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{{Short description|United States cavalry commander (1839–1876)}}
{{Redirect|Custer}}
{{use mdy dates|date=July
{{Infobox military person
| name = George Armstrong Custer
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| rank = [[File:Union Army LTC rank insignia.png|border|35px]] [[Lieutenant colonel (United States)|Lieutenant Colonel]], [[Regular Army (United States)|USA]]<br />[[File:Union army maj gen rank insignia.jpg|35px]] [[Major general (United States)|Major General]], [[United States Volunteers|USV]]
| unit =
| commands = [[Michigan Brigade|Michigan Cavalry Brigade]]<br />3rd Cavalry Division<br />2nd Cavalry Division<br />[[7th
| battles = {{tree list}}
* '''[[American Civil War]]'''
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*** [[Battle of the Little Bighorn]]{{KIA}}
{{tree list/end}}
| awards = [[#
| spouse = {{marriage|[[Elizabeth Bacon Custer|Elizabeth Bacon]]|1864}}
| relations = [[Thomas Custer]], brother<br />[[Boston Custer]], brother<br />[[James Calhoun (soldier)|James Calhoun]], brother-in-law
| laterwork =
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''' George Armstrong Custer''' (December 5, 1839 – June 25, 1876) was a [[United States Army]] officer and [[cavalry]] commander in the [[American Civil War]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-Armstrong-Custer|title=George Armstrong Custer {{!}} Biography, Battles, Death, & Facts|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en|access-date=2020-02-06}}</ref> and the [[American Indian Wars]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.historynet.com/george-armstrong-custer-changing-views-of-an-american-legend.htm|title=George Armstrong Custer: Changing Views of an American Legend|last=Kraft|first=Louis|date=2006-09-01|website=HistoryNet|language=en-US|access-date=2020-02-06}}</ref>
Custer graduated from [[United States Military Academy|West Point]] and, though
In 1864, he served in the [[Overland Campaign]] and [[Philip Sheridan]]'s army in the [[Valley Campaigns of 1864|Shenandoah Valley]], defeating [[Jubal Early]] at [[Battle of Cedar Creek|Cedar Creek]]. In 1865, he destroyed or captured the remainder of Early's forces at the [[Battle of Waynesboro, Virginia|Battle of Waynesboro]]. His division blocked the [[Army of Northern Virginia]]'s final retreat and received the first flag of truce from the Confederates. He was
His dramatic end was as controversial as the rest of his career, and the reaction to his life
==Family and ancestry==
Custer's paternal ancestors, Paulus and Gertrude Küster, came to the North American English colonies around 1693 from the [[Rhineland]] in Germany, probably among thousands of [[German Palatines|Palatines]] whose passage was arranged by the English government to gain settlers in New York and Pennsylvania.<ref>{{Cite book|author=Wert, Jeffry D.|title=Custer: The Controversial Life of George Armstrong Custer|year=1996|publisher=Simon & Schuster|location=New York|isbn=978-0-684-81043-0|url=https://archive.org/details/custercontrovers0000wert}}, p. 15.</ref><ref>{{Cite book|author=Connell, Evan S.|title=Son Of The Morning Star|location=San Francisco, California|publisher=North Point Press|year=1984|isbn=978-0-86547-160-3|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/sonofmorningstar0000conn}}, p. 352.</ref>
Custer's maternal ancestors were of English and Ulster Scots descent, having ancestries from England and Northern Ireland.<ref>[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/1850_census_Custer.jpg Custer] in the [[1850 United States Census|1850 US Census]], North Township, Harrison County, [[Ohio]].</ref>
According to family letters, Custer was named after George Armstrong, a minister, in his devout mother's hope that her son might join the clergy.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Merington |first=Margurite |title=The Custer Story: The Life and Intimate Letters of George A. Custer and His Wife Elizabeth|year=1987|publisher=University of Nebraska Press|location=Lincoln|isbn=978-0-8032-8138-7}}</ref>
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[[File:Maj. Gen. G.A. Custer - From photographic negative in Brady's National Portrait Gallery. LCCN2015649855.jpg|thumb|right|[[Mathew Brady]] photograph of Custer. From the Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs, Prints and Photographs Division, [[Library of Congress]]]]
