Ned Sharp:
Where is the regiment riding?
George Armstrong Custer:
To hell, Sharp... or to glory. It depends on one's point of view.
George Armstrong Custer:
You may be right about money, Sharp; quite right. But there's one thing to be said for glory.
Ned Sharp:
Yeah? What's that?
George Armstrong Custer:
You can take glory with you when it's your time to go.
George Armstrong Custer:
[
on his cadet uniform] I must get myself a tigerskin as soon as possible.
[
California Joe is struck by an arrow at the battle of Little Bighorn and dying]
California Joe:
Ya dirty yella-bellied!... awhh, it looks like I'll never git ta...
George Armstrong Custer:
Walking through life with you, ma'am, has been a very gracious thing.
[
Custer barely misses being dismissed from West Point for fighting]
Gen. Phil Sheridan:
You know, Taipe, I'm glad it turned out this way. There's something about that fellow I like.
Maj. Romulus Taipe:
Yeah? Well I don't know what it is. If you ask me, he'll make the worst record of any cadet at West Point since Ulysses S. Grant.
[
after they first meet, Custer walks Miss Bacon to Gen. Sheridan's house]
George Armstrong Custer:
Do you think if I were to come strolling past your house around nine o'clock at night you might be just sitting around on the veranda?
Elizabeth Bacon:
Life is full of surprises.
George Armstrong Custer:
And if I did find you sitting on the porch perhaps you and I could go for a walk together.
Elizabeth Bacon:
[
laughs] We seem to have been walking together ever since we met.
George Armstrong Custer:
Well, I can't imagine, ma'am - if I may say so - any pleasanter journey, ma'am, than walking through life with you beside me, ma'am.
[
California Joe is driving the wagon in which Libby is riding on the trek to Fort Lincoln]
California Joe:
[
to one of the horses] Move over there, sweetheart, 'fore I cut the rest of your tail off!
Elizabeth Bacon:
[
she looks at him, shocked] I beg your pardon.
California Joe:
I said move over, you dirty Ethiopian son of a blue-bellied Mohawk!
Elizabeth Bacon:
You mean the horse.
[
Custer addresses the officers after his arrival at Fort Lincoln]
George Armstrong Custer:
We're responsible for the protection of 100,000 square miles of territory. And against us are ranged thousands of the finest light cavalry on earth. I found that out this morning. It's a big job, gentlemen... and it's gonna need a fine regiment. Our job is to make this the finest regiment that the United States ever saw. I needn't tell most of you that a regiment is something more than just six hundred disciplined fighting men. Men die. But a regiment lives on; because a regiment has an immortal soul of its own. Well, the way to begin is to find it. To find something that belongs to us alone. Something to give us that pride in ourselves that'll make men endure - and, if necessary, die... with their boots on. As for the rest it's easy: since it's no more than hard work, hard riding and hard fighting. Thank you, gentlemen, I know I can count on you.
Ned Sharp:
If the other outfits don't fight their way through, you're liable to have a lot of Sioux on your hands.
George Armstrong Custer:
Yes. Yes, quite a lot of Sioux, Sharp. But the greater the odds, the greater the glory.
[
the night before the battle, Custer asks Butler to take his last letter back to Fort Lincoln]
Lt. "Queen's Own" Butler:
Why are you asking me to go back with it?
George Armstrong Custer:
Well, for one thing you're an Englishman, not an American.
Lt. "Queen's Own" Butler:
Not an American! What do you Yankees think you are? The only REAL Americans in this merry old parish are on the other side of the hill with feathers in their hatr.
George Armstrong Custer:
You're probably right about that. But there's 6,000 of them... and less than 600 of us. The regiment's being sacrificed, Butler, and I wouldn't want to see a foreigner butchered in a dirty deal like this,
Lt. "Queen's Own" Butler:
Sporty of you to think of it that way. But I'll remind you, sir, I'm a member of the mess of the Seventh U.S. Cavalry. Fancy walking into the Service Club in Picadilly if the regiment... Get somebody else to post your blinking letter!
George Armstrong Custer:
Thanks, 'Queen's Own'. Just so long as you know.
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