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Who2 Biography:

George Armstrong Custer

, Soldier
George Armstrong Custer
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  • Born: 5 December 1839
  • Birthplace: New Rumley, Ohio
  • Died: 25 June 1876 (killed in battle)
  • Best Known As: The man in command at Custer's Last Stand

George Armstrong Custer was on the losing end of a famous clash between native Americans and the U.S. Army at the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876. Custer graduated at the bottom of his class at West Point military academy, but saw extensive action as a Union cavalry officer in the Civil War and reached the wartime rank of major general. After the war he was made lieutenant-colonel of the Seventh Cavalry on America's western frontier. At Little Bighorn, his troops faced combined bands of Lakota Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho indians led by the chief Sitting Bull. The battle ended with Custer's troops on a knoll encircled by the indians, a moment which became known as Custer's Last Stand; Custer and his entire force of over 200 men were killed. The battle made Custer a popular American hero and martyr for nearly a century, but by the late 1900s his stardom faded a bit as his tactics were more closely questioned and as popular attitudes toward native Americans changed; Custer is often now seen more as an ambitious hothead than as a military hero. The site of the battle, in what is now Montana, was designated as a national monument in 1946.

Custer's body was buried on the battlefield, but later exhumed and reburied at West Point... The only U.S. Army survivor of the Battle of Little Bighorn, man or beast, was the horse Comanche.

 
 
Military History Companion: Maj Gen George Custer

Custer, Maj Gen George (1839-76), outstanding Union cavalry commander during the American civil war, but remembered today for his role in the Plains Indians wars, culminating in his defeat and death at Little Bighorn. He was a fearless and studiedly flamboyant officer, but also a highly competent and aggressive combat leader whose exploits did much to balance the moral ascendancy of Confederate cavalry under Stuart. Promoted to the brevet rank of brigadier general when only 23, his division was prominent in the last stages of the war and he was present when Lee surrendered.

Reverting to his regular rank of lieutenant colonel post-war, his career nearly ended when he was court-martialled in 1867 for being absent without leave, and he was suspended for a year without pay. On return to duty with the 7th Cavalry in 1868, he implemented the winter campaign policy ordered by Sherman at the massacre of Black Kettle's Cheyenne on the Washita. In 1874 he led an expedition that launched the gold rush into the Black Hills of South Dakota, recognized by treaty as the sacred Paha Sapa of the Lakota. The latter are not alone in believing it appropriate that he was the principal white casualty of the subsequent treaty revocation.

— Hugh Bicheno

 
US Military History Companion: George Armstrong Custer

(1839–1876), U.S. military leader in the Civil War and Indian wars

An 1861 West Point graduate, Custer rose to fame and high rank during the Civil War as a flamboyant and successful cavalry chief. He ended the war a major general at the age of twenty‐five. In the postwar regular army he was a lieutenant colonel in command of the 7th Cavalry. His introduction to the Plains Indians Wars came in Kansas in 1867. The campaign ended in failure and court‐martial on charges of misconduct. Sentenced to a year's suspension, Custer was recalled in the fall of 1868 by Maj. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan to lead his regiment in a winter campaign against the southern Plains tribes. At the Battle of the Washita, 27 November 1868, Custer surprised and destroyed Black Kettle's Cheyenne village and laid the groundwork for his reputation as an Indian fighter.

Assigned to Fort Abraham Lincoln in Dakota Territory, Custer led the 7th in the Yellowstone Expedition of 1873, protecting surveyors of the Northern Pacific Railroad; he fought two actions with Sitting Bull's Sioux. In 1874, Custer's Black Hills Expedition discovered gold. The rush to the hills, part of the Great Sioux Reservation, inflamed the Sioux and led to the Sioux War of 1876. The 7th Cavalry formed part of Brig. Gen. Alfred H. Terry's column, one of three converging on the Indians. On 25 June, Custer attacked a large camp of Sioux and Cheyennes at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. He and the five companies under his immediate command, about 225 men, were wiped out. The other seven companies, under Maj. Marcus A. Reno, held out on a hilltop four miles away until relieved two days later. Custer's actions at the Little Bighorn were and remain bitterly controversial, but he and his “last stand” gained lasting renown.

[See also Crazy Horse; Sitting Bull.]

Bibliography

  • Robert M. Utley, Cavalier in Buckskin: George Armstrong Custer and the Western Military Frontier, 1988.
  • Paul Andrew Hutton, ed., The Custer Reader, 1992
 
US Military Dictionary: George Armstrong Custer

Custer, George Armstrong (1839-76) Civil War general and Indian fighter, born in New Rumley, Ohio. Custer established his fame during the Civil War as the youngest general in the Union army, famous for his cavalry charges, heedless bravery, flamboyance, and tactical brilliance. Made brigadier general at age twenty-three, he fought with distinction at Gettysburg (1863) and his 1864 campaign to rid the Shenandoah Valley of Confederate forces catapulted him to military stardom. Among Union cavalry officers he was second only to Gen. Philip H. Sheridan. After the war “General” Custer served in the rank of lieutenant colonel of the 7th Cavalry (1866-76). After Winfield Scott Hancock's 1867 Cheyenne campaign, Custer was court-martialed for misconduct in the field. He defeated Black Kettle's Cheyennes at the Washita (November 1868), killing women and children. He explored the Black Hills (1874), setting off a gold rush. Custer's final campaign, during the Great Sioux War of 1876, ended in the battle of the Little Bighorn on June 25, 1876 (known as “Custer's Last Stand”), where five companies under his immediate command—more than 200 officers and troopers—were wiped out by nearly 2, 000 warriors.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

 
Biography: George Armstrong Custer

No figure of the Indian wars in America so typifies that era as George Armstrong Custer (1839-1876).He is known universally for the massacre that bears his name and for the blundering that brought it about.