[[File:GenGACuster.jpg|thumb|right|Brevet Major General George Armstrong Custer, United States Army, 1865]]
[[File:Custer Staghounds.jpg|thumb|Custer and [[Bloody Knife]] (kneeling left),
[[File:"Our First Grizzly, killed by Gen. Custer and Col. Ludlow." By Illingworth, 1874, during Black Hills expedition - NARA - 519426.jpg|thumb|right|"Our First Grizzly, killed by Gen. Custer and Col. Ludlow." By Illingworth, 1874, during Black Hills expedition (Left to right: Bloody Knife, George Armstrong Custer, Private John Noonan, and Captain William Ludlow)]]
[[File:George Armstrong Custer and wife Fort Lincoln Dakota Territory.jpg|thumb|right|Custer and his wife at [[Fort Abraham Lincoln]], [[Dakota Territory]], 1874]]
[[File:Hunting and camping party of Custer (standing in center) and invited guests. Fort A. Lincoln on the Little Heart River, - NARA - 530885.tif|thumb|
On February 1, 1866, Major General Custer mustered out of the U.S. volunteer service and took an extended leave of absence until September 24.<ref>{{
Following the death of his father-in-law in May 1866, Custer returned to Monroe, Michigan, where he considered running for Congress. He took part in public discussion over the treatment of the [[Southern United States|American South]] in the aftermath of the Civil War, advocating a policy of moderation.<ref name="utley-39"/> He was named head of the Soldiers and Sailors Union, regarded as a response to the hyper-partisan [[Grand Army of the Republic]] (GAR). Formed in 1866, it was led by Republican activist [[John A. Logan|John Alexander Logan]].
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Custer was to command an expedition planned for the spring, part of a three-pronged campaign. While Custer's expedition marched west from [[Fort Abraham Lincoln]], near present-day [[Mandan, North Dakota]], troops under Colonel [[John Gibbon]] were to march east{{sfn|Nevin|1973|p=202}} from [[Fort Ellis]], near present-day [[Bozeman, Montana]], while a force under General [[George Crook]] was to march north{{sfn|Nevin|1973|p=202}} from [[Fort Fetterman]], near present-day [[Douglas, Wyoming]].
Custer's 7th Cavalry was originally scheduled to leave
Concerned that he might miss the coming campaign, Custer did not want to go to Washington. He asked to answer questions in writing, but Clymer insisted.<ref>Stewart, Custer's Luck, p. 124.</ref> Recognizing that his testimony would be explosive, Custer tried "to follow a moderate and prudent course, avoiding prominence."<ref>Marguerite Merrington, ''The Custer Story: The Life and Intimate Letters of General George A. Custer and his Wife Elizabeth''. (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1987), p. 293.</ref> Despite this, he provided a quantity of unsubstantiated accusations against Belknap.{{sfn|Nevin|1973|p=202}} His testimony, given on March 29 and April 4, was a sensation, being loudly praised by the Democratic press and sharply criticized by Republicans. Custer wrote articles published anonymously in ''[[New York Herald|The New York Herald]]'' that exposed trader post kickback rings and implied that Belknap was behind them. During his testimony, Custer attacked President Grant's brother Orville on unproven grounds of extorting money in exchange for exerting undue influence.{{sfn|Nevin|1973|p=202}} Historian [[Stephen E. Ambrose]] speculated that around this time Custer was presented with the idea of becoming the Democratic candidate in the upcoming [[1876 United States presidential election]], adding further motivation for Custer to rejoin his regiment and win further accolades in the Sioux Wars.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ambrose |first1=Stephen E. |title=Crazy Horse and Custer: The Parallel Lives of Two American Warriors |date=1996 |publisher=First Anchor |pages=400–408}}</ref>
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By the time of Custer's [[Black Hills Expedition|Black Hills expedition]] in 1874, the level of conflict and tension between the U.S. and many of the [[Plains Indians]] tribes (including the [[Lakota Sioux]] and the [[Cheyenne]]) had become exceedingly high. European-Americans continually broke treaty agreements and advanced further westward, resulting in violence and acts of depredation by both sides. 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 [[Arapaho]] wintering in the "unceded territory" to report to their designated agencies (reservations) or be considered "hostile".<ref>1868 Fort Laramie Treaty. The Cheyenne were not part of this treaty and had no designated agency. The reservation was for the Lakota and Arapaho.</ref>
