415 - General Custer and Libby

George Armstrong Custer, forever to be associated with one of the most infamous defeats in American History lived here along with his wife, Libbie, who, not wanting to imagine the atrocities he faced, often traveled and camped alongside him—a practice not at all common at the time.

Custer’s fateful demise at the Battle of Little Bighorn, much like his quick rise to becoming America’s youngest General, when viewed in retrospect seems impossible to imagine any other way. At age seven, when surrounded by men debating the War against Mexico in 1846, it is said that little George waved a small flag saying, “My voice for the war.” A life in the military was inevitable. With a congressman’s sponsorship, Custer managed to enroll at West Point, where he not only wasn’t a very good student, but also was well known for earning near the maximum number of demerits allowed each season.

But what his classroom behavior lacked, he soon made up for with his behavior on the battlefield—no one questioned his bravery. When he overheard General Johnson complaining about not knowing the depth of the rushing Chickahominy River, Custer mounted his horse and spurred it to the center of the river, and in water up to his neck, turned and said, “this deep, General.”

He went on to become the youngest general in American military history, known as the Boy General with curls. He earned the first truce flag from a Confederate force, and in recognition of his valor, General Sheridan gifted him with the desk on which the surrender document of the Civil War was signed. The young soldier was famous with options in politics and business, but even then, knew he would always be a soldier. But when matched against an equal at least in Sitting Bull, many historians have argued it was Custer’s ego and pursuit of fame that led him to his last stand.