George Custer was born in New Rumley, Harrison County, Ohio, on Dec. 5, 1839. His ambition from youth was to be a soldier, and he secured an appointment to West Point in 1857. A poor, mischievous student, he graduated at the bottom of his class in 1861, but was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 2d Cavalry.

The Civil War was in progress, and Custer fought on the Union side. For gallant conduct at the engagement at Aldie on June 16, 1863, he was breveted a brigadier general and given command of a brigade from Michigan. By the end of the war, at the age of only 25, he had been promoted to brevet major general. During the war he had married his childhood sweetheart, Elizabeth Bacon.

The conflict over, Custer reverted to his permanent rank of captain in the 5th Cavalry but soon was promoted to lieutenant colonel of the 7th Cavalry; he would actively hold this command until his death. In 1867 he was charged with absence from duty and suspended for a year but was reinstated by Gen. Philip H. Sheridan in 1868. On November 27 of that year he achieved a startling victory over Chief Black Kettle and the Cheyenne Indians at the battle of the Washita. His regiment was then fragmented, and he spent 2 years in Kentucky. In 1873 the regiment was reunited in the Dakota Territory. He was described at this time as tall, slender, energetic, and dashing, with blue eyes and long golden hair and mustache. At the post he wore velveteen uniforms decorated with gold braid, but in the field he affected buckskins. He rarely drank or used tobacco and spent his spare hours reading military history and studying tactics.

Rumors of gold in the Black Hills led to a government expedition in 1874, which Custer commanded. Scientists from the Smithsonian Institution confirmed the rumors, and the swarm of gold seekers to the area caused the Sioux Indians to go on the attack. Custer was to lead the campaign against the Sioux and Cheyenne in early 1876, but instead he was summoned to Washington to testify before a congressional committee investigating fraud in the Indian Bureau. Custer's testimony, unfavorable to Secretary of War W. W. Belknap, so angered President Grant that he removed Custer from command of the expedition to punish the Native Americans. Public outcry at the President's act, along with the request of Gen. Alfred Terry that Custer accompany the campaign, caused Grant to restore Custer to command of the 7th Cavalry, which then took the field.

On the Yellowstone River, Terry's scouts reported Indians in the vicinity, and Custer was sent to investigate, with orders to exercise caution. On the morning of June 25, 1876, he came upon a village later estimated to have contained from 2,500 to 4,000 Sioux and Cheyenne warriors under Chief Crazy Horse. Splitting his command into three parts, Custer personally led 264 men into battle. His force was surrounded on the hill that now bears his name, overlooking the valley of the Little Bighorn River. He and all the men under his personal command were massacred there, while Maj. Marcus Reno and Capt. Frederick Benteen took refuge on the bluffs overlooking the river and escaped.

The Custer massacre electrified the nation, although it had little effect on the outcome of the Sioux wars. Reno and Benteen were accused of cowardice by admirers of Custer, while Custer's detractors bemoaned the death of the troops under his command due to his rash order to charge so superior a Native American force. This controversy continues, for Custer was a man so paradoxical that he could fight corruption in the Indian Bureau to the disservice of his own carrier, yet also order a charge to kill Native Americans.

Further Reading

So many books have been written about Custer that no one book can be singled out as best. Custer's autobiography, My Life on the Plains: or, Personal Experiences with Indians (1874), gives insights into his character, as do the books by his wife, Elizabeth Bacon Custer, Boots and Saddle: or, Life in Dakota with General Custer (1885) and Tenting on the Plains: or, General Custer in Kansas and Texas (1887). See also Marguerite Merington, ed., The Custer Story: The Life and Intimate Letters of George A. Custer and His Wife Elizabeth (1950).

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: George Armstrong Custer

George Armstrong Custer.
(click to enlarge)
George Armstrong Custer. (credit: From the Mathew Brady Historical Collection, GAF Corp.)
(born Dec. 5, 1839, New Rumley, Ohio, U.S. — died June 25, 1876, Little Bighorn River, Montana Territory) U.S. cavalry officer. He graduated from West Point and at age 23 became a brigadier general. His vigorous pursuit of Confederate troops under Gen. Robert E. Lee in retreat from Richmond hastened Lee's surrender in 1865. In 1874 he led U.S. troops to investigate rumours of gold in South Dakota's Black Hills, a sacred Indian hunting ground. The resulting gold rush led to hostile encounters with the Indians. In 1876 the 36-year-old Custer commanded one of two columns of a planned attack against Indians camped near Montana's Little Bighorn River. He rashly decided to attack without the other column, and in the Battle of the Little Bighorn he and all his troops were killed.

For more information on George Armstrong Custer, visit Britannica.com.

 
US History Companion: Custer, George Armstrong

(1839-1876), Civil War cavalry commander and Indian fighter. Born in New Rumley, Ohio, Custer entered West Point in 1857. Upon graduation in 1861 he was assigned immediately to duty as an aide to Gen. George McClellan. Next he drew a cavalry assignment, and his boldness in battle brought rapid promotions. At twenty-three he was the youngest brevet brigadier general in the Union army. While on furlough he met and soon married Elizabeth Bacon, who was to play a significant role in shaping his career and perpetuating his memory.

When the war ended, Custer was returned to the permanent rank of captain. After serving several months in Texas, he was commissioned a lieutenant colonel and assigned to the Seventh Cavalry Regiment based at Fort Riley, Kansas. Accompanied by Elizabeth, he reported for duty early in 1867. Under Gen. Winfield Hancock's command, Custer led the Seventh Cavalry in several skirmishes against Indians in Kansas and Nebraska. Soon after the campaign closed, his uxoriousness came near to ending his career. Instead of remaining with his troops at Fort Wallace as ordered, he made a hasty journey to Fort Riley to see Elizabeth. As a result he was suspended for one year.

