Rash's Surname Index
Notes for George Armstrong CUSTER
After receiving a common education, such as the schools of his native place afforded, he entered, in 1852, a select academy for young men at Monroe, Michigan, conducted by Prof. Alfred Stebbins, where he availed himself of the superior advantages offered for taking a more complete educational course.
He remained about two years, pursuing his studies with diligence; and the excellent associations in which he here found himself exerting their influence in the formation of his noble character.
Returning to Ohio, he engaged in teaching school, but the yearnings of his ambitious nature for a more eventful life did not allow him to remain contented; and we next had him with an appointment to the United States Military Academy, at West Point. He entered that institution on the 1st of July, 1857, and graduated on the 24th of June, 1861, with what was considered one of the best classes that ever left the academy. Immediately upon leaving West Point, he was appointed Second Lieutenant in Company G. 2d United States Cavalry, a regiment formerly
commanded by Robert E. Lee. He reported to Lieutenant General Scott on the 20th of July, the day before the battle of Bull Run, and was at once assigned to duty with his regiment, they under the command of General McDowell. After riding all night through a country filled with people who were, to say the least, not friendly, he reached McDowell's head-quarters at daybreak on the morning of the 21st. Preparations for the battle had already begun, and, after delivering the
dispatches which he bore from General Scott, and taking a hasty lunch, he joined his company. It is not necessary to recount here the disasters of the engagement which followed. Suffice it to say, Lieutenant Custer's company was among the last to leave the field. It did so in good order, bringing off General Heintzelman, who had been wounded in the battle. The young officer continued to serve with his company, and was engaged in drilling volunteer recruits in and about the defenses of Washington, when, upon the appointment of Phil. Kearney to the position of Brigadier-General, that lamented officer appointed him as one of his staff. Custer continued in this position until an order was issued from the War Department prohibiting Generals of volunteers from appointing officers of the regular army to staff duty. He then returned to his company, after being warmly complimented by General Kearney upon the prompt and efficient manner in which he had performed the duties assigned him. The General then predicted that Custer would prove one of the most successful officers in the army; nor were these predictions without a speedy realization. With his company, Lieutenant Custer marched forward with that part of the Army of the Potomac which moved upon Manassas after its evacuation by the Confederates. Our cavalry was in advance under General Stoneman, and encountered the Confederate horsemen, for the first time, near Catlett's Station. The commanding officer made a call for volunteers to charge the enemy's advance post; Lieutenant Custer was among the first to step to the front, and, in command of his company, he shortly afterwards made his first charge. The enemy did not wait to receive them, but crossed the bridge over Cedar Run, burning the bridge as soon as they had
crossed. A few shots were exchanged on the banks, and one of our men was wounded. This was the first blood shed in the campaign under McClellan. After this, Custer went with the Army of the Potomac to the Peninsula, and remained with his company until the army settled down before Yorktown, when he was detailed as an assistant engineer of the left wing under Sumner. Acting in this capacity, he planned and erected the earthworks nearest the enemy's lines. He also accompanied the advance under General Hancock in pursuit of the enemy from Yorktown. Shortly afterwards, he captured the first battle-flag ever taken by the Army of the Potomac. From this time forward, he was nearly first in every work of daring. When the army reached the Chickahominy, he was the first man to cross the river; he did so in the midst of the whistling bullets from the enemy's pickets, leading-Company A, 4th Michigan Infantry, wading sometimes
through deep water. For this brave act, General McClellan promoted him to a Captaincy, and made him one of his personal aids. In this capacity he served during most of the Peninsular campaign, and participated in all its battles, including the seven days' fight. He performed the duty of marking out the position occupied by the Union army at the battle of Gaines' Mills. He also
took part in the campaign which ended in the battles of South Mountain and Antietam. Upon the retirement of General McClellan from the command of the Army of the Potomac, Custer accompanied him, and for a time was out of active service. He was next engaged in the battle of Chancellorsville; and, immediately after the fight, was made a personal aid by General Pleasonton, who was then commanding a division of cavalry. Serving in this capacity, he took an active part in a number of hotly contested engagements; and, through them all, bore himself with the same fearlessness and gallantry that marked him as the most dashing officer in the service.
When Pleasonton was made Major-General, his first pleasure was to remember the valuable services of his Aid-de-camp. He requested the appointment of four Brigadiers under him; and, upon his recommendation, indorsed by Generals Meade and Hooker, young Custer was made a
Brigadier-General, and was assigned to the command of the 1st, 5th, 6th, and 7th Michigan Cavalry, constituting the famous Michigan Brigade. He did noble service at the battle of Gettysburg. He held the right of the line, and was obliged to face Hampton's cavalry division; after a hotly contested fight, he utterly routed the Confederates, and prevented them from reaching the trains of the Union army, which they had hoped to capture. Custer had two horses shot under him in this encounter. Hardly had the battle commenced, when he was sent to attack the enemy's train, which was trying to force its way to the Potomac. He destroyed more than four hundred wagons. At Hagerstown, Maryland, during a severe engagement, he had another horse shot under him. At Falling Water, shortly after, he attacked with his small command the entire Confederate rear guard. The Confederate commander, General Pettigrew, was killed, and his command routed, with a loss of thirteen hundred prisoners, two pieces of cannon, and four
battle-flags. For some time after this victory, General Custer was constantly engaged in skirmishing with the enemy; and, during the winter which followed, in picketing the Rapidan between the two armies. He participated in the battle of the Wilderness in 1864; and on the 9th of May of the same year, under General Sheridan, he set out on the famous raid towards Richmond. His brigade led the column, captured Beaver Dam, burned the station with a train loaded with supplies, and released four hundred Union prisoners. At Ashland more supplies were destroyed and more prisoners released. On the Brooks pike, the cavalry encountered General J. E. B. Stuart and his famous cavalry, who gallantly tried to check the advance, but without avail.
