George Armstrong Custer

George Armstrong Custer. . George Armstrong Cuter is one of the best known figures in American history and in popular mythology long after his death at the hands of Lakota and Cheyenne Warriors at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Custer was born in New Rumley, Ohio, but spent most of his childhood in Monroe, Michigan. After high school he enrolled in West Point where he proved to be a fairly miserable student. Several days after graduating last in his class, he failed in his duty as an officer of the guard to stop a fight between two cadets, he was court martialed but saved from punishment only because of the need for officers upon the outbreak of the Civil War. He fought in the first Battle of Bull-Run, and served with distinction in the Virginia and Gettysburg Campaigns. Although his units suffered enormously high casualty rates, his fearless aggression in battle earned him the respect of his commanding officers. His cavalry units played a critical role in forcing the retreat of Confederate General Robert E. Lee's forces. In gratitude, General Philip Sheridan bought and made a gift of the Appomattox "Surrender Table" to Custer and his wife, Custer was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel of the Seventh Cavalry in July 1866. The next year he led the cavalry in a campaign against the Southern Cheyenne. Then, in late 1866 Custer was again court-martialed and suspended from duty for a year for being absent from duty during the campaign. Custer maintained that he was simply being made a scapegoat for a failed campaign, and his old friend General Phil Sheridan stepped in to help him by calling Custer back to duty in 1868. The army once again took a liking to Custer after his November 1868 attack on Black Kettle's band on the banks of the Washita River. In 1876, Custer was schedules to help lead part of an Anti-Lakota expedition. He almost didn't make it because his testimony about Indian service corruption infuriated President Ulysses S. Grant so much that he relieved Custer of his command and replaced him with General Alfred Terry. Popular disgust, however, forced Grant to reverse his decision. Custer then went west. Believing that he was on the verge of victory against the Lakota, Custer ordered an immediate attack on the Indian Village. Badly miscalculating Indian military prowess, he split his forces in to three paths to ensure that fewer Indians would escape. This attack turned out to be one of the greatest fiascos of the United States Army. Thousands of Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho Warriors forced Custer's unit back onto a long dusty ridge parallel to the Little Bighorn where they surrounded and killed all 210 of Custer's troops. Custer's blunders might have cost him his life, but it gained him everlasting fame. Countless paintings of Custer's last stand were made, including one distributed by the Anheuser-Busch Brewing Company. All of these paintings depicted Custer as a gallant victim, surrounded by bloodthirsty savages, but the fact that he started the battle by attacking the Indian Village is forgotten.