In 1868 Gen. Philip Sheridan replaced Hancock and soon arranged for Custer's reinstatement. That November, after raiding Black Kettle's Cheyenne village, he was in trouble again for leaving the field without searching for a missing reconnaissance unit that had been ambushed and slain. Among other activities during the next six years, Custer wrote My Life on the Plains in which he attempted to justify his actions, and in 1874 he violated the treaty of 1868 by taking an expedition into the Indians' sacred Black Hills where gold was discovered. The gold rush that followed created intense Indian hostility and precipitated the government's decision to confine all northern Plains tribes to reservations.

In 1876, under command of Gen. Alfred Terry, Custer led the Seventh Cavalry as one force in a three-pronged campaign against Sitting Bull's alliance of Sioux and Cheyenne camps in Montana. During the morning of June 25, Custer's scouts reported spotting smoke from cooking fires and other signs of Indians in the valley of the Little Bighorn. Disregarding Terry's orders, Custer decided to attack before infantry and other support arrived. Although scouts warned that he was facing superior numbers (perhaps 2,500 warriors), Custer divided his regiment of 647 men, ordering Capt. Frederick Benteen's battalion to scout along a ridge to the left and sending Maj. Marcus Reno's battalion up the valley of the Little Bighorn to attack the Indian encampment. With the remainder of the regiment, Custer continued along high ground on the right side of the valley. In the resulting battle, he and about 250 of his men, outnumbered by the warriors of Crazy Horse and Gall, were surrounded and annihilated. Reno and Benteen suffered heavy casualties but managed to escape to a defensive position. Since that day, "Custer's Last Stand" has become an American legend. The battle site attracts thousands of visitors yearly.

Throughout his career, Custer exhibited a reckless temperament that kept him in almost constant trouble with superior officers. Yet his courage has rarely been questioned. In life he was a flamboyant man who attracted ardent admirers and severe critics. In death it has been the same. His wife, Elizabeth, through her publications and lectures during the half century she survived him, did much to create the image of a beau sabreur that still persists. Probably more words, pro and con, have been written about George Armstrong Custer than any of his military contemporaries of comparable rank.

Bibliography:

Evan S. Connell, Son of the Morning Star (1984); Robert M. Utley, Cavalier in Buckskin: George Armstrong Custer and the Western Military Frontier (1988).

Author:

Dee Brown

See also Crazy Horse; Indians; Sitting Bull.


 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Custer, George Armstrong,
1839–76, American army officer, b. New Rumley, Ohio, grad. West Point, 1861.

Civil War Service

Custer fought in the Civil War at the first battle of Bull Run, distinguished himself as a member of General McClellan's staff in the Peninsular campaign, and was made a brigadier general of volunteers in June, 1863. The youngest general in the Union army, Custer ably led a cavalry brigade in the Gettysburg campaign. He fought in Virginia in the great cavalry battle at Yellow Tavern and in General Sheridan's Shenandoah Valley campaign. Made a divisional commander in Oct., 1864, he defeated (Oct. 9) Gen. Thomas L. Rosser at Woodstock. After dispersing the remnants of Gen. Jubal A. Early's command at Waynesboro on Mar. 2, 1865, he was in the advance in pursuit of Lee's army beyond Richmond. Custer received the Confederate flag of truce, was present at the surrender at Appomattox Courthouse, and was promoted major general of volunteers. His record (he had also been brevetted a major general in the regular army), considering his youth, was one of the most spectacular of the war.

The 7th Cavalry

In the reorganization of the U.S. army after the war Custer was assigned to the 7th Cavalry with the rank of lieutenant colonel, and he remained the acting commander of this regiment until his death. In 1867 he was court-martialed and removed from command for leaving his command at Fort Wallace, Kans., without permission, but in Sept., 1868, he was reinstated, mostly through the efforts of Sheridan, with whom he had always been a favorite. In the massacre of the Cheyenne and their allies at the battle of the Washita (Nov., 1868), he was accused of abandoning a small detachment of his men, who were annihilated. He served (1873) in Dakota Territory and in 1874 commanded the expedition into the Black Hills that led to renewed hostilities with the Sioux.

In the comprehensive campaign against the Sioux planned in 1876, Custer's regiment was detailed to the column under the commanding general, Alfred H. Terry, that marched from Bismarck to the Yellowstone River. At the mouth of the Rosebud, Terry sent Custer forward to locate the enemy while he marched on to join the column under Gen. John Gibbon. Custer came upon the warrior encampment on the Little Bighorn on June 25 and decided to attack at once. Not realizing the overwhelming numerical superiority of the Native Americans, most of whom lay concealed in ravines, he divided his regiment into three parts, sending two of them, under Major Marcus A. Reno and Capt. Frederick W. Benteen, to attack farther upstream, while he himself led the third (over 200 men) in a direct charge. Every one of them was killed in battle. Reno and Benteen were themselves kept on the defensive, and not until Terry's arrival was the extent of the tragedy known. The men (except Custer, whose remains were reinterred at West Point) were buried on the battlefield, now a national monument in Montana. Custer's spectacular death made him a popular but controversial hero, still the subject of much dispute as to his actions and character.

Bibliography

Custer wrote My Life on the Plains (1874), and his wife, Elizabeth Bacon Custer, 1842–1933, who devoted much of her life to upholding his memory, wrote Boots and Saddles (1885), Tenting on the Plains (1887), and Following the Guidon (1890). See also biographies by F. Hunt (1928) and J. Monaghan (1959, repr. 1971); C. A. Windolph, I Fought with Custer (as told to F. and R. Hunt, 1947); W. A. Graham, The Story of the Little Big Horn: Custer's Last Fight (1959); E. I. Stewart, Custer's Luck (1955, repr. 1971); E. S. Connell, Son of the Morningstar (1984); J. D. Wert, Custer (1996).

 
Works: Works by George Armstrong Custer
(1839-1876)

1874My Life on the Plains. Custer supplies an account of his Indian fighting as lieutenant colonel of the Seventh Cavalry, including his engagements with the Cheyenne at Washita (1868). The book adds to Custer's fame and to the shock of his death at the Battle of the Little Big Horn in 1876.

