On June 25, 1876, General George Armstrong Custer sat atop his horse on a hill overlooking
the banks of the Little Big Horn River in present-day Montana. The Civil War hero, renowned
for his bravery and good fortune, was plotting an ambush on the largest Indian encampment
ever to assemble on the plains. Little did he know that this would be his Last Stand,
and that this was the day when “Custer’s Luck” would finally run out after a career
full of daring risks and near misses.
Remembered by some as a gallant hero and by others as a bloodthirsty villain, General
Custer was a man full of contradictions and controversy. He was both a lover and a fighter,
a brave but reckless warrior, and a glory-hungry but disobedient soldier. Who exactly was General
Custer, and why is he such a controversial figure?
George Armstrong Custer was born in Ohio in 1839. The youngest of 5 children, young “Autie”,
as he was called because he couldn’t pronounce his own middle name, was sent to live with
his older sister in Michigan at an early age. Custer earned his teaching certificate in
1856, but he had bigger dreams for himself than teaching at grammar school.
He entered West Point Military Academy in 1857, where he was known for spending more
time on pranks than on his studies. He was routinely reprimanded and constantly received
demerits, often earning himself extra weekend guard duties. In an event that would foreshadow
future issues in his career, he was once even court martialed for failing to stop a fight
between two cadets. With all these extracurricular activities, it’s not all that surprising
that he graduated dead last in his class in 1861.
Custer graduated from West Point into a country in chaos - the Civil War had just broken out
in April of 1861, and Custer saw his opportunity for glory. He joined the Union Cavalry where
he attracted the attention of his superiors for his bold leadership style, daring cavalry
charges and tactical brilliance.
In June 1863, he became the youngest Brigadier General in the Union Army at the age of 23.
The “Boy General”, as he was called, got his first taste of leadership in battle just
a few days later during the infamous Battle of Gettysburg. On the third and final day
of the bloody conflict, Confederate General J. E. B. Stuart’s cavalry divisions were
attempting to take the Union Army’s rear by surprise when he was cut off by Custer’s
forces. After a ferocious battle between thousands of horsemen, Custer’s men succeeded in driving
off the Confederate cavalry, playing a decisive role in the Union’s victory in this important
battle.
By the end of the Civil War, Custer’s daring and bravery had earned him a promotion to
Major General in charge of a whole cavalry division. Highly unusual for an officer at
the time, Custer was known for leading his men from the front rather than from the rear,
and he was often the first to charge into battle. General Custer also seemed to have
a knack for avoiding injury - despite fighting in numerous major battles and having 11 horses
shot out from underneath him, he managed to avoid serious injury throughout his career,
and the term “Custer’s Luck” was coined to describe his uncanny good fortune.
Custer was involved in some of the most defining moments of the Civil War. His own cavalry
forces blocked Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s final retreat, and Custer himself
was the one to receive General Lee's white flag, signifying his wish to surrender to
Union General Ulysses S. Grant. Custer was also present for the signing of the terms
of surrender between Generals Lee and Grant on April 9, 1865. Custer was so central to
the Union’s Civil War victory that General Philip Sheridan purchased the table that was
used to sign the terms of surrender and gave it to Custer’s wife in gratitude for her
husband’s service.
Just prior to the end of the Civil War, Custer had married Elizabeth “Libbie” Bacon in
February 1864. Her father, a judge, was not supportive of the match, as he considered
Custer to be “beneath” her. After initially rejecting him, he eventually won her over
and they began an intense courtship and a passionate letter-writing habit that would
persist throughout their marriage.
Custer is famously quoted as saying “I would be willing, yes glad, to see a battle every
day during my life.” His life’s ambition was to gain fame and glory for his battlefield
exploits, and Libbie was his devoted partner in this endeavor, happily playing the part
of the faithful lady to his daring warrior. Custer was also notoriously flamboyant - he
paid special attention to his appearance, especially his long, golden hair, which he
perfumed with cinnamon oil, and he always dressed in the height of late 17th century
fashion, in velvet outfits with gold lace details and large sombreros.
In 1866 Custer was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, and he and Libbie headed to Kansas
to help deal with the “Indian Problem”. After the Civil War had ended, more land was
needed to accomodate American settlers, and as they expanded westward they inevitably
clashed with the local Indian tribes. By the 1860s, most of the local Indians had been
ruthlessly forced onto reservations or killed, but the Great Plains were the last Indian
holdout, and the Plains Indians vowed to avoid a similar fate.
Custer participated in number raids and battles with the Sioux (pronounced “Soo”) and
Cheyenne Indians over control of the western territories. Custer faced two legendary Indian
warriors, Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, for the first time in 1873 when his unit was protecting
a Northern Pacific Railroad Survey at Yellowstone. The government had been encouraging trains
to stop so that passengers could hunt the Buffalo for sport. The Indians relied on Buffalo
for food, and the needless slaughter escalated tensions. Although he succeeded in driving
them off this time, little did Custer know that he had just faced the warriors who would
bring about his own downfall years later.
During this time Custer once again demonstrated his disregard for authority when he left his
regiment without permission to visit his wife, Libbie. He was court martialed yet again for
this exploit, and stripped of his rank and pay for a year. His punishment only lasted
10 months, though, before General Sheridan reinstated him to lead a campaign against
the Cheyenne Indians.
