George Armstrong Custer

George Armstrong Custer became one of the best known figures in American history and popular mythology after his death at the Battle of the Little Bighorn at the hands of Lakota and Cheyenne warriors. Born in New Rumley, Ohio, he spent most of his childhood in Monroe, Michigan, then enrolled at West Point after high school and proved to be a poor student. Several days after graduating last in his class, he was court-martialed for failing in his duty as an officer of the guard to stop a fight between two cadets, but he escaped punishment because officers were needed at the outbreak of the Civil War. He fought in the first Battle of Bull Run and served with distinction in the Virginia and Gettysburg campaigns. Although his units suffered extremely high casualty rates, his fearless aggression in battle earned the respect of his commanding officers, and his cavalry units played a critical role in forcing the retreat of Confederate General Robert E. Lee's forces. General Philip Sheridan, in gratitude, bought and gave the Appomattox surrender table to Custer and his wife. In July 1866, Custer was appointed lieutenant colonel of the Seventh Cavalry, and the next year he led it in a campaign against the Southern Cheyenne. Later in 1866 he was again court-martialed and suspended from duty for a year for being absent during the campaign, though he maintained he was being made a scapegoat for a failed campaign, and General Phil Sheridan helped bring him back to duty in 1868. The army again favored Custer after his November 1868 attack on Black Kettle's band on the banks of the Washita River. In 1876 he was to help lead part of an anti-Lakota expedition, but his testimony about Indian service corruption so angered President Ulysses S. Grant that Grant relieved him of command and replaced him with General Alfred Terry before reversing that decision under popular pressure. Custer then went west and, believing victory over the Lakota was near, ordered an immediate attack on the Indian village. Badly misjudging Indian military strength, he split his forces into three paths so that fewer Indians would escape. The attack became one of the greatest fiascos of the United States Army when thousands of Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors forced his unit back onto a long dusty ridge parallel to the Little Bighorn and surrounded and killed all 210 of his troops. His blunders cost him his life but brought him lasting fame, as countless paintings of his last stand portrayed him as a gallant victim surrounded by bloodthirsty savages, while forgetting that he had begun the battle by attacking the Indian village.

Michigan · United States