George Armstrong Custer
George Armstrong Custer (December 5, 1839 – June 25, 1876) was an American cavalry commander in the Civil War and the Indian Wars who is best remembered for his defeat and death at the Battle of the Little Bighorn against a coalition of Native American tribes, led by Sitting Bull.
Family
George Armstrong Custer was a fifth generation descendant of Arnold Kuster and his third wife Rebecca. Arnold was born in Kaldenkirchen, Westphalia, Holy Roman Empire on June 9, 1669. He later emigrated to Hanover, Pennsylvania. Rebecca was a native of the city born in 1671. They had eight children. Arnold is known to have died in 1739.
Their fourth child Nicholas Kuster was born in Germantown, Philadelphia on December 4, 1706. In 1732, Nicholas married Susanna Margaretta Hoppe (1714 - 1787), daughter of Anna Elizabeth Sprogell. They were parents to nine children. Nicholas died on December 9, 1784.
Their ninth and last child Emmanuel Custer was born in Limerick Township on September 29, 1754. On February 17, 1778, Emmanuel married Anna Maria Fedele (August 6, 1759 - October 15, 1799), daughter of Peter Fedele and Susanna Nyce. They were parents to eight children. Emmanuel died in Jessup's Cut, Maryland in 1834.
Their eldest son John Custer was born in Colebrookdale Township on February 26, 1782. On May 11, 1802, John married Catherine Valentine (October 10, 1783 - August 15, 1877). They were parents to seven children. John died in Cresaptown on December 16, 1830.
Their second child and eldest son Emanuel Henry Custer was born in Cresaptown on December 10, 1806. On February 23, 1836, Emanuel married Marie Kirkpatrick Ward (May 31, 1807 - January 13, 1882), daughter of James Grier Ward and Catherine Rogers. Emanuel died in Monroe, Michigan on November 17, 1892.
George Armstrong Custer was born in New Rumley, Ohio. His brothers Thomas Ward Custer and Boston Custer would accompany him at the Battle of Little Big Horn. The other two siblings were Nevin and Margaret Custer.
Civil War
George attended school in Monroe, Michigan (where he is honored by a statue in downtown). He graduated last in his class from West Point in 1861. He immediately joined his regiment at the First Battle of Bull Run. As a staff officer, his daring and energy, and in particular a spirited reconnaissance on the Chickahominy River, brought him to the notice of General George McClellan, who made him an aide-de-camp with the rank of Captain.
A few hours afterwards Custer attacked a Confederate States of America picket post and drove back the enemy. He continued to serve with McClellan until the general was relieved of his command, when Custer returned to duty with his regiment as a Lieutenant. In 1863, Custer was promoted to the rank of Brigadier-general of volunteers. He distinguished himself at the head of the Michigan cavalry brigade in the Battle of Gettysburg, and frequently did good service in the remaining operations of the campaign of 1863.
When the cavalry corps of the Army of the Potomac was reorganized under Sheridan in 1864, Custer retained his command, and took part in the various actions of the cavalry in the Wilderness and Shenandoah campaigns. In February 1864, Custer raided a Confederate camp in a battle known as the Battle of Rio Hill. At the end of September 1864, he was appointed to command a division, and on October 9 fought in the brilliant cavalry action called the Battle of Woodstock.
While retaining his regular-army rank of captain, he was rapidly given brevet commissions in the Volunteers as Major, Lieutenant-colonel and Colonel, and finally brevet Major-general for his services at Gettysburg, Yellow Tavern and Winchester. His part in the decisive Battle of Cedar Creek was most conspicuous.
He served with General Philip Sheridan in the last great cavalry raid, won the action of Waynesboro, and in the final campaign added to his laurels by his conduct at Dinwiddie and Five Forks. At the close of the war he received the brevets of brigadier and major-general in the regular army, and was promoted major-general of volunteers.
