Custer, George Armstrong

(1839–76) soldier; born in New Rumley, Ohio. The son of a blacksmith, he graduated last in his West Point class of 1861 but went on to become a Civil War cavalry commander of deadly and aggressive efficiency; often flamboyant in appearance and behavior ("like a circus rider gone mad!" said a fellow officer), he participated in virtually every battle in northern Virginia from First Bull Run to Lee's surrender; at the head of Sheridan's cavalry, he led the pursuit to Appomattox in April 1865, and the Confederate flag of truce, passing through the Union lines, came first to him. Although wounded only once, he had 11 horses killed under him and his brigade sustained the highest casualties of any cavalry unit of the Federal army; he was made a brigadier general by age 23. Returned to his rank of captain, and later promoted to lieutenant colonel, he served on the frontier with the Seventh Cavalry Regiment; in 1867 he was court-martialed for leaving his post but he was restored to duty in 1868 and gained even more fame fighting the Plains Indians. A more thoughtful side of Custer emerged in his memoirs of war service and life on the plains (1874) and in his efforts to combat corruption in the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Participating in the government's campaign to force the Cheyenne and Sioux onto reservations, he came across a large encampment of Indians along the Little Bighorn River in Montana territory; dividing his forces, on June 25, 1876, he ordered an attack; Custer and the over 200 men in his command were annihilated by the vastly larger force. The controversy that shadowed his military career has never truly subsided, as people debate the proportions of bravery, egotism, and folly to assign him.