Biography george armstrong custer

Custer and Libbie arrived in Kansas in the fall of , and Custer participated in a campaign against the Sioux and Cheyenne the following spring. This resentment would later have devastating consequences. Shortly afterwards, he was court-martialed for leaving his command to visit Libbie. But by the fall of , Custer was back, with Phil Sheridan having argued for his early return to fight in the Indian Wars.

In , President Ulysses S. Well aware that they would be unable to make the trek during a harsh winter, the government planned to use this as an excuse to expand hostilities. But in , gold had been discovered in the region — thanks to a mining expedition led by Custer — and the U. Among those who resisted American aggression was Sitting Bull , a Hunkpapa Lakota chief and holy man.

Due to lead the 7th Cavalry when it left on its campaign against the Sioux that spring, Custer was instead caught up in the controversies engulfing Ulysses S. His testimony at a Congressional hearing in Washington, D. Custer did himself further damage by leaking additional details to the press. A furious Grant removed Custer from command, and briefly had him arrested when he tried to return to his troops.

Only after several high-ranking generals intervened was Custer allowed to return to his post. In mid-May the U. An estimated 2, were gathered in a camp along the Little Bighorn River in what is now Montana. Title Major General. Date of Birth - Death December 5, June 25, Topic s :. Civil War Leaders , Leaders. Related Biographies. War of Biography.

View All Related Resources. Add to My Battlefields Educators Library. Third Winchester. Appomattox Court House Battlefield. By the war's end, Custer had been promoted yet again, to the rank of major general, and his cavalry units were crucial in blocking the movements of Confederate General Robert E. Lee 's retreating forces, which helped hasten his surrender at Appomattox, on April 9, In recognition of his heroism, Lieutenant General Philip Sheridan gave the young military hero the table used to sign the war's peace terms, including with it a note to Custer's wife, Libbie, in praise of her husband.

Following the war, as the still-young country looked to settle the West, it needed to defeat the Lakota Sioux and Southern Cheyenne that dominated parts of the frontier. To that end, the 7th Cavalry was created and Custer was placed in its command. After serving a brief suspension for deserting his post in , Custer returned to action the following year and participated in several small battles against Native Americans in the region over the next several years.

But Custer's legendary bravery in battle would prove to be his undoing when, in , the United States ordered an attack intended to crush the Lakota and Cheyenne. Though the plan was for three separate forces—one of which was led by Custer—to surround and overwhelm them, Custer and his men advanced more quickly than the other two units, and on June 25 Custer ordered his men to attack a large Native American village.

On the other side of the attack was Sitting Bull , the revered Lakota chief who had originally wanted peace at Little Bighorn. Custer, however, was determined to fight. Against the onrush of thousands of Lakota, Arapaho and Cheyenne warriors, Custer and all of his men were surrounded, overwhelmed and killed. On the few occasions that they were separated during their marriage, the couple wrote almost daily letters to each other.

Although Elizabeth would die more than fifty years after her husband, she never remarried. Instead she devoted herself to Custer's memory and promoted him as an American hero, writing three books about his exploits. Under General Philip Sheridan — , Custer quickly impressed his new superior with victories at the battles of Winchester and Cedar Creek in late As a reward, Sheridan granted Custer command of a division.

As the Civil War continued, Custer had more success in battle. In addition, on April 9, , by being in the right place at the right time, Custer happened to be the Union officer who received the news of General Lee's wish to surrender to General Ulysses Grant. Custer's military skill and evident luck built his reputation as one of the Union heroes of the Civil War.

After the glory and excitement of war, Custer found it difficult to deal with the boring daily routine of peacetime. He knew how to rally men for battle, but he lacked the finesse required to inspire peacetime troops. He was also criticized for being a harsh disciplinarian.

Biography george armstrong custer

While on a command in Texas, Custer ordered the heads of misbehaving soldiers to be shaved and ordered deserters to be shot without a trial. Moreover, his habit of promoting friends and family members made fellow officers angry. To make matters worse, Custer's rank was reduced to that of captain in the rapidly shrinking peacetime army.