At that time, the 7th Cavalry's regimental commander, Colonel [[Samuel D. Sturgis]], was on detached duty as the Superintendent of Mounted Recruiting Service and in command of the Cavalry Depot in [[St. Louis, Missouri]],<ref>{{cite web |url =https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/America/United_States/Army/USMA/Cullums_Register/1303*.html |title= Online version of Cullum's Register of Graduates of the United States Military Academy – Class of 1846 – Samuel D. Sturgis |access-date = 10 December 2018}}</ref> which left Lieutenant Colonel Custer in command of the regiment. Custer and the 7th Cavalry departed from [[Fort Abraham 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 holy man [[Sitting Bull]] had called together the largest gathering of Plains Indians at Ash Creek, Montana (later moved to the Little Bighorn River) to discuss what to do about the whites.<ref>Marshall 2007, p. 15.</ref> It was this united encampment of Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho Indians that the 7th Calvary met at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in the [[Crow Indian Reservation]]<ref>Kappler, Charles J.: Indian Affairs. Laws and Treaties. Vol. II. Washington, 1904, p. 1008-1011. Treaty with the Crows, 1868.</ref> created in old Crow Country
Around June 15, Major [[Marcus Reno]] while scouting, discovered the trail of a large village on the [[Rosebud River]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.history.army.mil/books/r&h/R&H-7Cav.htm|title=Seventh Regiment of Cavalry – Center of Military History|author=U.S. Army Center of Military History}}</ref> On June 22, Custer's entire regiment was detached to follow this trail. On June 25, some of Custer's [[Crow Indian]] scouts identified what they claimed was a large Indian encampment in the valley near the [[Little Bighorn River]]. Custer had first intended to attack the Indian village the next day, but since his presence became known, he decided to attack immediately and divided his forces into three battalions: one led by Major Reno, one by Captain [[Frederick Benteen]], and one by himself. Captain Thomas M. McDougall and Company B were with the [[pack train]]. Reno was sent north to charge the southern end of the encampment, Custer rode north, hidden to the east of the encampment by bluffs and planning to circle around and attack from the north,<ref>Welch 2007, p. 149.</ref><ref name="amfourthreeseven">Ambrose, Stephen E. (1996). ''Crazy Horse and Custer: The Parallel Lives of Two American Warriors''. New York: Anchor Books. {{ISBN|0-385-47966-2}}, p. 437.</ref> and Benteen was initially sent south and west to scout Indian presence and potentially protect the column from the south.
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In November 1868, following the [[Battle of Washita River]], Custer was alleged (by Captain [[Frederick Benteen]], chief of scouts Ben Clark, and Cheyenne oral tradition) to have unofficially married [[Mo-nah-se-tah]], daughter of the Cheyenne chief [[Little Rock (Cheyenne chief)|Little Rock]] in the winter or early spring of 1868–1869 (Little Rock was killed in the one-day action at Washita on November 27).<ref name="utley-107">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}}, p. 107.</ref> Mo-nah-se-tah gave birth to a child in January 1869, two months after the Washita battle. Cheyenne oral history tells that she also bore a second child fathered by Custer in late 1869. Some historians, however, believe that Custer had become sterile after contracting gonorrhea while at West Point and that the father was in actuality his brother Thomas.<ref>Wert (1996), pp. 287–288.</ref> Clarke's description in his memoirs included the statement, "Custer picked out a fine looking one and had her in his tent every night."<ref>''Montana: The Magazine of Western History'' (Montana Historical Society), vol. 67. no 3, Autumn 2017, p. 7.</ref>
In addition to "Autie", Custer acquired
Throughout his travels, he gathered geological specimens, sending them to the University of Michigan. On September 10, 1873, he wrote Libbie, "the Indian battles hindered the collecting, while in that immediate region it was unsafe to go far from the command...."<ref>Elizabeth B. Custer, Boots and Saddles, or Life in Dakota With General Custer.(New York: Harper and Brothers, 1885), p. 285.</ref>▼
