After her husband and 5 of the 12 companies of the 7th Cavalry were wiped out at the [[Battle of the Little Big HornBighorn]] in June 1876, many in the press, Army, and government criticized him for having blundered into a massacre. President [[Ulysses S. Grant]] publicly blamed him for the disaster.<ref>{{Cite book | url=http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/201467.html | title=Custerology: The Enduring Legacy of the Indian Wars and George Armstrong Custer|last=Elliott|first=Michael A.|year=2007|publisher=University of Chicago Press|location=Chicago}}</ref> Fearing that her husband would be made a [[Scapegoat#Scapegoating|scapegoat]] by history, Elizabeth Custer launched a one-woman campaign to rehabilitate her husband's image. Her assistance to Frederick Whittaker, the author of the first biography of George, helped enable the rapid production of the popular book, which praised George's career and set the tone for future biographers in the decades that followed.<ref name="historynet.com" />
Elizabeth began writing articles and making speaking engagements praising the glory of what she presented as her "martyred" husband. Her three books—''Boots and Saddles'' (1885), ''Tenting on the Plains''—(1887), and ''Following the Guidon'' (1890) aimed at glorifying her husband's memory and were ultimately slanted in George's favor.<ref name="historynet.com" />