 
Wikipedia: George Armstrong Custer


George Armstrong Custer
December 5, 1839 - June 25 1876 (aged 36)
G_a_custer.jpg
Place of birth New Rumley, Ohio
Place of death Little Bighorn, Montana
Allegiance United States of America
Years of service 1861-1876
Rank Brevet Major General
Commands Michigan Brigade
7th Cavalry
Battles/wars American Civil War
*First Battle of Bull Run
*Peninsula Campaign
*Battle of Antietam
*Battle of Chancellorsville
*Gettysburg Campaign
*Battle of Gettysburg
*Overland Campaign
**Battle of the Wilderness
**Battle of Yellow Tavern
*Valley Campaigns of 1864
*Siege of Petersburg
*Indian Wars
*Battle of the Washita
*Battle of the Little Bighorn

George Armstrong Custer (December 5, 1839June 25, 1876) was a United States Army cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the Indian Wars. Promoted at an early age to a temporary war-time rank of Major General, and later made a permanent Lt. Colonel, he was a flamboyant and aggressive commander during numerous Civil War battles, known for his personal bravery in leading charges against opposing cavalry. He led the Michigan Brigade whom he called the "Wolverines" during the Civil War. He was defeated and killed at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, against a coalition of Native American tribes comprised almost exclusively of Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapahoe warriors, and led by the Sioux chiefs Crazy Horse and Gall and by the Hunkpapa seer and medicine man, Sitting Bull. This confrontation has come to be popularly known and enshrined in American history as Custer's Last Stand.

Birth and family

Custer was born in New Rumley, Ohio, to Emanuel Henry Custer (1806-1892), a farmer and blacksmith, and Marie Ward Kirkpatrick (1807-1882). [1] Through his life Custer was known by a variety of nicknames. Among Whites he was called alternately Autie (his early attempt to pronounce his middle name), Armstrong, Fanny, or Curley. When he went west the Plains Indians whom he encountered called him Yellow Hair and Son of the Morning Star. His brothers Thomas Custer and Boston Custer died with him at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, as did his brother-in-law and nephew. His other full siblings were Nevin and Margaret Custer, and he had several other half siblings. Custer's father's family originally came from Westphalia in West Germany. They emigrated and arrived in America in the 17th century. The original family surname was "Küster". He was a fifth-generation descendant of the German, Arnold Küster from Kaldenkirchen, Duchy of Jülich (today North Rhine-Westphalia state), who later immigrated to Hanover, Pennsylvania.

Custer Memorial at his birthplace in New Rumley, Ohio
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Custer Memorial at his birthplace in New Rumley, Ohio

Custer's mother's original maiden name was Marie Ward. In 1823 she married Israel Kirkpatrick who died in 1835. Being a widow, she then married Emanuel Henry Custer in 1836. Marie Ward's grandparents George Ward (1724-1811) and Mary Ward (nee Grier) (1733-1811) were born in County Durham, Northern England and emigrated to the United States. Their son James Grier Ward (1765-1824) was born in Dauphin, Pennsylvania and married Catherine Rogers (1776-1829), and their daughter, Marie Ward, was Custer's mother. Catherine Rogers was the daughter of Thomas Rogers (born in England in 1742) and Sarah Armstrong, which is the source of George Armstrong Custer's middle name.

Early life

Custer spent much of his boyhood living with his half-sister and his brother-in-law in Monroe, Michigan, where he attended school and is now honored by a statue in the center of town. [2] Before entering the United States Military Academy, Custer attended the McNeely Normal School, later known as Hopedale Normal College, in Hopedale, Ohio and known as the first coeducational college for teachers in eastern Ohio. While attending Hopedale, Custer was known to have carried coal together with classmate William Enos Emery to help pay for their room and board. Custer graduated from McNeely Normal School in 1856 and taught school in Ohio. A local legend suggests that Custer obtained his appointment to the Academy due to the influence of a prominent resident, who wished to keep Custer away from his daughter.

Custer graduated from West Point, last of a class of 34 cadets, in 1861, just after the start of the Civil War. [3] Ordinarily, such a showing would be a ticket to an obscure posting and career, but he had the fortune to graduate just as the war caused the army to experience a sudden need for new officers. His tenure at the academy was a rocky one and he came close to expulsion each of his four years due to excessive demerits, many from pulling pranks on fellow cadets. But he began a path to a distinguished war record, one that has been overshadowed in history by his role and fate in the Indian Wars.

Civil War

McClellan and Pleasonton

George Armstrong Custer
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George Armstrong Custer
Custer's likeness following the Civil War
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Custer's likeness following the Civil War

Custer was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 2nd U.S. Cavalry and immediately joined his regiment at the First Battle of Bull Run, where Army commander Winfield Scott detailed him to carry messages to Major General Irvin McDowell. After the battle he was reassigned to the 5th U.S. Cavalry, with which he served through the early days of the Peninsula Campaign in 1862. During the pursuit of Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston up the Peninsula, on May 24, 1862, Custer persuaded a colonel to allow him to lead an attack with four companies of Michigan infantry across the Chickahominy River above New Bridge. The attack was successful, capturing 50 Confederates. Major General George B. McClellan, commander of the Army of the Potomac, termed it a "very gallant affair", congratulated Custer personally, and brought him onto his staff as an aide-de-camp with the temporary rank of captain. In this role, Custer began his lifelong pursuit of publicity. On one occasion when McClellan and his staff were reconnoitering a potential crossing point on the Chickahominy River, they stopped and Custer overheard his commander mutter to himself, "I wish I knew how deep it is." Custer dashed forward on his horse out to the middle of the river and turned to the astonished officers of the staff and shouted triumphantly, "That's how deep it is, General!"