Indian Wars
In 1865 Custer was made lieutenant-colonel with the 7th U.S. Cavalry, and took part under General Winfield Scott Hancock in the expedition against the Cheyenne Indians, upon whom he inflicted a crushing defeat at Washita River on November 27, 1868. This was regarded as the first substantial US victory in the Indian Wars. In 1873 he was sent to the Dakota Territory to protect a railroad survey party against the Sioux. Then on August 4, 1873 near the Tongue River, Custer and the 7th 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.
In 1876, Heister Clymer, Chairman of the House Committee on Military Expenditures, commenced an investigation of various acts of Secretary of War Belknap. Custer was called to testify in the proceedings. Even if he clearly claimed what he knew was by hearsay, they wanted him in Washington. But his testimony confirmed or seemed to confirm the accusations not only against Belknap but even against President's Grant brother Orville Grant. The President was infuriated at Custer and took his revenge by placing Custer under arrest. This delayed the upcoming expedition that was to be made against the hostile Lakota and Northern Cheyenne tribes, of which Custer was to be involved. Grant relieved Custer of command and ordered the expedition to proceed without the him.
Custer then wrote to the President: "As my entire Regiment forms a part of the expedition and I am the senior officer of the regiment on duty in this department, I respectfully but most earnestly request that while not allowed to go in command of the expedition I may be permitted to serve with my regiment in the field. I appeal to you as a soldier to spare me the humiliation of seeing my regiment march to meet the enemy and I not share its dangers".
Grant relented and gave his permission for Custer to go. The Seventh Cavalry departed Fort Lincoln on May 17. Custer halted his regiment at the location where the village was thought to be located. Scouts wronged him, claiming they had been discovered. Following the common thinking of the time that indians would flee if attacked from a strong force of Cavalry, he had nothing to do but attack the village without wasting one minute: the primary task of the mission in fact was to catch the indians and bring them to their reservations.
He split his forces in 3 parts: one lead by Maj. Reno, one by Capt. Benteen, one by himself. Reno was ordered to attck from south the village, while Benteen was ordered to go west, in scouting for any fleeing indian, while Custer himself followed north. Was a classical pincer movement. But Reno poorly failed in his action. After a timid charge, he stopped to form a skirmish line and then retreated on a timber to retreat one more time in a mad disorder on the bluffs from where he had came. In this retreat, he lost the 25 % of his command. Meanwhile, Custer, located exactly the village, requested Benteen to come on for the second time. He sent an italian trumpeter with the message: "Benteen, come on, big village, be quick. Bring packs."
Benteen never came. He halted with Reno on the bluffs and managed a defensive position there. Just when Benteen joined Reno, a large number of soldiers testified to have heard heavy fire downstream: Custer was engaged, and all the indians facing Reno, and freed by his retreat, was now going to face Custer. It's not sure what Custer have done from that moment, theories are much and contrasting, but is believable from artifacts that he attempted a diversive attack down Medicine Tail Coulee on the flank of the village, deploying others companies on the ridges in order to give Benteen the time to join him. But Benteen, as told, never came and so the company trying to ford the river was repulsed. Other groups of indians made encircling attacks so that the companies on the hills collapsed and was obliged to join togheter on what is called today Custer Hill.
There, the survivors of the command exchanged a long range fire, with the indians and fell to the last one when out of ammunition. Custer was said already death by some historian while attempting to cross the river, but the shell cases under his body tell the contrary. Much of the corpses or wounded were mutilated, stripped, skulls crashed etc. For what is said, Custer was not touched. He had two bullet holes, one in the left temple and one in the breast, aswell left side.
Following the recovery of Custer's body from where he fell during the Battle of Little Big Horn the previous year, Custer was given a funeral with full military honors and was laid to rest at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York on October 10, 1877.
Controversial Legacy
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).
Custer would be called today a "media personality" who understood the value of good public relations—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. However, this assessment of Custer's actions during the Indian Wars has undergone substantial reconsideration in modern times. (See revisionist history.)
