A BRITISH soldier who served with the controversial General Custer is at the centre of a debate as to whether or not he should be honoured on the city’s buses.

Henry Holden fought at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, also known as Custer’s Last Stand, and one local historian is calling for his name to be branded on a Brighton and Hove bus.

But while some argue Mr Holden was a war hero having been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honour, others have said the man is a war criminal due to the atrocities committed during the Great Sioux War against the Native Americans.

The Brighton and Hove Bus Company honours the city’s historic residents by naming their vehicles after them.

The champion of Mr Holden’s cause is author and member of the Whitehawk Local History Group, David Rowland.

He wrote a book about the soldier’s life and claims he was born in Brighton around 1836. He believes he worked as a painter on the Chain Pier before working as a fisherman and a street cleaner.

However, Holden became bored with life in Brighton and decided to seek out some excitement while he was still young.

There is currently debate over whether or not Holden did spend his early life in Brighton – with Civil War historian Peter Russell stating his birth place is “shrouded in mystery”.

But what we do know is that he caught a ferry to America when he was 25 and enlisted in the US Army.

The American Civil War was coming to an end but the army was still fighting with the indigenous people. In 1872 Holden joined the US 7th Cavalry which was under the command of one of the most well respected officers in the US army at the time, George Armstrong Custer. General Custer thought himself invincible and led his troops to his last stand at the Battle of Little Bighorn against the Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho Native American tribes.

Hundreds faced thousands as Custer battled to the death against the overwhelming force – but Holden survived and was honoured for his efforts.

He was medically discharged from the US Army after being kicked by his own horse and eventually returned to Brighton where he settled in Whitehawk Road. He died in 1905 after slipping into a diabetic coma. Here, two Argus readers put their cases forward as to why his name should and why it should not adorn one of our buses.

 

The case against

by Stuart Bower

IF DAVID Rowland knew everything about the history of the Native American Indians, he would realise that the 7th Cavalry, under the command of General Custer was guilty of war crimes and atrocities as bad as anything committed by the Nazi SS in the Second World War.
I followed the path of Custer’s charge downhill to where he stopped and uttered his last words – ‘Oh hell’.
It is ridiculous to suggest that Custer was attacked by the Indians.
It was the other way round. For an unbiased account of the campaign, I suggest the biography of Chief Plenty Coups of the Crow Indians by Frank Linderman.
Because the Crows were traditional enemies of the Sioux, Cheyenne and other tribes who were trying to drive them off their lands, they were allies of the white cavalry.
At the Little Big Horn, Custer divided his command to attack the Indian village from three sides. His Crow Indian scout, Half Yellow Face, warned him that he would be going to his death if he attacked the village with so few men.
A concrete marker shows where each of his men fell one by one until a cluster of stones marks the last stand.
In 2002 the park authorities built a second memorial – this time to the Indians who gave their lives defending their homes and way of life.
Henry Holden may have been a brave and courageous man.
However, I am sure that if he was alive today, he would be ashamed of the part he played in the genocide of the Native American Indians.