During his service in Kentucky, Custer bought
===Appearance===
Custer was fastidious in his grooming. Early in their marriage, Libbie wrote, "He brushes his teeth after every meal. I always laugh at him for it, also for washing his hands so frequently."<ref>Marguerite Merington, ''The Custer Story: The Life and Intimate Letters of General George A. Custer and His Wife Elizabeth''. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1987. p. 109.</ref> He was 5'11" tall and wore a size 38 jacket and size 9C boots.<ref>Thomas O'Neill, Passing Into Legend: the Death of Custer. (Brooklyn, NY: Arrow and Trooper, 1991), pp. 14–15.</ref> At various times he weighed between 143 pounds (at the end of the 1869 Kansas campaign)<ref>Lawrence A. Frost, General Custer's Libbie. (Seattle: Superior Publishing Co., 1976), p. 187</ref> and a muscular 170 pounds. A splendid horseman, "Custer mounted was an inspiration."<ref>Custer's Indian Battles. (Bronxville, NY: Unknown, 1936), p. 29.</ref> He was quite fit, able to jump to a standing position from lying flat on his back. He was a "power sleeper", able to get by on
The common media image of Custer's appearance at the Last Stand—buckskin coat and long, curly blonde hair—is wrong. Although he and several other officers wore buckskin coats on the expedition, they took them off and packed them away because it was so hot. According to Soldier, an Arikara scout, "Custer took off his buckskin coat and tied it behind his saddle."<ref>Kenneth Hammer, ''Custer in '76: Walter Camp's Notes on the Custer Fight''. (Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1990), p. 188.</ref> Further, Custer—whose hair was thinning—joined a similarly balding Lieutenant Varnum and "had the clippers run over their heads" before leaving Fort Lincoln.<ref>T. M. Coughlin, ''Varnum: The Last of Custer's Lieutenants''. Bryan, TX: J. M. Carroll, 1980. p. 35.</ref>▼
==Death==
It is unlikely that any Native American recognized Custer during or after the battle. Michno summarizes: "Shave Elk said, 'We did not suspect that we were fighting Custer and did not recognize him either alive or dead.' Wooden Leg said no one could recognize any enemy during the fight, for they were too far away. The Cheyennes did not even know a man named Custer was in the fight until weeks later. Antelope said none knew of Custer being at the fight until they later learned of it at the agencies. [[Thomas Bailey Marquis|Thomas Marquis]] learned from his interviews that no Indian knew Custer was at the Little Bighorn fight until months later. Many Cheyennes were not even aware that other members of the Custer family had been in the fight until 1922 when Marquis himself first informed them of that fact."<ref>Gregory F. Michno, ''Lakota Noon: The Indian Narrative of Custer's Defeat''. (Missoula, MT: Mountain Press, 1997) p. 293.</ref>
Several individuals claimed responsibility for killing Custer, including [[
A contrasting version of Custer's death is suggested by the testimony of an Oglala named Joseph White Cow Bull, according to novelist and Custer biographer Evan Connell. He says that Joseph White Bull stated he had shot a rider wearing a buckskin jacket and big hat at the riverside when the soldiers first approached the village from the east. The initial force facing the soldiers, according to this version, was quite small (possibly as few as four warriors) yet challenged Custer's command. The rider who was hit had shouted orders that prompted the soldiers to attack and was next to a rider who bore a flag, but when the buckskin-clad rider fell off his horse after being shot, many of the attackers reined up. The allegation that the buckskin-clad officer was Custer, if accurate, might explain the supposed rapid disintegration of Custer's forces.<ref>Connell (1984), pp. 413–414.</ref> However, several other officers of the Seventh, including [[William W. Cooke|William Cooke]], [[Thomas Custer|Tom Custer]] and William Sturgis, were also dressed in buckskin on the day of the battle, and the fact that each of the non-mutilation wounds to George Custer's body (a bullet wound below the heart and a shot to the left temple) would have been instantly fatal casts doubt on his being wounded or killed at the ford, more than a mile from where his body was found.<ref>Wert, 1996, p. 355.</ref> The circumstances are, however, consistent with [[David Humphreys Miller]]'s suggestion that Custer's
