great achiever. Someone you look up to, anyone can be a hero. A hero possesses any quality that you think of as being positive, or having a positive affect on people, or objects. I feel heroes are needed to help us "keep the faith", or "stay afloat" during hard times. I believe that heroes are both made and created. I think that some people are born onto this earth for the soul purpose of doing well. I also believe that heroes are created by people as someone to think of during tough times, or as someone to look up to. Today anyone and everyone is a hero. A firefighter, a police officer, a medic (E.M.T), a soldier. My hero of the 21st century, and my true hero, is Nathan Patrick Brown. Nate was my best friend, and a soldier who was killed in the war in Iraq. Have you ever wondered what the perfect hero would be like? Or what kind of qualities he/she would posses? I was thinking about those very questions not to long ago and when I received this report I knew right away who I was going to do my paper on, George Armstrong Custer. I believe this man is a hero because he gave his life for his country in what is probably the most iconic clash of American and Indian soldiers of all time. In this essay I will prove that George Armstrong Custer was a hero because, my definition of a hero is a person that you think of as a lifesaver or a great achiever. Someone you look up to, anyone can be a hero, and I believe that George Custer meets my "standards" for a hero.  Custer was born on the 5th of December 1839, and he died on the 25th of June 1876 when he was killed during the battle of The Little Big Horn. Custer was born in New Rumley, Ohio. Since he was a soldier he didn't stay in one place for very long. He was in the military almost all his life, and died serving his country. It was something he felt he had to do. Custer’s actions changed history.  I believe that Custer's actions during the battle of The Little Big Horn classify him as a hero. During this battle, since he was loosing, he tried as hard as he could to save the lives of his soldiers. On June 25th and 26th Sioux and Cheyenne warriors defeated Col. Custer and his troops in the little big horn valley. In the end, all of the seventh cavalry was killed accept Custer’s horse, Comanche. The battle grounds and surrounding areas are now referred to as Custer's last stand. The Indian warriors, led by chief Sitting Bull, forged an attack on Custer and his men due to strong feelings caused by continued intrusions of white men on their sacred land, the black hills. People from then on looked at both Native Americans and American soldiers differently. Custer once said, "There are not enough Indians in the world to defeat the Seventh Cavalry". That quote is quite ironic since his men were out numbered so badly. Also, Custer ordered his men to stack dead horses to form barricades as a defensive measure. Even though his men were getting slaughtered, he wouldn't retreat; he kept fighting, and finding ways to keep his men alive. Custer also ordered his men to find “high cover”, which means to find a place where they could still fire upon the Indians, but have a less chance of getting hit by enemy fire. Custer then ordered his men to "push" the Indians down into the ravine, near the water in an attempt to kill off a lot of Indians in one quick maneuver. Custer also ordered his men to "take crow's nest" positions in an attempt to snipe the Indians far below, "dug in" on the river banks and in the ravine. The actions of Custer, and his men, brought many casualties to both the Calvary men and the Indians. Custer also said, "You ask me if I will not be glad when the last battle is fought, so far as the country is concerned I, of course, must wish for peace, and will be glad when the war is ended, but if I answer for myself alone, I must say that I shall regret to see the war end."  People who wouldn’t have thought my person was a hero would have been almost every Indian alive at the time, as well as, many white people. However, there was nothing they could do, there were no surviving Cavalry men, only Comanche, the only thing they could do was argue if Custer could be considered as a hero or not. No one tried to stop my hero either, since he was dead, and the government was handling the matter. During Custer’s life he didn't let people get to him, he was a military man. After the battle, there were mixed version of what had happened. The problem was that Custer, and the men of the 7th Calvary were all dead, and the government wanted to make Custer look like a big hero and the Sioux Indians like monsters. So, even now, people question whether Custer was a hero or not. To this day, there is speculation that Custer may have disobeyed direct orders during the battle. For that reason, it is hard to say, exactly what Custer's legacy was. Even Custer's right to be called a hero is often questioned, so that leaves only your knowledge of the history of Custer and your opinion on his actions to say that he is or is not a hero.  I believe that if Custer were alive today he would give great advice to a 21st century child with a problem. He'd probably tell them things like; Stay strong and think straight no matter how bad or how big the issue. One of Custer's quotes, " My purpose is to make my narrative as truthful as possible", I believe, would be great advice to a child today, but only if it were explained so that the child could easily understand it.