The prospects for promotion seemed to disappear. Custer resigned his command on January 31, , and left Texas for New Orleans , where he briefly entered politics. After months of uncertainty about his future, Custer was offered the post of lieutenant colonel of the Seventh Cavalry. Returning to the army in the summer of , Custer prepared to join his troops in Kansas to guard settlements against Indian attack.

However, his style of command continued to offend his men; in addition, his good luck in battle was gone. He led a disastrous campaign against the Sioux, which led to desertions among his soldiers. When he left his post to greet his wife in the middle of another campaign, Custer was court-martialed for absence without leave and "conduct to the prejudice of good order and military discipline," according to Wert.

Found guilty on both charges, he could have been ruined permanently, but thanks to General Philip Sheridan, he was reinstated in Oglala Sioux warrior Crazy Horse —; see main entry led the Sioux to their greatest victory in the Battle of Little Bighorn in A quiet, distant leader, Crazy Horse was noted for his uncommon bravery and rose to a position of leadership not only within his own people but within the confederacy of tribes that came together in the s and s to combat the white advance onto Indian lands in present-day South Dakota , Nebraska, Wyoming, and Montana.

Crazy Horse had predicted the battle over the Black Hills. Consequently, he prepared his warriors for battle with the whites. Sweeping down on the white soldiers in the new battle formations that Crazy Horse had taught them, the Indians first routed a band of men led by Major Marcus Reno. Then, calling out to his warriors "Hoka hey! It is a good day to fight!

It is a good day to die! Only about twenty Indian warriors lost their lives, while Custer and all of his troops were killed. However, the U. Under pressure from settlers and railroaders to eliminate Indians from the Great Plains , the army had adopted a "total warfare" policy against the Indians. Custer was placed in charge of patrolling part of Kansas and began to relentlessly pursue Indian groups.

In the winter of , he came upon a Cheyenne village on the Washita River. He attacked at once. In this surprise attack Custer's forces wiped out the warriors, captured a large number of women and children, massacred all the Indians' horses, and destroyed winter food supplies. However, Custer had not bothered to make a full survey of the surrounding area and did not know that large numbers of Kiowas and Arapahos were camped just downstream.

One of his officers, Major Joel Elliott, and a detachment of nineteen men, were ambushed by warriors from these villages and wiped out. It was the only blemish on a battle that brought Custer and the Seventh Cavalry national fame as Indian fighters. In Custer started writing adventure stories for magazines. He thrived as a writer and "dashed off" pages, according to his wife.

The true stories he wrote for Galaxy magazine were published as his autobiography, My Life on the Plains, in Custer was a natural showman, and accompanied Buffalo Bill as a guide to Grand Duke Alexis of Russia on an buffalo hunt. As a military officer, he skirmished with Indians throughout the early s, chasing the northern Plains Indians across the vast grasslands.

With the discovery of gold in the Black Hills , the United States wanted the land opened to white settlement. A treaty had already granted the land to the Sioux and the Indians, who considered the land sacred and refused to sign a new agreement. Military might was the only way to secure the land. Grant — and high-ranking army officials "'contrived' a war against the Sioux," according to Wert.

Custer's last campaign was a part of this strategy. He prepared for the aggressive campaign like "a boy with a new red sled," as one private observed, according to Wert. Wert also notes that as the cavalry prepared for departure, an eyewitness declared that "probably never had a more eager command started for hostile Indians. In Custer's experience with the northern Plains Indians over the years, the Indians usually scattered at the first sight of army troops.

Unknown to Custer, the Indians were prepared to make a stand this time. An unprecedented concentration of Teton Sioux and northern Cheyennes—approximately seven thousand men—had gathered to fight near the Little Bighorn River. Yet the numbers of Indians did not tell the whole story. On June 25, , Custer's scouts caught sight of a huge Indian encampment.

Fearing that the enemy might be fleeing, Custer decided—just as he had at Washita—to attack at once, confident that his outnumbered men would prevail without difficulty.