Custer, George Armstrong

(1839–76)

Army Officer

George Armstrong Custer is the patron saint of American hubris. Even at its most flattering, his popular image is of a bold cavalier galloping headlong into disaster; at worst, Custer's image is embodied in the 1970 film Little Big Man: charging off to his own ruin and that of his men with the exultant cry, “Take no prisoners!” The image actually fits Custer's flamboyant persona, though it mocks his very real military abilities.

Born in New Rumley, Ohio, on December 5, 1839, Custer spent most of his youth in Michigan. He entered the U.S. Military Academy in 1857 and graduated in June 1861, dead last in a class of 34 cadets. The class was smaller than usual because a number of Custer's southern classmates had departed months before to join the defense of the Confederacy.

In June 1861 the Civil War had been under way for two months. Second Lt. Custer, assigned to the Union Army gathering near Washington, D.C., arrived just in time to see combat in the 1st battle of Manassas (Bull Run) on July 21, 1862. He spent his entire Civil War career with that Army, soon designated the Army of the Potomac, but remained a minor figure until he joined the staff of Maj. Gen. Alfred Pleasonton. Custer impressed Pleasonton with his energy and flair, and when Pleasonton received command of the Army of the Potomac's Cavalry Corps, he requested that three of his staff be commissioned as brigadier generals of volunteers. One of them was Custer, then only a brevet captain. When the 23-year-old Custer donned the shoulder straps of a brigadier general, he briefly became the youngest general in the Union Army.

Custer received command of the Michigan Brigade, distinguishing himself in a major cavalry action a few miles east of Gettysburg on June 3, 1863—fought at roughly the same time as Pickett's Charge. He gained increasing fame as a tough, flamboyant, hard-charging cavalry leader, particularly under Pleasonton's successor, Maj. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan. During the final retreat of Gen. Robert E. Lee's army from [Page 204]Richmond and Petersburg, Custer was among the cavalry generals most responsible for bringing Lee to bay at Appomattox Court House. Custer ended the war a major general of volunteers. He was barely 26 years old.

Following the war, the volunteer commissions evaporated. Custer, like most officers, fell back on his regular Army rank, in his case that of lieutenant colonel. He became second-in-command of the 7th U.S. Cavalry, a unit that, for all practical purposes, he commanded until his death. Although well liked by his Civil War troops, he managed to antagonize many soldiers in his postwar outfit by his severe disciplinary policies and flamboyant displays. He was even court-martialed in 1867 and sentenced to a year's suspension from rank and pay. The charge, significantly, was leaving his post without authorization to visit his wife, Elizabeth Bacon Custer. The pair had a close, highly charged relationship, writing each other constantly during their lengthy separations. Custer left his post because he had heard nothing from her for an extended period and had become frantic to see her.

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