The great-great-grandfather of Patriots kicker and Super Bowl hero Adam Vinatieri was General Custer's bandmaster:

On the day in 1876 that Custer met his bloody end at Little Big Horn, the general instructed his band that it might be too dangerous to accompany the troops. The band members gladly obliged, and the rest was history.

"He was left behind the day of their fateful expedition, and fortunately for me and my family, he was," Vinatieri said.

Had Custer taken his band along to the Little Big Horn, the Pats might not have won two of the last three Super Bowls.

The National Music Museum at the University of South Dakota maintains an archive of materials related to bandmaster Felix Vinatieri, and offers a CD of his music as performed by the New Custer Brass Band.

Meantime, listen to an mp3 of Garryowen as performed by the Bagpipes and Drums of the Emerald Society of the Chicago Police Department, the Cops in Kilts.

* * *

Decouverte dans les Prairies des squelettes de plusieurs soldats d'un regiment de cavalrie surpris et mis a mort par les Indiens: An 1868 French book illustration of General George A. Custer and his men discovering the bones of Lieutenant Kidder and other members of the Seventh Cavalry in Kansas * An 1867 version from Harper's Weekly

General George Armstrong Custer and the Russian Grand Duke Alexis, in hunting clothes, 1872.

Custer's Charge reenacted, Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, Brooklyn, 1894.

(Photos from the Western history collection of the Denver Public Library)

* * *

Have been re-watching the Ken Burns series on the Civil War, and it is a masterpiece.

*

Worthy tributes to Robert E. Lee have been posted in recent weeks at the Inn at the End of the World, at Dappled Things and at the Cat's Cradle. From the latter:

The tales of Robert E. Lee are numerous and legendary, mostly dealing with his gentility, manners, and love for his wife, family, and the state in which he was born. There's an old tale, possibly apocryphal, of some new students being shown around the grounds of Washington & Lee University where Gen. Lee was president after the unpleasantness known as the "Civil War" (or "War Between the States", depending on where you learned your American history). The tour approached the chapel and the tour guide stated, "This is the Robert E. Lee Chapel." A tourist piped up, "Isn't this an Episcopal Chapel? I thought they always named them after saints?" The tour guide, with some pride, stated, "They did, son."

Perhaps my favorite figure of the Civil War is the Bowdoin professor who became a hero at Gettysburg, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain:

Chamberlain was…responsible for one of the most poignant scenes of the Civil War at the surrender of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox, Virginia. General Ulysses S. Grant placed Chamberlain in charge of receiving the surrender of Confederate weapons and battle flags. As the conquered Confederate soldiers marched down the road to surrender their arms and colors Chamberlain, without orders or permission, ordered his men to come to attention and "carry arms" as a show of respect. Seeing this unexpected honor, the Confederate commander, General John B. Gordon reared his horse, touched his sword to his boot toe, and ordered his men to return the salute…Many years later, Gordon, in his own memoirs, called Chamberlain "one of the knightliest soldiers of the Federal Army."

Chamberlain's account of the last salute at Appomattox is given here, and Gordon's, here.

A new Chamberlain statue was dedicated last year in Brunswick, Maine. Vantages may be seen here and here. Another Chamberlain statue is located in Brewer, Maine, atop a promontory in a park fashioned after Little Round Top.