During the 1920s, two elderly Cheyenne women spoke briefly with oral historians about their having recognized Custer's body on the battlefield and said that they had stopped a Sioux warrior from desecrating the body. The women were relatives of [[Mo-nah-se-tah]], who was alleged to have been Custer's lover in late 1868 and through 1869, and borne two children by him. Mo-nah-se-tah was among 53 Cheyenne women and children taken captive by the 7th Cavalry after the [[Battle of Washita River]] in 1868, in which Custer commanded an attack on the camp of Chief [[Black Kettle]]. Mo-nah-se-tah's father, [[Little Rock (Cheyenne chief)|Cheyenne chief Little Rock]], was killed in the battle.<ref name="greene-169">Greene 2004, p. 169.</ref>
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When the main column under General Terry arrived two days later, the army found most of the soldiers' corpses stripped, scalped, and mutilated.<ref>Marshall 2007, p. 11</ref><ref>Welch 2007, pp. 175–181.</ref> Custer's body had two bullet holes, one in the left temple and one just below the heart.<ref>Welch 2007, p. 175.</ref> Capt. Benteen, who inspected the body, stated that in his opinion the fatal injuries had not been the result of .45 caliber ammunition, which implies the bullet holes had been caused by ranged rifle fire.<ref>Connell (1984), P. 410.</ref> Some time later, Lieutenant Edward S. Godfrey described Custer's mutilation, telling Charles F. Bates, that an arrow "had been forced up his penis."<ref>Richard Hardoff, ''The Custer Battle Casualties: Burials, Exhumations, and Reinterments''. (El Segundo, CA: Upton and Sons, 1989, {{ISBN|0912783141}}), p. 21.</ref>
The bodies of Custer and his brother Tom were wrapped in canvas and blankets, then buried in a shallow grave, covered by the basket from a [[travois]] held in place by rocks. When soldiers returned a year later, the brothers' grave had been scavenged by animals and the bones scattered. "Not more than a double handful of small bones were picked up."<ref>Richard Hardoff, ''The Custer Battle Casualties: Burials, Exhumations, and Reinterments''. (El Segundo, CA: Upton and Sons, 1989, {{ISBN|0912783141}}), pp. 25, 45.</ref> Custer was reinterred with full [[Military
==Controversial legacy==
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Custer has been called a "[[media personality]]",<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Ravage|first1=John W.|title=Black pioneers: images of the Black experience on the North American frontier|year=1997|publisher=University of Utah Press|location=Salt Lake City|isbn=978-0-87480-546-8|page=[https://archive.org/details/blackpioneersima00rava/page/74 74]|url=https://archive.org/details/blackpioneersima00rava/page/74}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|first=Michael C.C.|last=Adams|editor1-last=Hall|editor1-first=Dennis G.|editor2-last=Hall|editor2-first=Susan|title=American icons: an encyclopedia of the people, places, and things that have shaped our culture|year=2006|publisher=Greenwood Press|location=Westport, Connecticut|isbn=978-0-275-98429-8|chapter=George Armstrong Custer|page=[https://archive.org/details/americaniconsenc0000unse/page/186 186]|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/americaniconsenc0000unse/page/186}}</ref> and he valued good [[public relations]] and used the [[print media]] of his era effectively. He frequently invited journalists to accompany his campaigns (one, [[Associated Press]] reporter [[Mark Kellogg (reporter)|Mark Kellogg]], died at the Little Bighorn), and their favorable reporting contributed to his high reputation, which lasted well into the latter 20th century. Effusive praise from [[William Eleroy Curtis]], the first journalist to report the discovery of gold in the Black Hills, laid the foundation for Custer's status as a [[tragic hero]] who furthered the "[[manifest destiny]]" of the United States.<ref name="env">{{cite book |last1=Slotkin |first1=Richard |title=The Fatal Environment: The Myth of the Frontier in the Age of Industrialization, 1800-1890 |date=1998 |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |isbn=9780806130309}}</ref><ref name="bro">{{cite news |title=William Eleroy Curtis |publisher=The Brooklyn Daily Eagle |date=6 October 1911}}</ref>
Custer enjoyed writing, often writing all night long.