For many critics, Custer was the personification and culmination of the U.S. Government's ill-treatment of the Native American tribes. Others equate the actions of the 7th Cavalry under his command with Holocaust-type atrocities perpetrated during World War II, or with ethnic cleansing of the 1990s. Recent films and books including Little Big Man and Son of the Morning Star depict Custer as a cruel and murderous military commander whose actions today would warrant possible dismissal and court-martial.All this is Unfair indeed Custer met indians in battle just 3 times: Washita, where the indian losses were much under the 100 claimed on the report (see WASHITA of Jerome Greene); Yellowstone skirmishes, and Little Big Horn. All the rest of his Frontier work, was diplomacy and rescue of raped women.
Within the context of post-Civil War expansion, however, Custer's actions differed little from the standard military strategy of the time, which ultimately fragmented Native American culture in the American West.
In Popular culture
Films
George Custer has been played in motion pictures by Francis Ford (1912 twice), Ned Finley (1916), Dustin Farnum (1926), John Beck (1926), Clay Clement (1933). John Miljan (1936), Frank McGlynn (1936), Paul Kelly (1940), Addison Richards (1940), Ronald Reagan (1940), Errol Flynn (1941), James Millican (1942), Sheb Wooley (1952), Douglas Kennedy (1954), Britt Lomond (1958), Philip Carey (1965), Leslie Nielsen (1966), Robert Shaw (1967), Wayne Maunder (1967 & 1990), Richard Mulligan (1970), Marcello Mastroianni (1974), Ken Howard (1977), James Olsen (1977), Gary Cole (1991), Josh Lucas (1993), Peter Horton (1996) and William Shockley (1997).
Thomas Custer, or Tom as he was called, has been represented by John Napier (1965), Ed Lauter (1977) and Tim Ransom (1991).
Boston Custer was portrayed by Patrick Johnston (1991).
Custer's Revenge
There was also a controversial adult video game known as Custer's Revenge for the Atari 2600.
Turtledove's alternate history
In Harry Turtledove's alternate history novels, George Custer was never killed at the Little Bighorn, and became a Colonel in Kansas by 1881, chasing Indians and then doing battle with rebel Mormons in Utah Territory and an Anglo-Canadian column invading Montana in the Second Mexican War, becoming a war hero. In World War I, he led a tank offensive that crushed the Confederate States of America, and later became Governor-General of occupied Canada, dying of old age in 1929.
Trivia
The following five counties are named in Custer's honor: Custer County, Colorado; Custer County, Montana; Custer County, Nebraska; Custer County, Oklahoma; and Custer County, South Dakota.
Custer County, Idaho is named for the General Custer mine, which, in turn, was named after General George Armstrong Custer.
Reference
- Welch, James and Stekler, Paul. Killing Custer. W. W. Norton and Company, New York, NY, 1994. ISBN 0-393-03657-X.
Reno, Marcus A., 1835-1889, (Marcus Albert). The official record of a court of inquiry convened at Chicago, Illinois, January 13, 1879, by the President of the United States upon the request of Major Marcus A. Reno, 7th U.S. Cavalry, to investigate his conduct at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, June 25-26, 1876. http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/History.Reno
Newson, T. M. 1827-1893. (Thomas McLean). Thrilling scenes among the Indians. With a graphic description of Custer's last fight with Sitting Bull. http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/History.Newson
Victor, Frances Fuller, 1826-1902. Eleven years in the Rocky Mountains and life on the frontier also a history of the Sioux war, and a life Gen. George A. Custer, with a full account of his last battle. http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/History.Victor
Whittaker, Frederick, 1838-1889. A complete life of Gen. George A. Custer : Major-General of Volunteers; Brevet Major-General, U.S. Army; and Lieutenant-Colonel, Seventh U.S. Calvery. http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/History.Whittaker
Finerty, John F., 1846-1908. (John Frederick) War-path and bivouac : or, The conquest of the Sioux : a narrative of stirring personal experiences and adventures in the Big Horn and Yellowstone expedition of 1876, and in the campaign on the British border, in 1879. http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/History.Finerty
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