George Armstrong Custer
George Armstrong Custer (December 5, 1839 – June 25, 1876) was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the Indian Wars.
George Armstrong Custer | |
---|---|
Allegiance | United States of America Union |
Service/branch | United States Army Union Army |
Years of service | 1861–76 |
Rank | Major General of Volunteers Lieutenant Colonel (Regular Army) |
Commands held | Michigan Brigade 3rd Cavalry Division 7th U.S. Cavalry |
Battles/wars | American Civil War |
At the start of the Civil War, Custer was a cadet at the United States Military Academy at West Point, and his class's graduation was accelerated so that they could enter the war. Custer graduated last in his class and served at the First Battle of Bull Run as a staff officer for Major General George B. McClellan in the Army of the Potomac's 1862 Peninsula Campaign. Early in the Gettysburg Campaign, Custer's association with cavalry commander Major General Alfred Pleasonton earned him a brevet promotion from First Lieutenant to Brigadier General of United States Volunteers at the age of 23.[1]
Custer remained in the Army after the Civil War and served as an officer in the Indian Wars. He died with all this men in the Battle of Little Big Horn in 1876.
George Armstrong Custer Media
USMA Cadet George Armstrong "Autie" Custer, ca. 1859 with a Colt Model 1855 Sidehammer Pocket Revolver.
Custer with former classmate, friend, and captured Confederate soldier, Lieutenant James Barroll Washington, an aide to General Johnston, at Fair Oaks, Virginia, 1862
Custer (extreme right) with President Lincoln, General McClellan and other officers at the Battle of Antietam, 1862
Custer (left) with General Pleasonton on horseback in Falmouth, Virginia, 1863
Mathew Brady photograph of Custer. From the Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress
Other websites
References
- ↑ "George Armstrong Custer – Little Bighorn Battlefield NM". National Park Service. 2000. Archived from the original on 2008-06-01. Retrieved 2008-05-25.