Ohio History Journal

GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER

 

BY C. B. GALBREATH

 

Grant, Sherman and Sheridan! This is the group

of Civil War generals which is usually put forward as

Ohio's unrivalled contribution to leadership in the great

struggle between the North and the South. These three

have been honored with statues on the famous monu-

ment, "Ohio's Jewels," at the northwest corner of the

Capitol building of that State in Columbus.

Grant and Sherman were each born in Ohio and re-

ceived their appointment to cadetships from that State.

Sheridan was born in Albany, New York, at least he so

states in his Memoirs. When he was a mere child he

came with his parents to Ohio. Later an Ohio Con-

gressman appointed him as cadet to West Point.

George Armstrong Custer was born at New Rumley,

Harrison County, Ohio, December 5, 1839. New Rum-

ley was a rural hamlet. Custer was a normal country

lad. Like most boys he early manifested a military

spirit. There is much truth in the statement that boys

are born warriors. Martial music, the sound of the fife

and the roll of the drum seem to have a fascinating ap-

peal. Even in Quaker communities it has been noticed

that the youthful eye brightens and the step quickens at

the call of "the wild grand music of war."

Custer's father belonged to a local militia company.

At the age of four, we are told, the lad was dressed in

uniform and accompanied his parent to parades and

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George Armstrong Custer        625

drills. Advancing years developed his one supreme am-

bition -- to become a soldier.

He was educated at a district school in New Rumley.

Later he went to live with his half-sister Lydia, who had

married a man by the name of Reed and had moved to

Monroe, Michigan. Here he attended an academy and

completed his education prior to his admission to West

Point. For a time he taught school at Hopedale, Ohio,

near New Rumley, at the low wages then prevailing in

that part of Ohio, $26 a month.

As a youth he was sober, industrious, and devoted to

his parents, especially his mother to whom he was pas-

sionately attached. He enjoyed good health, was strong,

wiry and athletic. Intellectually he was alert and quick

in mind and action. In order to accomplish his ambition

he early planned to secure an appointment to West Point.

Honorable John A. Bingham was then Congressman

from the district in which Custer lived. Custer's father

was a Democrat. Bingham was a prominent member

of the Republican party which had recently been or-

ganized. Notwithstanding this difference, Custer ad-

dressed a letter to Congressman Bingham requesting an

appointment to the military school. In writing that he

regretted that the appointment had already been prom-

ised for the year, Bingham did not discourage the

young man from seeking the appointment for the fol-

lowing year. When he returned from Washington Cus-

ter visited him in person and again applied. He was as-

sured that he should receive the next appointment.

At the age of seventeen he reached the West Point

academy and began his military education. At West

Point he passed, without any serious unpleasantness, the

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626      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

hazing experiences that were then the portion of each

newcomer. He had a head of abundant golden hair

which he trained to grow down to the shoulders. This

secured for him the nickname of "Fanny." As they

came to know him the golden locks did not indicate any

femininity of character.

At West Point he was not a good student. An ex-

uberance of youthful spirits interfered with his studies.

He was not ambitious to excel in the branches taught

there. He was, of course, desirous to graduate at the

military academy. That was necessary to the fulfill-

ment of his ambition. Just enough study to accomplish

this was evidently all that he cared to give. In speaking

of this afterward he said: "My offenses against law

and order were not great in enormity, but what they

lacked in magnitude they made up in number. The for-

bidden locality of Benny Havens possessed stronger at-

tractions than the study and demonstration of a prob-

lem in Euclid."

The gathering clouds of war on the southern horizon

stimulated the academy at West Point to unusual ac-

tivity. Five years had been the time required for gradu-

ation. It was now determined to graduate in the spring

and summer of 1861 two classes. The first of these--

the regular five-year class -- was graduated in April

and the second, Custer's class, in June.

In West Point Custer came into contact with young

men from every state in the Union, including those

from south of Mason and Dixon's line, who were almost

all in sympathy with the South and many of whom re-

signed immediately after graduation and soon after-

ward accepted positions in the Confederate army.

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George Armstrong Custer        627

Soon after leaving West Point on July 18, 1861,

Custer arrived in Washington and reported for duty

with the United States army. Fortunately he was in-

troduced by the Adjutant General to General Winfield

Scott ,commander-in-chief of the American armies, who

ordered that, in accordance with Custer's request, he be

sent to join his company on the front.

In the addresses on the following pages will be found

illuminating accounts of Custer's major actions in the

Civil War. He participated in the first great battle at

Bull Run, which resulted in defeat for the Union cause,

and in the last onslaught that resulted in disaster to the

Confederate cause and the surrender of General Lee at

Appomattox. Through it all he seemed to bear a charmed

life. How he escaped with his life through many tu-

multuous conflicts and emerged unscathed seemed almost

a miracle.

It appears that Custer before entering the army had

not been even a moderate drinker. Like many other

young men he seemed in a fair way to come under the

influence of drink in the army. When he was ill he re-

ceived a leave of absence and went to the home of his

half-sister in Monroe. Of this experience his biographer

states:

"Heretofore Custer had been a strict abstainer from

alcoholic drinks, but the army life was a great demor-

alizer of young men. There was much hard drinking

then and afterward. Custer had, unfortunately, learned

to take stimulants, and one night, while at home, it was

evident that he had taken too much. His half-sister,

Mrs. Reed, who was almost a second mother to him,

made him a teetotaler that night and ever after; and in

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628      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

later years he performed the same service for some of

his fellow-officers."1

Throughout his dramatic career and his rapid pro-

motion for demonstrated merit, he seems to have held

the unfailing good will of his superiors and the men who

served under him. A graduate of West Point and a

Second Lieutenant in the army at the age of twenty-two,

he rose successively through all the grades to a Major-

Generalship at the age of twenty-six.

