The movie has a meeting between McCabe, with a two-star general's flag, General Hoffman, with a one star flag, and their commander with a three-star flag. They are obviously fictional stand ins for Custer, Gibbon, and Terry, respectively.
The movie credits list Paul Birch as only "commanding General". But I remember that the character had a distinctive name which I knew I would never forget. And now I forgot it.
So what was the three-star general's name?
Just saw it. Sounded like "Roswell" to me
shareThank you.
shareI saw The Glory Guys again and when General McCabe returned from Washington DC he said the was going to be a campaign against the Sioux with six regiments involved. When asked if he would be in command he said no General Osborne would be, but he intended the Third Cavalry to win the victory and get the glory.
So I guess the "commanding General" in the credits was General Osborne.
A new theory 11-27-2017
Early in the movie General McCabe returns from Washington with information about the coming campaign against the Sioux, saying that General Osborne will be in overall command. Later, during the campaign, another General meets McCabe and General Hoffman and orders them to converge on the Sioux. Naturally I assumed that General Osborne was the general in charge at the meeting.
But it was planned that General William "Squawkiller" Harney would command the Utah Expedition in 1858 but he was later replaced by Albert Sidney Johnston.
The Marquis of Santa Cruz, the first choice to command the Spanish Armada, died and so The Duke of Medina Sidonia became the commander.
And General Sheridan planned that George Armstrong Custer command the Dakota Column in the Great Sioux War in 1876, but Custer got in trouble and was banned from the campaign. Custer finally managed to be reinstated, but only as commander of the 7th cavalry, General Terry replacing Custer in command of the entire Dakota Column.
These examples show that military plans, including the choice of commander, change in real life.
The credits of The Glory Guys don't list General Osborne. Instead Paul Birch is listed as "Commanding General", the general in command, in the credits. Paul Birch portrayed U.S. Grant several times. And who was the commanding general of the United States Army from 1864 to March 4, 1869? U.S. Grant.
So possibly in the fictional universe of The Glory Guys, it was planned that General Osborne command the campaign against the Sioux but General U.S. Grant, the commanding general of the US Army, replaced him as the commander of the campaign, perhaps in a plot by President Andrew Johnson to get the popular Grant out of the public eye for a while.