General Stuart was here killed by one of Custer's men; after his fall, the enemy gave way, and a complete rout followed. Rejoining Grant's army on the Pamunkey, General Custer was prominent in the battle of Cold Harbor, the close of which was marked by Sheridan's second raid; but in these and in several other engagements, Custer had no opportunity for the display of his peculiar
talents, save at Beaver Dam, already mentioned. After the battle of Fisher's Hill, in which he did most important service, he was placed in command of a division, and remained in that position until after Lee's surrender. At the ever memorable battle of Cedar Creek, his division was on the right, and not engaged in the rout of the morning, so that when Sheridan arrived on the ground, after his ride of twenty miles, he found at least one command ready for service. His immediate
order was, "Go in, Custer!" The brave young General waited for no further word; he went in, and came not out until the enemy was driven several miles beyond the battle-field. Nearly one thousand prisoners were captured, among them a Major-General; forty-five pieces of artillery were also taken, with several battle-flags. For this service, Custer was made a brevet Major-General of Volunteers. Sheridan, as a further mark of approbation, detailed him to carry the
news of the victory, and the captured battle-flags, to Washington. From this time forward, he continued to steadily advance in the esteem of his superiors and the American people. When the Confederates fell back to Appomattox, Custer had the advance of Sheridan's command; his share of the action is well described in a volume entitled With Sheridan in His Last Campaign. The book in question says: "When the sun was an hour high in the west, energetic Custer, in advance,
spied the depot and four heavy trains of freight cars; he quickly ordered his leading regiments to circle out to the left through the woods, and, as they gained the railroad beyond the station, he led the rest of his division pellmell down the road and enveloped the train as quick as winking." In short, it can be said of General Custer, that he was in every engagement fought by the Army of the Potomac, from the first battle of Bull Run to the surrender of General Lee. His career forms a part of the history of the late civil war. Wherever the cavalry was engaged, there was General Custer to be found with his glorious command. Not only was he in all the general engagements, but he was a leading spirit in all the numerous cavalry fights which preceded or followed the great battles. It was his cavalry which scoured the country in advance of the army, driving the enemy
into some stronghold whence they gave battle. It was the cavalry which attacked the Confederates' flank and rear, during those battles; and it was the cavalry that pursued them on their retreat, capturing their trains of supplies and ammunition, and bringing in thousands of prisoners. In all these scenes, the youthful figure of Custer, the youngest General in the army, was always to be seen in the thickest of the fight, taking the brunt of the danger, and directing his command with that skill and success which only comes of and from genius. Personally, he knew no fear--it was always his choice to lead, not to follow, his men; and never to ask them to incur any danger which he would himself avoid. No officer exercised greater care over his men than did General Custer. In the field he exacted severe duty of them, but they gave it cheerfully, knowing that they could trust him implicitly. Their love for him amounted to intense enthusiasm. It was that hero worship which Americans so willingly accord to successful men. At the close of the war General Custer was on duty in Texas and Kentucky. He was mustered out of the volunteer service, February 1, 1866, and was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel of the 7th United States Cavalry, in July, 1866. In 1867, he was ordered, with his regiment, to the plains, and participated, with General Hancock, in his expedition against the Indians. He was, during nearly the whole of the period from this time until his last ill-fated expedition, on frontier duty. In 1873 he was second in command of the Yellowstone expedition, under General Stanley. He subsequently made explorations of the Black Hills, and brought back the first authentic reports of the mineral wealth of that hitherto unexplored region. In the expedition organized under the command of Brigadier-General Terry against the Indians, General Custer commanded the 7th Cavalry, which
was the advance; and it was while engaged in this expedition that he met his death, June 25, 1876. General Custer cared little for politics and took no part therein, except as a delegate to the Philadelphia Convention in 1866, and to the Soldiers' Convention at Cleveland. In 1864 General Custer married Miss Elizabeth Bacon, only daughter of Hon. Daniel S. Bacon, of Monroe, Michigan.
During every campaign thereafter she accompanied her gallant husband, sharing the dangers and discomforts with him and his command. To omit from General Custer's record an emphatic commendation of him as a man, and a genial, warm-hearted friend, would leave untold some of his most strongly marked characteristics. Under the garb of the soldier, and the sometimes
austere exterior, there beat the warmest of hearts, and existed the most affectionate of natures.
The circle of friends to whom he revealed these gentler qualities was not large; but, even beyond that, he was loved and admired for what he was, and was respected and esteemed for his achievements. In the field of literature, into which he ventured with the same energy and spirit that characterized his military life, he also won success; and, but for the untimely close of his career, would unquestionably here also have attained distinction. To live in history is the fondest dream of the soldier. What are a few years, more or less, of this life, in comparison with enduring fame? The name of Custer is now enrolled with those to be remembered. The peculiarly tragic incidents of his death; the desperate courage which put him and so many of his relations at the head of the assailing troops; the merciless slaughter which closed the scene,--all these may survive in narrative and tradition the removal of the last of the "Redskins" from the face of the earth. The gallant bravery, the spirit, and the patriotism of Custer commended him to public favor; and it is not in the heart of the American people soon to forget those whose blood has been shed in their name.
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