At the conclusion of his service in the Civil War he

issued a farewell order to his division. In this he said:

"During the past six months, although in most in-

stances confronted by superior numbers, you have cap-

tured from the enemy in open battle one hundred and

eleven pieces of field artillery, sixty-five battle flags and

upwards of ten thousand prisoners of war, including

seven general officers. Within the past ten days, and

included in the above, you have captured forty-six pieces

of artillery and thirty-seven battle flags. You have never

lost a gun, never lost a color, and have never been de-

feated; and notwithstanding the numerous engagements

in which you have borne a prominent part, including

those memorable battles of Shenandoah, you have cap-

tured every piece of artillery which the enemy has dared

to open upon you."

After the Civil War he was assigned to duty in

Texas until mustered out of the volunteer service. He

requested permission to accept the offer of Carvajal to

the chief command of the Mexican cavalry against

Maximilian; this request was not granted and he later

 

1 Dellenbaugh, F. S., George Armstrong Custer.

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George Armstrong Custer        629

accepted a lieutenancy of the Seventh Cavalry, which he

joined at Fort Riley, Kansas, in 1866.

His service against the Indians on the western fron-

tier is a part of the history of succeeding years. Always

a soldier and obedient to the call of country he was not

at times in full sympathy with the policy of the United

States in dealing with the red men and the soldiers sent

against them. He was annoyed by the peculation and

graft of the agents of the general government who

sought to make money in providing for the soldiers and

the Indians on the reservations. This did not prevent

him from bravely carrying out all commands to reduce

the warlike Indians to submission when they took the

war-path. As the world knows, he met his fate in bat-

tle with the Sioux on the banks of the Little Big Horn

in Montana. The Indians had assembled there in great

force. The troops sent against them were a mere hand-

ful. The Indians were not expecting an attack, but as

soon as they became aware of the approach of Custer's

command, they hastily assumed a strong defensive po-

sition in which their large force could fight to advantage.

They were armed with repeating Winchester rifles,

while the cavalrymen under Custer had only single-shot

carbines. True to their custom in warfare the Indians

formed a huge ambush into which even the wary Custer

was drawn. Sitting Bull, who is often given the credit

of this Indian victory, really had no active part in it. He

was away some distance from the scene of fighting.

Chief Gall and Crazy Horse were the outstanding In-

dian leaders.

Custer's biographer thus describes the final scene:

"When Chief Gall gave the final signal, the immense

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horde of warriors under Crazy Horse, who had so cun-

ningly slipped up the ravine to Custer's rear, fell upon

the soldiers from that direction and the trap was com-

plete. Now with their wild yells the Cheyennes, the

Hunkpapas, the Blackfeet Sioux, the Minneconjous, the

Oglalas, the Sans Arcs, and the Brules, all dashed

swiftly and mercilessly upon the cavalry at bay, in an

overwhelming charge from three different quarters.

raining volleys from their repeating Winchesters. What

if the brave soldiers did pour out their bullets as fast as

their single-loading carbines, sometimes inoperative,

would permit! Time and opportunity for defense were

gone. They were enveloped as a whirlwind envelops a

haystack. They might as well have been shooting into

a tidal wave or a monsoon. The air was dark with

smoke and dust; it was rent asunder by the multitudi-

nous yells, shrieks, and whoops of the terrible foe surg-

ing about like the cohorts of Satan. It was a cyclonic

human storm.

"In half an hour, or less, the fierce tempest had

passed. All was over. Above the silent dead the sky

spread calmly as if nothing appalling had happened. Not

one of Custer's devoted command escaped."2

Thus perished in his thirty-seventh year one of the

most dashing, intrepid and fortunate cavalry leaders in

the world's history. From Bull Run to Appomattox the

story of his life reads like a romance. He seemed "proof

against peril and empowered with ubiquity." A soldier

in the first great battle of the Civil War and at Appo-

mattox the "boy General" of the Union, bearing the

white flag that proclaimed the surrender of General Lee!

 

2 Dellenbaugh, F. S., George Armstrong Custer.

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George Armstrong Custer         631

In the years following the Civil War a soldier on the

plains, ever obedient to his country's call; riding like the

warriors of legend into the red whirlwind of battle on

the banks of the Little Big Horn and falling--but not

in vain. Before sunset of the following day the mighty

hosts of red warriors were scattered in flight and the

last concerted battle of Indians against the whites in

three centuries of warfare was at an end.

In love as well as war he was triumphant. The part-

ner of his married life still lives in serene age to tell his

wonderful story and rejoice in his fame. There was

something of Lochinvar and Galahad in this heroic soul.

Monuments have been erected to General Custer on

the site of his last battle on the bank of the Little Big

Horn; at West Point where his remains were buried; at

Monroe, Michigan, where he lived for a time with his

half-sister; and at last at his birthplace, New Rumley,

Harrison County, Ohio. His native state honors herself

in this tribute. As the years roll by the generations to

come in ever increasing numbers will find their way to

this consecrated shrine.

 

NOTES ON CUSTER MEMORIAL CELEBRATION

ADDRESSES

The address of the orator of the day, Colonel Ralph

D. Cole, was listened to with rapt attention from the

initial sentence to the last word of the peroration. Col-

onel Cole is on all occasions an interesting speaker. The

life and character of General Custer was a subject that

had an especial appeal to him and called forth an address

of high order. Its literary merit is evident in the printed

form in which it appears on the following pages. The

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