George Armstrong Custer
Custer was born on December 5, 1839, in New Rumley, Ohio, and educated at the United States Military Academy. When he graduated, the American Civil War was under way; he was assigned to the Union army as a second lieutenant and arrived at the front during the First Battle of Bull Run. By June 1863, he was in command of a cavalry brigade, with the rank of brigadier general of volunteers. His brigade fought at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and under General Philip Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley. As major general of volunteers, Custer participated in most of the actions of the last campaign (1864-65) of General Ulysses S. Grant.
In 1866, after the war, Custer applied for a leave of absence to accept command of the Mexican cavalry under the Mexican president Benito Juárez, who opposed the rule of Emperor Maximilian. Custer's application was denied; he became lieutenant colonel of the 7th Cavalry Regiment and was assigned to Kansas to engage in the wars against the Native Americans. He campaigned (1867-68) against the Cheyenne. In 1873 he was ordered to Dakota Territory to protect railway surveyors and gold miners who were crossing land owned by the Sioux. After three years of intermittent clashes with the Sioux, the U.S. Army determined to crush the Native Americans by a three-way envelopment. Custer's regiment formed part of the forces of General Alfred Howe Terry, one of three groups participating in the movement. Ordered by Terry to scout in advance of the main force, Custer's regiment, on June 24, 1876, located an encampment of Sioux, the size of which Custer underestimated. He attacked the morning after but his regiment was hopelessly outnumbered, and the entire center column, including Custer and 264 of his men, was destroyed.
Sunday, June 25,1876:
George Armstrong Custer (December 5, 1839 - June 25, 1876):
American soldier, whose Last Stand against Sioux and Cheyenne warriors at Little Bighorn, Dakota Territory, has become an enduring legend in American history.
In a decision that has ever since baffled historians, Custer divided the Seventh Cavalry into three main elements during the early morning hours of Sunday, June 25th. He then subdivided his own immediate command into separate wings. In retrospect, this division of his troops in the face of an overwhelming number of hostiles was not the best decision he could have made. However, it was an accepted and field tested military tactic that had proven successful in the past. But at Little Big Horn, it failed miserably.
The Indian Counterattack:
The Lakota and Cheyenne warriors, although surprised by the army's attack, quickly rallied and put all elements of the Seventh Cavalry's attack on the defensive. The Indians fought in a prescribed cultural manner as is demonstrated by oral tradition and physical evidence. It is clear from new archaeological sources that the Lakota and Cheyenne warriors outnumbered, outgunned, and outfought the soldiers of the Seventh Cavalry, giving the army its worst defeat of the entire Indian Wars.
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