When McClellan was relieved of command in November 1862, Custer reverted to the rank of first lieutenant. Custer fell into the orbit of Maj. Gen. Alfred Pleasonton, who was commanding a cavalry division. The general was Custer's introduction to the world of extravagant uniforms and political maneuvering and the young lieutenant became his protégé, serving on Pleasonton's staff while continuing his assignment with his regiment. Custer was quoted as saying that "no father could love his son more than General Pleasonton loves me." After the Battle of Chancellorsville, Pleasonton became the commander of the Cavalry Corps of the Army of the Potomac and his first assignment was to locate the army of Robert E. Lee, moving north through the Shenandoah Valley in the beginning of the Gettysburg Campaign. In his first command, Custer affected a showy, personalized uniform style that alienated his men, but he won them over with his readiness to lead attacks (a contrast to the many officers who would hang back, hoping to avoid being hit); his men began to adopt elements of his uniform customization. Custer distinguished himself by fearless, aggressive actions in some of the numerous cavalry engagements that started off the campaign, including Brandy Station and Aldie.

Custer (extreme right) with President Lincoln, George B. McClellan and other officers at the Battle of Antietam, 1862
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Custer (extreme right) with President Lincoln, George B. McClellan and other officers at the Battle of Antietam, 1862

Brigade command and Gettysburg

Three days prior to the Battle of Gettysburg, General Pleasonton promoted Custer from captain to brevet brigadier general (temporary rank) of volunteers. Despite having no direct command experience, he became one of the youngest generals in the Union Army at age 23.

Two captains—Wesley Merritt and Elon J. Farnsworth—received the same promotion along with Custer, although they did have command experience. Custer lost no time in implanting his aggressive character on his brigade, part of the division of Brig. Gen. Judson Kilpatrick. He fought against the Confederate cavalry of J.E.B. Stuart at Hanover and Hunterstown, on the way to the main event at Gettysburg.

Custer's style of battle sometimes bordered on reckless or foolhardy. He often impulsively gathered up whatever cavalrymen he could find in his vicinity and led them personally in bold assaults directly into enemy positions. One of his greatest attributes during the Civil War was luck and he needed it to survive some of these charges. At Hunterstown, in an ill-considered charge ordered by Kilpatrick (but one that Custer did not protest) against the brigade of Wade Hampton, Custer fell from his wounded horse directly before the enemy and became the target of numerous enemy rifles. He was rescued by the bugler of the 1st Michigan Cavalry, Norville Churchill, who galloped up, shot Custer's nearest assailant, and allowed Custer to mount behind him for a dash to safety.

Possibly Custer's finest hour in the Civil War was just east of Gettysburg on July 3, 1863. In conjunction with Pickett's Charge to the west, Robert E. Lee dispatched Stuart's cavalry on a mission into the rear of the Union Army. Custer encountered the Union cavalry division of David McM. Gregg, directly in the path of Stuart's horsemen. He convinced Gregg to allow him to stay and fight, while his own division was stationed to the south out of the action. At East Cavalry Field, hours of charges and hand-to-hand combat ensued. Custer led a mounted charge of the 1st Michigan Cavalry, breaking the back of the Confederate assault, foiling Lee's plan. Custer's brigade lost 257 men at Gettysburg, the highest loss of any Union cavalry brigade.[4]

Marriage

He married Elizabeth Clift Bacon (1842–1933) on February 9, 1864. She was born in Monroe, Michigan, to Daniel Stanton Bacon and Eleanor Sophia Page. They had no children together.[citation needed] Following the Battle of Washita River in November 1868, Custer was alleged (by Captain Frederick Benteen, chief of scouts Ben Clark, and Cheyenne oral tradition) to have had a sexual relationship during the winter and early spring of 1868-1869 with Monahsetah, daughter of the Cheyenne chief Little Rock (killed in the Washita battle).[5] Monahsetah gave birth to a child in January 1869, two months after the Washita battle; Cheyenne oral history also alleges that she bore a second child, fathered by Custer, in late 1869.[5]

The Valley and Appomattox

When the cavalry corps of the Army of the Potomac was reorganized under Philip Sheridan in 1864, Custer retained his command, and took part in the various actions of the cavalry in the Overland Campaign, including the Battle of the Wilderness (after which he ascended to division command), the Battle of Yellow Tavern, where Jeb Stuart was mortally wounded, and the Battle of Trevilian Station, where Custer was humiliated by having his division trains overrun and his personal baggage captured by the Confederates. When Confederate General Jubal A. Early moved down the Shenandoah Valley and threatened Washington, D.C., Custer's division was dispatched along with Sheridan to the Valley Campaigns of 1864. They pursued the Confederates at Winchester and effectively destroyed Early's army during Sheridan's counterattack at Cedar Creek.

Custer and Sheridan, having defeated Early, returned to the main Union Army lines at the Siege of Petersburg, where they spent the winter. In April 1865 the Confederate lines were finally broken and Robert E. Lee began his retreat to Appomattox Court House, pursued by the Union cavalry. Custer distinguished himself by his actions at Waynesboro, Dinwiddie Court House, and Five Forks. His division blocked Lee's retreat on its final day and received the first flag of truce from the Confederate force. Custer was present at the surrender at Appomattox Court House and the table upon which the surrender was signed was presented to him as a gift for his gallantry. Before the close of the war Custer received brevet promotions to brigadier and major general in the Regular Army and major general in the volunteers. As with most wartime promotions, these senior ranks were only temporary.

