The Last Days of George Armstrong Custer (5 page)

Major General Philip Sheridan assumed command of the cavalry and convinced Grant to change the mission of his force from support to active operations. Grant obliged, and Sheridan planned as his first mission the elimination of the legendary Jeb Stuart, whose cavalry had been such a thorn in the side of the Union.

May 1864 saw Custer victories in the Wilderness, at Beaver Dam Station, and on May 11 at Yellow Tavern he personally led the charge that resulted in the death of Jeb Stuart. An elated Sheridan, who would be Custer's mentor throughout his army career, was compelled to say, “Custer is the ablest man in the Cavalry Corps.”

Custer's momentum was somewhat slowed the following month at Trevilian Station. Custer always exhibited an aggressive spirit of competition when facing any of them across the field of battle, his best friend, Tom Rosser, in particular. But it was Rosser who bested Custer at the June 11–12 battle of Trevilian Station. Custer's brigade became trapped between two Rebel divisions—“on the inside of a living triangle”—struck from behind by Rosser. Custer eventually fought his way out but left behind in Rosser's possession his adjutant and his cook, as well as the trappings of his headquarters—wagons, bedding, field desk, clothing, cooking outfit, spare horse, his commission to general, his letters from Libbie, and an ambrotype of her.

Custer was not demoralized by the loss, however. After this battle, Custer wrote to Nettie Humphrey, who would surely pass the information on to Libbie Bacon: “Oh, could you but have seen some of the charges that were made! While thinking of them I cannot but exclaim ‘Glorious War!'”

In August, Sheridan was dispatched to the Shenandoah Valley to face Lieutenant General Jubal A. Early's Confederate army. Custer continued to reap glory and respect for his brilliantly executed charges and field generalship during this campaign—time and again exploiting the enemy's weaknesses with snap decisions—particularly at Winchester, where he brazenly led five hundred of his Michigan “Wolverines” against sixteen hundred entrenched Confederates and emerged with seven hundred prisoners.

On September 30, 1864, he was awarded his second star and command of the Third Cavalry Division.

At Tom's Brook on October 9, Custer exacted revenge on his friend Tom Rosser. Custer with twenty-five hundred horsemen faced Rosser's thirty-five hundred troops, who were entrenched on the high ground. When all was ready for battle, Custer—in an act of bravado of which legends are made—rode out in front of his command where he could be observed by both sides. He removed his broad-brimmed hat and swept it across himself in a salute as if to say, “May the best man win.”

Custer charged with eight regiments to the front and three in a surprise attack on Rosser's left flank. Rosser's men could not withstand the pressure and were forced into a disorganized retreat. Custer's horsemen chased the fleeing Rebels for ten to twelve miles. Rosser had not simply been defeated; he had been humiliated.

To add insult to injury, Custer had captured Rosser's headquarters wagon. Custer got back the ambrotype of Libbie that had been captured at Trevilian Station and appropriated a pet squirrel that had belonged to Rosser. That night in camp, Custer adorned himself in Rosser's baggy, ill-fitting uniform and treated his men to a good laugh. He later added to Rosser's humiliation by writing and asking that his old friend advise his tailor to shorten the coattails for a better fit.

Custer's cavalrymen fought on with distinction. Ten days later at Cedar Creek they captured forty-five pieces of artillery, thirteen battle flags, and swarms of prisoners. One reporter wrote of that victory: “Custer, young as he is, displayed judgment worthy of Napoleon.” In March 1865 at Waynesboro, he crushed the remnants of Jubal Early's forces, capturing sixteen hundred prisoners, eleven artillery pieces, over two hundred wagons laden with supplies, and seventeen battle flags.

Custer received his third star as a major general on March 29, 1864. He then led his division to decisive victories at Dinwiddie Court House, Five Forks, and Namozine Church.

The April 6, 1865, battle of Sayler's Creek, in which Custer played a major role, had been a smashing victory for the Union. Over nine thousand Confederates had been taken prisoner—more Americans than had ever before or after been captured at one time on this continent.

Custer formed his division the following morning for the march just as a long line of Confederate prisoners straggled past on their way to the rear. In a show of respect for his vanquished enemy, Custer ordered the band to play “Dixie” for these brave men, which evoked cheers from the Southern boys.

On the morning of April 9, 1865, Custer had pushed within sight of Appomattox Court House when a Confederate major arrived at his headquarters under a flag of truce with a request from Robert E. Lee to suspend hostilities. The Civil War had ended on Custer's doorstep.

That afternoon, General Lee presented himself to General Grant at the home of Wilmer McLean to surrender his army. Custer could be found either out in the yard or on the porch of McLean's house renewing acquaintances with his Confederate friends while the two commanders retired inside and signed the surrender document.