Custer was learning that fighting Indians was much different than fighting Confederate
soldiers. The Indians had the advantage of being much more familiar with the terrain,
and since they were fighting to preserve their way of life they were much more motivated
to fight to the bitter end than Custer’s career soldiers.
By 1876, the Plains Indian Wars had reached a stalemate. In 1868 South Dakota’s Black
Hills had been set aside for the Great Sioux Reservation, however, once gold was discovered
in the hills in just a few years later, the government quickly reneged on their deal and
took over the land. Custer was tasked with relocating the Indians to their new reservation,
but things didn’t exactly go as planned. Rather than go quietly, most of the Indians
travelled to the banks of the Little Big Horn River in present-dayMontana to join Custer’s
old adversaries Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse to fight for their freedom.
On June 25, 1876, Custer was one of the first to arrive at the meeting point near the encampment,
where he and the other generals planned to gather before finding the Indians and forcing
them to surrender to the reservations. While waiting for the other generals to arrive,
it was decided that Custer and his men would move in and surround the Indians, then wait
for reinforcements.
Once he had located the Indian’s camp, however, Custer decided to launch a surprise attack
rather than wait for reinforcements. No one is quite sure why he thought this would be
a good idea, but based on what we know about him, we can assume that arrogance and glory-seeking
played a big role in him leading his men to certain death. The battle famously came to
be called “Custer’s Last Stand”, but in reality he never even had a chance against
such a mighty force of Indian warriors.
Custer divided his 600 men into 4 groups - one group was to stay with the supplies, two groups
were to attack the Indians from the south, and Custer’s own group was to attack from
the North. The south group was the first to attack, but they retreated almost immediately
once it became obvious that they were not only outnumbered, but out gunned. With more
than 2,000 warriors, this was the largest gathering of Indians ever seen on the Great
Plains. The Indians also had superior repeating rifles and bows and arrows, while the Cavalry
had only single-shot rifles and .45 (pronounced “forty-five”) caliber revolvers.
Custer and his men, not knowing that their comrades had retreated, launched their attack
from the North. Overwhelmed by the Indians’ superior numbers and firepower, Custer’s
command collapsed completely, and it quickly became every man for himself. Within an hour,
the Indians had massacred every single one of Custer’s 210 men, except for one lucky
soul who had been sent by Custer to take a message to the south forces asking for reinforcements.
Sadly, his message was ignored. Custer’s subordinates, Benteen and Reno, hated him
and hated each other, and had just narrowly escaped a similar fate. Whether it was cowardice,
malice or possibly even drunkenness, we don’t know - all we know is that they did not come
to Custer’s aid when he sent the message to “come quick”.
In keeping with his image as a daring leader, Custer himself was found dead alongside 40
of his men, including his own brother and nephew, with two bullet wounds - one near
his heart and one in his head.
To further add to the horrors of this massacre, the Indians ritualistically stripped and mutilated
the bodies of the dead, possibly because they believed that the souls of disfigured bodies
would be doomed to walk the earth forever. A junior military officer, upon seeing the
naked bodies of his dead compatriots, famously exclaimed: “Oh, how white they look! How
white!”
It was once believed that Custer had been spared this indignity, but it was later revealed
that his body had also been mutilated, but that the details were hushed up to protect
his wife, Libbie. According to legend, some Cheyenne women pierced Custer’s eardrums
so that he could learn to listen better, and they even put a stick up his ...ahem... manhood.
Custer was hastily buried where he fell with the rest of his men, but he was later disinterred
and reburied with great ceremony at West Point. A memorial to him was erected in 1881 at the
site of the battle.
The Battle of Little Big Horn was the U.S.’s biggest defeat in the Plains Indian Wars.
The Indians’ victory was short lived, however. The American public demanded retribution for
the death of Custer, a decorated Civil War General and American folk hero, so the army
intensified their efforts to hunt down Indians and either relocate them, or wipe them out
completely. Facing unprecedented violence against his people, Crazy Horse finally surrendered
in 1877, bringing the Plains Indian Wars to a close.
We have his devoted wife Libbie to thank for the enduring power of Custer’s controversial
legacy. She lived another 57 years after his death, and spent the rest of her life writing
books and giving lectures about his heroism and gallantry. She was helped in her efforts
by William “Buffalo Bill” Cody, a one-time scout for Custer who went on to create his
famous travelling Wild West show, a highlight of which was a reenactment of Custer’s Last
Stand featuring real Native American warriors who had actually fought at Little Big Horn.
Custer was even immortalized on the silver screen when future president Ronald Regan
played him in the film Sante Fe Trail. Custer himself had written his autobiography shortly
before his death, and “My Life on the Plains” went on to become a bestseller. After Libbie’s
death in 1933, however, the American public began to acknowledge that perhaps Custer wasn’t
the flawless hero he had been made out to be.
At the height of his fame during the Plains Indians Wars, the New York Tribune wrote:
“Future writers of fiction will find in .. General Custer most of the qualities which
go to make up a first-class hero.” While his heroism may be up for debate in modern
times, his legend certainly lives on even today, and we suspect that the flamboyant
glory-monger wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.
If you thought this was interesting be sure to check out our other videos, like this funny
and fascinating one, or this hilarious and educational one? Whichever you pick, we promise
you won’t need any of Custer’s Luck to get through it.
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next time!