Indian Wars

On February 1, 1866, Custer was mustered out of the volunteer service and was reduced to the rank of captain in the regular army, assigned to the Fifth U.S. Cavalry. Custer took an extended leave, exploring options in New York City,[6] where he considered careers in railroads and mining.[7] Offered a position as adjutant general of the army of Benito Juárez of Mexico, who was then in a struggle with Maximilian, Custer applied for a one-year leave of absence from the U.S. Army, but his appointment was blocked by U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward, who feared offending France.[7] Following the death of his father-in-law in May 1866, Custer returned to Monroe, Michigan, where he considered running for Congress and took part in public discussion over the treatment of the American South in the aftermath of the Civil War, advocating a policy of moderation.[7] In September 1866 he accompanied President Andrew Johnson on a train journey to build up public support for Johnson's policies towards the South. Custer denied a charge by the newspapers that Johnson had promised him a colonel's commission in return for his support, though Custer had written to Johnson some weeks before seeking such a commission.[8]

Custer was offered command of the 10th U.S. Cavalry (otherwise known as the Buffalo Soldiers) with the rank of full colonel,[citation needed] but turned the command down in favor of a lieutenant colonelcy of the newly created 7th U.S. Cavalry,[9] headquartered at Fort Riley, Kansas.[10] As a result of a plea by his patron General Philip Sheridan, Custer was also recipient of a brevet rank of major general.[9] He then took part in General Winfield Scott Hancock's expedition against the Cheyenne in 1867.

His career took a brief detour following the Hancock campaign when he was court-martialed at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas for being AWOL, after abandoning his post to see his wife, and was suspended for duty for one year. He returned to duty in 1868, before his term of suspension had expired, at the request of General Philip Sheridan, who wanted Custer for his planned winter campaign against the Cheyenne.

Under Sheridan's orders, Custer took part in establishing Camp Supply in Indian Territory in early November 1868 as a supply base for the winter campaign. Custer then led the 7th U.S. Cavalry in an attack on the Cheyenne encampment of Black Kettle - the Battle of Washita River on November 27, 1868. Custer reported killing 103 warriors, though estimates by the Cheyenne themselves of the number of Indian casualties were substantially lower; some women and children were also killed, and 53 women and children were taken prisoner. Custer had his men shoot most of the 875 Indian ponies the troops had captured. This was regarded as the first substantial U.S. victory in the Indian Wars, helping to force a significant portion of the Southern Cheyennes onto a U.S. appointed reservation.

In 1873, he was sent to the Dakota Territory to protect a railroad survey party against the Sioux. On August 4, 1873, near the Tongue River, Custer and the 7th U.S. Cavalry clashed for the first time with the Sioux. Only one man on each side was killed. In 1874, Custer led an expedition into the Black Hills and announced the discovery of gold on French Creek near present-day Custer, South Dakota. Custer's announcement triggered the Black Hills Gold Rush and gave rise to the lawless town of Deadwood, South Dakota.

Battle of the Little Bighorn

An 1899 chromolithograph entitled Custer Massacre at Big Horn, Montana — June 25, 1876, artist unknown.
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An 1899 chromolithograph entitled Custer Massacre at Big Horn, Montana — June 25, 1876, artist unknown.

By the time of Custer's expedition to the Black Hills in 1874, the level of conflict and tension between the U.S. and many plains Indians tribes (including the Lakota Sioux and the Cheyenne) had become exceedingly high. Indians killed settlers and railroad workers, white Americans continually broke treaty agreements and advanced further westward. To take possession of the Black Hills (and thus the gold deposits), and to stop Indian attacks, the U.S. decided to corral all remaining free plains Indians. The Grant government set a deadline of January 31, 1876 for all Lakota and Northern Cheyenne to report to their designated agencies (reservations) or be considered a "hostile".

The 7th Cavalry departed from Fort Lincoln on May 17, 1876, part of a larger army force planning to round up remaining free Indians. Meanwhile, in the spring and summer of 1876, the Hunkpapa Lakota chief Sitting Bull had called together the largest ever gathering of plains Indians at Ash Creek, Montana (later moved to the Little Bighorn River) to discuss what to do about whites.[11] It was this encampment of Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho Indians that the 7th met at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

On June 25, some of Custer's Crow Indian scouts identified what they claimed was a large Indian encampment along the Little Bighorn River. Custer divided his forces into three battalions: one led by Major Marcus Reno, one by Captain Frederick Benteen, and one by himself. Captain Thomas M. McDougall and Company B were with the pack train. Benteen was sent south and west, to cut off any attempted escape by the Indians, Reno was sent north to charge the southern end of the encampment, and Custer rode north, hidden to the east of the encampment by bluffs, and planning to circle around and attack from the north.[12][13]

Reno began a charge on the southern end of the village, but halted midway and had his men dismount and form a skirmish line.[14][13] They were soon overcome by the Lakota and Cheyenne warriors, and first attempted to take cover in the trees along the river, but were eventually forced into a bloody retreat up onto the bluffs above the river, where they made their own stand.[15][16] This, the opening action of the battle, cost Reno a quarter of his command.

Meanwhile, unaware of Reno's failure, Custer had led his command to the northern end the main encampment, where he apparently planned to sandwich the Indians between his attacking troopers and Reno's command. He was driven from the ford at that end of the camp and was pursued by hundreds of warriors onto a ridge north of the encampment, where he was prevented from digging in by Crazy Horse, whose warriors had outflanked Custer and were now to his north, at the crest of the ridge.[17] Traditional white accounts attribute to Gall the attack that drove Custer up onto the ridge, but Indian witnesses have disputed that account.[18] For a time, Custer's men were deployed by company, in standard cavalry fighting formation--the skirmish, with every fourth man holding the horses. This arrangement, however, robbed Custer of a quarter of his firepower, and as the fight intensified, many soldiers took to holding their own horses or hobbling them, further reducing their effective fire. When Crazy Horse and White Bull mounted the charge that broke through the center of Custer's lines, pandemonium broke out among the men of Calhoun's and Keogh's command.[19] Many of the panicking soldiers threw down their weapons[20] and either rode or ran towards the knoll where Custer, the other officers, and about 40 men were making a stand. Along the way, the Indians rode them down, counting coup by whacking the fleeing troopers with their quirts or lances.[21]

Initially, Custer had 208 officers and men under his command, with an additional 142 under Reno and just over a hundred under Benteen. The Indians fielded over 1800 warriors,[22] Historically, the numbers do seem to have been exaggerated to explain Custer's defeat, and again, to exculpate him from his numerous errors before and during the battle. As the troopers were cut down, moreover, the Indians stripped the dead of their firearms and ammunition, with the result that the return fire from the cavalry steadily decreased, while the fire from the Indians steadily increased. With Custer and the survivors shooting the remaining horses to use them as breastworks and making a final stand on the knoll at the north end of the ridge, the Indians closed in for the final attack and killed all in Custer's command. As a result, the Battle of the Little Bighorn has come to be popularly known as "Custer's Last Stand".

