Custer, George Armstrong (1839–1876)

US Civil War general George Armstrong Custer. At 23 he became the youngest Unionist brigadier general, and was the field commander of the 7th Cavalry between 1866 and 1876. He commanded at the Battle of Little Bighorn, Montana, on 25 June 1876, where he was killed by Sioux forces under Chief Sitting Bull.

US Civil War general, who became the Union's youngest brigadier general in 1863 as a result of a brilliant war record. He was made a major general in 1865 but, following the end of the American Civil War, his rank was reduced to captain. He later rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. He took part in an expedition against the Cheyennes in 1868, and several times defeated other American Indian groups in the West during the Plains Wars. Custer campaigned against the Sioux from 1874, and was killed with a detachment of his troops by the forces of Hunkpapa Sioux chief Sitting Bull in the Battle of Little Bighorn, Montana, also known as Custer's last stand, on 25 June 1876.

Custer's early career Custer attended the West Point Military Academy, but fared badly, gaining over 760 demerits for actions ranging from insubordination to dereliction of duty. Within a month of leaving the Academy in 1861, he was almost thrown out of the army when he was court-martialled for failing to stop a fight between two cadets, and found guilty. His career was saved by the Union army's need for soldiers and officers to fight in the American Civil War (1861–65) against the Confederates.

During the Civil War Custer took part in some key engagements, including the Battle of Bull Run (1861), a Confederate victory in Virginia; the Battle of Gettysburg (1863), a Unionist victory in Pennsylvania; and the final defeat of the Confederates at Appomattox, Virginia, in April 1865. Custer gained many useful contacts in the Union army during the Civil War, serving on the staffs of two generals, and made the most rapid rise through the ranks in US Army history, becoming a brigadier general by 1863. He served with General Philip Sheridan in his campaign in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, and the general remained a strong supporter of Custer throughout the rest of his career. Sheridan was so impressed by Custer that he paid personally for the table used to sign the Confederate surrender at Appomattox Court House and gave it to Custer as a gift. By 1865 Custer already had a great reputation as a brave and successful soldier in the USA, and reached the rank of major general. He stayed in the US Army after the Civil War, although his rank was reduced to captain, becoming lieutenant colonel of the newly formed 7th Cavalry in 1866.

Court martial, 1867 Custer's career nearly ended in 1867, when he was court-martialled in Washington, DC on a range of charges. These included abandoning his command in an area of hostile American Indians to visit his wife over 400 km/250 mi away, and taking 78 of his officers and soldiers on a forced march to accompany him on the journey, although they had just returned from a long and tiring sortie. While travelling, Custer received reports of an attack on soldiers under his command, including two deaths. He was accused of ignoring this information and failing to either send help or collect the bodies of the dead. Custer was also accused of ordering the cold-blooded shooting of a party of alleged deserters that had been spotted from his camp. Military discipline allowed soldiers a trial on the charge of desertion, but Custer sent out a detachment to shoot the men as they fled. After they were captured, they were taken 29 km/18 mi in a wagon and, despite their injuries, Custer refused them treatment. Custer was found guilty on almost all charges and stripped of his rank and pay for a year. However, he appealed to his old friend Sheridan, who overturned the decision and recalled Custer to service in 1868.

Battle of the Washita, 1868 In 1868 Sheridan gave Custer a command in the winter campaign against the Cheyenne and Arapaho in Colorado and Oklahoma. Custer defeated the peace chief Black Kettle's Cheyenne at the Battle of the Washita, Oklahoma (1868), after attacking an encampment of sleeping Cheyenne and Arapaho. He chose not to wait for the arrival of other army units sent by generals Sheridan and William Sherman, even though he did not know how many Indian warriors were present, or even if they were particularly hostile. However, the attack was successful and increased his reputation in the US Army. The fact that he had disobeyed orders and could have risked the whole campaign was conveniently forgotten.

However, accusations surfaced that he had failed a number of the soldiers serving under him. Capt Frederick Benteen, a 7th Cavalry officer present at the Battle of the Washita, claimed that Custer had not moved to support a company led by Major Elliot, leading to the soldiers' deaths. The story was printed in a newspaper in St Louis, Missouri. Custer threatened to ‘horsewhip’ the author, although he never carried out the threat, even after he discovered that Benteen was the author.

Expedition to the Black Hills, 1874 After the Battle of the Washita, Custer took part in many campaigns against the Plains Indians over the next five years. It was during this period that he first fought Crazy Horse, the Oglala Sioux chief who was to lead the attack against him at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. In 1874 he led the 7th Cavalry into the Black Hills on the Great Sioux Reservation in Dakota. The cavalry were officially there to protect workers on the Northern Pacific Railroad from attack by the Sioux, but Custer's men also discovered gold, setting off a gold rush when news reached the East.