===Posthumous legacy===
After his death, Custer achieved lasting fame. Custer's wife [[Elizabeth Bacon Custer|Elizabeth]], who had accompanied him in many of his frontier expeditions, did much to advance his fame with the publication of several books about her late husband: ''Boots and Saddles, Life with General Custer in Dakota'',<ref>Elizabeth B. Custer, Boots and Saddles, or Life in Dakota with General Custer. (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1885)</ref> ''Tenting on the Plains, or General Custer in Kansas and Texas''<ref>Elizabeth B. Custer, Tenting on the Plains, or General Custer in Kansas and Texas. (New York, C.L. Webster and Co., 1887)</ref> and ''Following the Guidon''.,<ref>Elizabeth B. Custer, Following the Guidon. (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1890)</ref> thus furthering a "Custer myth".<ref name=":02">{{citation |author=Ezra J. Warner |date=1964 |location=Baton Rouge |pages=110 |publisher=Louisiana State University Press |title=Generals in blue: lives of the Union commanders}}<!-- auto-translated from German by Module:CS1 translator --></ref> The emergence of this myth was also supported by the secrecy of the Official Record of the 1879 Court of Inquiry, which was not released until 1951.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Graham |first=William Alexander |title=The Custer Myth: A Source Book of Custeriana |last2=Dustin |first2=Fred |publisher=Stackpole Company |year=1953 |pages=xii}}</ref>
The deaths of Custer and his troops became the best-known episode in the history of the American Indian Wars, due in part to a painting commissioned by the brewery [[Anheuser-Busch]] as part of an [[advertising]] campaign. The enterprising company ordered reprints of a dramatic work that depicted "Custer's Last Stand" and had them framed and hung in many United States [[Western saloon|saloons]]. This created lasting impressions of the battle and the brewery's products in the minds of many bar patrons.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Griske |first=Michael |title=The Diaries of John Hunton|publisher=Heritage Books|year=2005|isbn=978-0-7884-3804-2|pages=78–79}}</ref> [[Henry Wadsworth Longfellow]] wrote an adoring (and in some places, erroneous) poem.<ref>Connell (1984), pp. 380–391.</ref> President [[Theodore Roosevelt]]'s lavish praise pleased Custer's widow.<ref>Connell (1984), p. 325.</ref>
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General [[Nelson Miles]] (who inherited Custer's mantle of famed Indian fighter) and others praised him as a fallen hero betrayed by the incompetence of subordinate officers. Miles noted the difficulty of winning a fight "with seven-twelfths of the command remaining out of the engagement when within sound of his rifle shots."<ref>Barnett (1996), p. 311.</ref>
The assessment of Custer's actions during the American Indian Wars has undergone substantial reconsideration in modern times. Documenting the arc of popular perception in his biography ''[[Son of the Morning Star]]'' (1984), author [[Evan S. Connell]] notes the reverential tone of Custer's first biographer Frederick Whittaker (whose book was rushed out the year of Custer's death.)<ref>Connell (1984), p. 287.</ref> Connell concludes:
<blockquote>These days it is stylish to denigrate the general, whose stock sells for nothing. Nineteenth-century Americans thought differently. At that time he was [[Pierre Terrail, seigneur de Bayard|a cavalier without fear and beyond reproach]].<ref name="c411">Connell (1984), p. 411.</ref></blockquote>In the same year, W.A. Graham stated in ''The Custer Myth'':<blockquote>But for the "blaze of glory" that formed the setting for his dramatically tragic departure at the hands of yelling savages, he would probably be just another name of a long list of names in our histories of the Civil War, in which as "The Boy General" he made an outstanding record as a leader of Cavalry, as did also numerous others who have been long since all but forgotten.<ref name=":1" /></blockquote>
===Criticism and controversy===
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* Counties are named in Custer's honor in six states: [[Custer County, Colorado|Colorado]], [[Custer County, Idaho|Idaho]] (which is named for the General Custer Mine, which was named for Custer), [[Custer County, Montana|Montana]], [[Custer County, Nebraska|Nebraska]], [[Custer County, Oklahoma|Oklahoma]], and [[Custer County, South Dakota|South Dakota]].
*[[Custer Township (disambiguation)|Townships]] in Illinois, Michigan, and Minnesota were named for Custer.
*Other municipalities named after Custer include the [[Village (United States)|villages]] of [[Custer, Michigan]], and [[Custar, Ohio]]; the city of [[Custer, South Dakota]], and [[Custer City, Oklahoma]]; and the unincorporated town of [[Custer, Wisconsin]].
* [[Custer National Cemetery]] is within [[Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument]], the site of Custer's death.
* The [[George Armstrong Custer Equestrian Monument]] of Custer, by [[Edward Clark Potter]], was erected in [[Monroe, Michigan]], Custer's boyhood home, in 1910.
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* On July 2, 2008, a marble monument to Brigadier General Custer was dedicated at the site of the 1863 Civil War [[Battle of Hunterstown]], in [[Adams County, Pennsylvania]].