When the cavalry's main column did arrive three days later, they found most of the soldiers' corpses stripped, scalped, and mutilated.[23] Custer’s body had two bullet holes, one in the left temple and one just above the heart.[24] Following the recovery of Custer's body, he was given a funeral with full military honors, and was buried on the battlefield, and later reinterred in the West Point Cemetery on October 10, 1877. The site of the battle was designated a National Cemetery in 1876.

Controversial legacy

George and Libbie Custer
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George and Libbie Custer

After his death, Custer achieved the lasting fame that eluded him in life. The public saw him as a tragic military hero and gentleman who sacrificed his life for his country. Custer's wife, Elizabeth, who accompanied him in many of his frontier expeditions, did much to advance this view with the publication of several books about her late husband: Boots and Saddles, Life with General Custer in Dakota (1885), Tenting on the Plains (1887), and Following the Guidon (1891). General Custer himself wrote about the Indian wars in My Life on the Plains (1874) and was the posthumous co-author of The Custer Story (1950).

Today Custer would be called a "media personality" who understood the value of good public relations and exploited media for his own ends; he frequently invited correspondents to accompany him on his campaigns, and their favorable reportage contributed to his high reputation that lasted well into the 20th century. It is believed that Custer was photographed more than any other Civil War officer,[citation needed] and perhaps more than any other person in the 19th century with the exception of "Buffalo Bill" Cody. He was fond of flamboyant dress; a witness described his appearance as "like a circus rider gone mad." After being promoted to brigadier general, Custer sported a uniform that included shiny jackboots, tight olive corduroy trousers, a wide-brimmed slouch hat, tight hussar jacket of black velveteen with silver piping on the sleeves, a sailor shirt with silver stars on his collar, and a red cravat. He wore his hair in long glistening ringlets liberally sprinkled with cinnamon-scented hair oil. Later in his campaigns against the Indians, Custer wore a buckskin outfit along with his familiar red tie.

The assessment of Custer's actions during the Indian Wars has undergone substantial reconsideration in modern times[citation needed]. For many critics, Custer was the personification and culmination of the U.S. Government's ill-treatment of the Native American tribes, while others see him as a scapegoat for the Grant Indian policy, which he personally opposed.[citation needed] His testimony on behalf of the abuses sustained by the reservation Indians nearly cost him his command by the Grant administration. Custer once wrote that if he were an Indian, he would rather fight for his freedom alongside the hostile warriors "than be confined to the limits of a reservation".[citation needed]

Many criticized Custer's actions during the battle of the Little Bighorn, claiming his actions were impulsive and foolish,[citation needed] while others praised him as a fallen hero who was betrayed by the incompetence of his subordinate officers.[citation needed] The controversy over who is to blame for the disaster at Little Bighorn rages to this day. Yet plenty of criticism can be directed at Custer. His worst mistake was to divide his force in the face of mounting evidence of superior Indian numbers.[25] Yet he had made at least two significant errors before that. Overconfident in the campaign, despite intelligence that said he would be facing at least 1000-1500 warriors, and thus outnumbered nearly two-to-one, or closer to three-to-one[26], Custer on 21 June, 1876 had refused the offer another battalion by General Terry. He had even left a battery of Gatling guns parked at the riverboat Far West on the Yellowstone River.[27] Such rash decisions deprived his command of critical support and firepower in the campaign, errors that would bear fruit four days later.

