Was Gen. Crook the Petraeus of his time?

As I read The Gray Fox: George Crook and the Indian Wars,  I thought several times of how much General George Crook’s career reminded me of that of General David Petraeus.

Crook was a similar character — a smart, determined officer, a bit distant from his peers. He had a very successful campaign against the Apaches in Arizona, partly because he used different methods, such as treating prisoners well and enlisting them as scouts — with the same pay and benefits as his own troops got.

Arizona was for Crook what Iraq was for Petraeus, the place where he came, saw, and was more effective than his predecessors. Montana was for Crook what Afghanistan was for Petraeus, the place where he got taken down a notch, sometimes to the satisfaction of his peers. The battle of the Rosebud in June 1876 knocked the stuffing out of Crook’s enormous self-confidence.

But Crook, like Petraeus, bounced back. And, unlike Petraeus, his name was not tarred by scandal. Standards were different in those days. I don’t think David Petraeus was the first CIA chief ever to have an affair, I thnk he was just the first one to get caught up by it.

Image credits: Wikimedia Commons