Custer and President Ulysses S Grant In March 1876 Custer was called to testify in a government investigation into corruption in the US Bureau of Indian Affairs (Indian Service), and accused US president Ulysses S Grant's brother of corruption. Grant retaliated by removing Custer from his command in a campaign being mounted against the Plains Indians in the Powder River country of Montana, where Indians were disobeying US orders to return to their reservations. He was replaced by General Alfred Terry. Following the defeat at the Little Bighorn, President Grant was one of Custer's strongest critics, although his views may have been biased because of the incident over his brother.

Campaign in Montana, 1876 Custer's contacts saved his career again, and General Sheridan had Custer attached to the command of Terry, his replacement, on the column moving in from Fort Abraham Lincoln in the northeast. Custer was with General Terry when he met up with Col John Gibbon's infantry on 21 June on the Yellowstone River around 240 km/150 mi from Sitting Bull's encampment of Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho on the Little Bighorn, in the Powder River Country of Montana. Custer was ordered to scout southwards along Rosebud Creek, around the southern side of the Wolf Mountains, to arrive at the Plains Indian camp at the same time as the slower infantry led by Gibbon and Terry. Remembering his reputation for disobeying orders, and his specific action at the River Washita in 1868, Terry ordered Custer to wait for the arrival of the support troops and not attempt to win victory on his own.

Battle of the Little Bighorn, 1876 Custer, however, could not resist an opportunity to prove himself a hero. When he picked up a large Indian trail through the Wolf Mountains, he force-marched his soldiers through, instead of round, the mountains, arriving a day earlier than planned. Instead of waiting for the arrival of Gibbon and Terry as ordered, and ignoring the pleas of his Crow scouts not to attack the huge encampment that contained thousands of Plains Indians, including over 2,000 warriors, Custer launched his attack on 25 June. His soldiers were tired from the march through the Wolf Mountains, but Custer wanted to avoid giving the Indians a chance to escape and also sought another glorious victory.

According to the original plan of a coordinated attack, there would have been 1,450 cavalry and infantry, as well as rapid-fire Gatling gun batteries. However, when Custer led his 7th Cavalry into battle he had 600 men and no heavy guns. Custer had disobeyed orders in the past and been successful, but at the Little Bighorn his actions led to disaster. He had neither the strength nor the information required for victory. By 4 p.m. Custer and the detachment under his immediate command, an estimated 225 men, were dead. Custer had tried to follow textbook tactics by sending Major Marcus Reno with a detachment of about 125 men into Sitting Bull's encampment from the south, while he wheeled round to attack from the north. Capt Benteen was to support the southern attack with a detachment of similar size. However, Reno was beaten back by the superior strength and numbers of the Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Sioux warriors. Custer never reached the camp and was forced to retreat to a hill where his detachment was soon surrounded and killed by warriors led by Sioux chiefs Crazy Horse and Gall.

Other factors contributed to Custer's failure. While the 7th Cavalry had single-shot Springfield rifles, the Indians had the latest Winchester repeating rifles making it possible for them to fire many more shots in a shorter space of time. Reno and Benteen also failed to back Custer up as he had ordered. This may well have been impossible considering the strength of opposition faced by Reno on his advance to the Indian camp. Both Reno and Benteen were cleared of failing to do their duty and cowardice in an inquiry in 1879, although the shadow of Little Bighorn lay over both men. Many people in the USA regarded Custer as a hero of the West, and persisted in believing that his fellow commanders at the battle had acted in a cowardly manner.

Custer's reputation Custer was a controversial figure for the whole of his military career, from his time at West Point Military Academy, New York State, to his death at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. There can be no doubt that Custer possessed many of the qualities of determination and bravery required of a military officer, and that he had many great victories as a result. Soon after taking command of the 7th Cavalry, Custer proved his courage and determination while hunting buffalo on the southern Plains; after falling from his horse he managed to survive alone in hostile territory until rescued by his Crow scouts. Custer was held in great regard by many of his fellow officers, including key generals such as Sheridan and Sherman. At the same time, however, his actions were often those of a vain man; he designed his own uniform for the 7th Cavalry and believed himself to be impervious to defeat – as demonstrated by his foolhardy attack at the Little Bighorn. Custer frequently showed little regard for the men under his command, risking their lives through his reckless pursuit for fame, and occasionally abandoning them to their deaths. He was court-martialled and found guilty twice, the second time on the most serious of charges. Although he often achieved victory after disobeying orders, he endangered his men and the success of a campaign by doing so.

Custer has been characterized as both a military genius who inspired the total loyalty of his men, and an irresponsible hothead who risked the lives of his soldiers for personal aggrandizement. The combination of these character traits led to his fatal decision to attack Sitting Bull's warriors at the Little Bighorn River, although his forces were exhausted from a long march and were massively outnumbered. Custer frequently talked of ‘Custer's Luck’, but this ran out on the Little Bighorn River in 1876.