Monuments and memorials

George A. Custer out of uniform.
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George A. Custer out of uniform.
  • Counties are named in Custer's honor in five states: Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma and South Dakota. Custer County, Idaho, is named for the General Custer mine, which, in turn, was named after Custer. There are several townships named for Custer in Minnesota and Michigan. There are also the towns of Custer, Michigan, Custer, South Dakota, Custar, Ohio, and the unincorporated town of Custer, Wisconsin. A portion of Monroe County, Michigan, is informally referred to as "Custerville." [1]
  • There is an equestrian statue of Custer in Monroe, Michigan, his boyhood home. Originally located near city hall, in the center of town, it was moved years later to Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Park, a small park near the River Raisin and away from the main thoroughfares of the city. Due to lobbying by Libbie Custer and others, it was eventually moved to its current location, on the corner of Monroe and Elm Streets, on the edge of downtown Monroe.
  • Fort Custer National Military Reservation, near Augusta, Michigan, was built in 1917 on 130 parcels of land, mainly small farms leased to the government by the local chamber of commerce as part of the military mobilization for World War I. During the war, some 90,000 troops passed through Camp Custer. Following the Armistice of 1918, the camp became a demobilization base for over 100,000 men. In the years following World War I, the camp was used to train the Officer Reserve Corps and the Civilian Conservation Corps. On August 17, 1940, Camp Custer was designated Fort Custer and became a permanent military training base. During World War II, more than 300,000 troops trained there, including the famed 5th Infantry Division (also known as the "Red Diamond Division") which left for combat in Normandy, France, June 1944. Fort Custer also served as a prisoner of war camp for 5,000 German soldiers until 1945. Today Fort Custer's training facilities are used by the Michigan National Guard and other branches of the armed forces, primarily from Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana. Many Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) students from colleges in Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana also train at this facility, as well as do the FBI, the Michigan State Police, and various other law enforcement agencies. (https://www.mi.ngb.army.mil/ftcuster/default.asp)
  • The establishment of Fort Custer National Cemetery (originally Fort Custer Post Cemetery) took place on September 18, 1943, with the first interment. As early as the 1960s, local politicians and veterans organizations advocated the establishment of a national cemetery at Fort Custer. The National Cemeteries Act of 1973 directed the Veterans' Administration to develop a plan to provide burial space to all veterans who desired interment in a national cemetery. After much study, the NCS adopted what became the regional concept. Fort Custer became the Veterans' Administration's choice for its Region V national cemetery. Toward this goal, Congress created Fort Custer National Cemetery in September 1981. The cemetery received 566 acres from the Fort Custer Military Reservation and 203 acres from the VA Medical Center. The first burial took place on June 1, 1982. At the same time, approximately 2,600 gravesites were available in the post cemetery, which made it possible for veterans to be buried there while the new facility was being developed. On Memorial Day 1982, more than 33 years after the first resolution had been introduced in Congress, impressive ceremonies marked the official opening of the cemetery.(http://www.cem.va.gov/nchp/ftcuster.htm)
  • The Black Hills of South Dakota is full of evidence of Custer, with a county, town, and the Custer State Park all located in the area.
  • Custer Observatory is the oldest observatory on Long Island. Located in Southold, New York, it was founded in 1927 by Charles Elmer (co-founder of the Perkin-Elmer Optical Company ), along with a group of fellow amateur-astronomers. This name was chosen to honor the hospitality of Mrs. Elmer, formerly May Custer, the Grand Niece of General George Armstrong Custer.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Custer in the 1850 US Census in North Township, Ohio
  2. ^ Boston Custer in the 1870 US Census in Monroe, Michigan
  3. ^ Custer in the 1860 US Census at West Point
  4. ^ Tagg, p. 185.
  5. ^ a b Utley 2001, p. 107.
  6. ^ Utley 2001, p. 38.
  7. ^ a b c Utley 2001, p. 39.
  8. ^ Utley 2001, pp. 39-40.
  9. ^ a b Utley 2001, p. 40.
  10. ^ Utley 2001, p. 41.
  11. ^ Marshall 2007, pg. 15
  12. ^ Welch 2007, pg. 149
  13. ^ a b Ambrose 1996, pg. 437
  14. ^ Marshall 2007, pg. 2
  15. ^ Marshall 2007, pg. 4
  16. ^ Ambrose 1996, pg. 439
  17. ^ Marshall 2007, pp. 7-8.
  18. ^ cf. Michno, 1997, p. 168.
  19. ^ Michno, 1997, pp. 205-206
  20. ^ Welch 2007, pg. 183
  21. ^ cf. Michno, 1997. pp. 205-206: testimony of White Bull; p. 215: testimony of Yellow Nose.
  22. ^ cf. Michno, 1997, pp. 10-20; Michno settles on a low number around 1000, but other sources place the number at 1800 or 2000, especially in the works by Utley and Fox. The 1800-2000 figure is substantially lower than the higher numbers of 3000 or more postulated by Ambrose, Gray, Scott and others.
  23. ^ Marshall 2007, pg. 11; Welch 2007, pp. 175-181
  24. ^ Welch 2007, pg. 175
  25. ^ Perrett, 1991, pp. 56-57.
  26. ^ Goodrich, 1997, p. 233.
  27. ^ Wert, 1996, p. 327,

References

  • Ambrose, Stephen E. (1996 [1975]). Crazy Horse and Custer: The Parallel Lives of Two American Warriors. New York: Anchor Books.
  • Eicher, John H. and David J. Eicher. (2001). Civil War High Commands. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-3641-3. 
  • Goodrich, Thomas. Scalp Dance: Indian Warfare on the High Plains, 1865-1879. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1997.
  • Gray, John S. (1993). Custer’s Last Campaign: Mitch Boyer and the Little Bighorn Remembered. University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0-8032-7040-2. 
  • Longacre, Edward G. (2000). Lincoln's Cavalrymen: A History of the Mounted Forces of the Army of the Potomac. Stackpole Books. ISBN 0-8117-1049-1.
  • Mails, Thomas E. Mystic Warriors of the Plains. New York: Marlowe & Co., 1996.
  • Marshall, Joseph M. III. (2007). The Day the World Ended at Little Bighorn: A Lakota History. New York: Viking Press.
  • Merington, Marguerite, Ed. The Custer Story: The Life and Intimate Letters of General Custer and his Wife Elizabeth. (1950)
  • Michno, Gregory F. (1997). Lakota Noon: The Indian Narrative of Custer's Defeat. Mountain Press Publishing Company. ISBN 0-8784-2349-4.
  • Perrett, Bryan. Last Stand: Famous Battles Against the Odds. London: Arms & Armour, 1993.
  • Scott, Douglas D., Richard A. Fox, Melissa A. Connor, and Dick Harmon. (1989). Archaeological Perspectives on the Battle of the Little Bighorn. University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-3292-2. 
  • Tagg, Larry. (1988). The Generals of Gettysburg. Savas Publishing. ISBN 1-882810-30-9.
  • Utley, Robert M. (2001). Cavalier in Buckskin: George Armstrong Custer and the Western Military Frontier, revised edition. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-3387-2.
  • Vestal, Stanley. Warpath: The True Story of the Fighting Sioux Told in a Biography of Chief White Bull. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1934.
  • Warner, Ezra J. (1964). Generals in Blue: Lives of the Union Commanders. Louisiana State University Press. ISBN 0-8071-0822-7. 
  • Welch, James, with Paul Stekler. (2007 [1994]). Killing Custer: The Battle of Little Bighorn and the Fate of the Plains Indians. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
  • Wert, Jeffry D. Custer: The controversial life of George Armstrong Custer. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1964/1996. ISBN 0-684-83275-5.
  • Wittenberg, Eric J. (2001). Glory Enough for All : Sheridan's Second Raid and the Battle of Trevilian Station. Brassey's Inc. ISBN 1-57488-353-4. 

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