*'' [[Custer Monument (West Point)|Custer Monument]]'' at the [[United States Military Academy]] was first unveiled in 1879. It now stands next to his grave in the [[West Point Cemetery]].
*Custer Memorial Monument at his birthplace was erected by the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical society in 1931. It is located near the remains of the foundation of his birthplace homestead in New Rumley, Ohio. Custer Monument is managed locally by the Custer Memorial Association.<ref> https://www.ohiohistory.org/visit/browse-historical-sites/custer-monument/ </ref>
▲In addition to "Autie", Custer acquired a number of nicknames. During the Civil War, after his promotion to become the youngest [[brigadier general]] in the Army at age 23, the press frequently called him "The Boy General". During his years on the [[Great Plains]] in the American Indian Wars, his troopers often referred to him with grudging admiration as "Iron Butt" and "Hard Ass" for his physical stamina in the saddle and his strict discipline, as well as with the more derisive "Ringlets" for his long, curling blond hair, which he frequently perfumed with cinnamon-scented hair oil.<ref>James Welch and Paul Stekler, ''Custer: The Battle of Little Bighorn and the Fate of the Plains Indians''. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1994. p. 60.</ref>
▲He was 5'11" tall and wore a size 38 jacket and size 9C boots.<ref>Thomas O'Neill, Passing Into Legend: the Death of Custer. (Brooklyn, NY: Arrow and Trooper, 1991), pp. 14–15.</ref> At various times he weighed between 143 pounds (at the end of the 1869 Kansas campaign)<ref>Lawrence A. Frost, General Custer's Libbie. (Seattle: Superior Publishing Co., 1976), p. 187</ref> and a muscular 170 pounds. A splendid horseman, "Custer mounted was an inspiration."<ref>Custer's Indian Battles. (Bronxville, NY: Unknown, 1936), p. 29.</ref> He was quite fit, able to jump to a standing position from lying flat on his back. He was a "power sleeper", able to get by on very short naps after falling asleep immediately on lying down.<ref>Custer's Indian Battles. (Bronxville, NY: Unknown, 1936), pp. 12, 34.</ref> He "had a habit of throwing himself prone on the grass for a few minutes' rest and resembled a human island, entirely surrounded by crowding, panting dogs."<ref>Katherine Gibson Fougera, With Custer's Cavalry. (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press: 1986), p. 110.</ref>
▲Throughout his travels, he gathered geological specimens, sending them to the University of Michigan. On September 10, 1873, he wrote Libbie, "the Indian battles hindered the collecting, while in that immediate region it was unsafe to go far from the command...."<ref>Elizabeth B. Custer, Boots and Saddles, or Life in Dakota With General Custer.(New York: Harper and Brothers, 1885), p. 285.</ref>
▲During his service in Kentucky, Custer bought several thoroughbred horses. He took two on his last campaign, Vic (for Victory) and Dandy. During the march he changed horses every three hours.<ref>E. A. Brininstool, Troopers with Custer: Historic Incidents of the Battle of the Little Bighorn. (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1989), p. 63.</ref> He rode Vic into his last battle.
▲The common media image of Custer's appearance at the Last Stand—buckskin coat and long, curly blonde hair—is wrong. Although he and several other officers wore buckskin coats on the expedition, they took them off and packed them away because it was so hot. According to Soldier, an Arikara scout, "Custer took off his buckskin coat and tied it behind his saddle."<ref>Kenneth Hammer, ''Custer in '76: Walter Camp's Notes on the Custer Fight''. (Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1990), p. 188.</ref> Further, Custer—whose hair was thinning—joined a similarly balding Lieutenant Varnum and "had the clippers run over their heads" before leaving Fort Lincoln.<ref>T. M. Coughlin, ''Varnum: The Last of Custer's Lieutenants''. Bryan, TX: J. M. Carroll, 1980. p. 35.</ref>
==Dates of rank==
Line 387 ⟶ 380:
==See also==
{{Portal
▲* [[Cultural depictions of George Armstrong Custer]]
* [[Custer's Revenge]]
* [[Garryowen (air)|Garryowen]] march song▼
* [[German-Americans in the Civil War]]
* [[Half Yellow Face]]
* [[White Swan]]▼
* [[List of American Civil War generals (Union)]]
* [[List of German Americans]]
▲* [[White Swan]]
▲* [[Garryowen (air)|Garryowen]] march song
==References==
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