George Armstrong Custer

Life and work

On June 29, 1863, Custer was promoted to brigadier general and assigned to command the Michigan Cavalry Brigade.^[1][4] Custer and every soldier in the five companies he led were killed in the battle.^[2] Custer took part in the Overland Campaign and also fought with General Philip Sheridan's army during the Shenandoah Valley campaigns.^[2] In 1865, the retreat of the Army of Northern Virginia was blocked by Custer's division, and the first flag of truce from the Confederates was accepted by Custer.^[2]

Following the war's end, Custer received a commission as a lieutenant colonel in the Regular Army and was assigned to the western frontier for the Indian Wars.^[2] An attack on a Lakota-Cheyenne village at the Little Bighorn River was led by Custer with the 7th Cavalry on June 25, 1876.^[5]

What the cited sources add

The American Battlefield Trust account describes Custer as aggressive, gallant, reckless, and foolhardy.^[1] Kraft also states that Custer's official report of the 1868 Washita attack claimed 103 Indians killed, more than 40 of them women and children.^[5] The National Park Service account reports that Custer testified before a congressional committee in 1876 about corruption involving Secretary Belknap and President Grant's brother.^[6] Kraft writes that interpreter Fred Gerard sat with Custer just before the night march of June 24-25.^[5]