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. Thanks for watching, and as always, don’t
forget to like, share and subscribe. See you next time!