When the ceremony had concluded, the small oval-shaped pine table upon which Grant had written the terms of the surrender was purchased for twenty dollars in gold by General Phil Sheridan. The next day, the cavalry commander handed the table to Custer as a gift to Libbie Custer. Sheridan enclosed a note, which read: “My dear Madam, I respectfully present to you the small writing table on which the conditions for the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia were written by Lt. General Grant—and permit me to say, Madam, that there is scarcely an individual in our service who has contributed more to bring about this desirable result than your gallant husband.”

Libbie Custer cherished the table for the remainder of her life. After her death, the surrender table was added to the collection of the Smithsonian Institution.

But it was not solely on the sanguinary battlefields from Bull Run to Appomattox that Custer grew into manhood and developed the attributes necessary to be a leader of men. During this time, he also underwent several transformations in his personal life as he matured from a raw young man with ambition into an adult who worried about his responsibility toward the soldiers entrusted to his command. He had started out his post–West Point career with the reputation as a prankster, one who flaunted military discipline, but after that first shot had been fired he proved that he had not been sleeping through his classes. The lessons he had learned at the Point were combined with a natural compassion that he held for his comrades. He had always been a leader, albeit often on forays to the local tavern, but the fact that the stakes now were so high and lives were on the line each day added to the process of his personal growth.

Custer had earlier vowed to abstain from alcohol and had faithfully kept that promise. Ann Reed's other primary concern—along with wife Libbie—became saving the spiritual soul of George Armstrong. Ann had taken him to Sunday school at the Methodist church as a boy and attempted over the years to influence him to become a born-again Christian.

Custer was aware of the efforts of the two most important women in his life to convert him. Ann Reed continued her quest for Custer's salvation and wrote to him in August 1864: “O my dear brother I think of you every day. I do wish you were a good Christian. I have often thought that was the only thing you needed to make you a perfect man. I want to meet you in heaven.”

The prayers of the two women were finally answered on Sunday evening, February 5, 1865, when Custer publicly professed his faith. The Custers had attended a service at the Monroe Presbyterian Church, and Armstrong at that time accepted Jesus Christ as his personal Savior.

Now, in the spring of 1876, Custer undoubtedly sat in that anteroom of the White House saying silent prayers to encourage President Grant to open the door to the Oval Office and welcome him inside. But the president remained adamant in his refusal to see Custer.

Certainly, he fretted about the task of outfitting his unit for the expedition against the Sioux. There were many aspects of training and logistics that he had developed over the years to ensure readiness and he needed to be there to make sure they were properly implemented. These lessons had not come without experience, and few army officers over the years had led the campaigns and expeditions that had been the learning ground that had brought George Armstrong Custer to this point in his career.

 

Three

Chasing Shadows on the Plains

Following the war, in June 1865 Brevet General George Armstrong Custer had been assigned duty in Louisiana and Texas, once again under the command of General Phil Sheridan. More than fifty thousand troops had been dispatched along the Rio Grande as a show of force to the French, which had invaded Mexico. Custer would head a division of four thousand, organized in Alexandria, Louisiana, and later stationed in Texas.

Custer immediately encountered severe disciplinary problems with these veteran troops who had fought in the Civil War and wanted to return home. It was the first time that he had commanded troops who had not worshiped him, which compelled him to face a rumored assassination attempt and to squelch a near mutiny. The unit in August moved to Hempstead, Texas, and by November was headquartered at the Blind Asylum in Austin.

Although Custer and his troops remained at odds, he enjoyed his duty in Texas on a personal basis. He had been accompanied by Libbie, brother Tom, and his father, Emanuel—employed as a forage agent.

The local society was extremely cordial, and the Custer clan occupied their time riding, hunting, playing practical jokes on one another, and catching up on life after the wartime separation. This assignment ended in February 1866, when the Custers traveled to New York City—with one side trip to Monroe to attend the funeral of Libbie's father, Daniel Bacon, who had passed away on May 18 of cholera.

While in New York, due to his reputation from the Civil War, Custer was offered the position of adjutant general of the Mexican army, which was in a struggle with Emperor Maximilian, the French puppet. The position commanded a salary of sixteen thousand dollars in gold—twice Custer's major general pay. Although he was highly recommended by President Grant, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, and Phil Sheridan, both Libbie and Sheridan counseled against Custer accepting the offer. The matter was settled, however, when Secretary of State William H. Seward, who thought France might be offended if an American officer directed soldiers against French troops, refused to allow Custer a leave of absence.

In September 1866, Custer and Libbie were members of an entourage that toured with President Andrew Johnson in an attempt to win support for the president's Southern policy. Johnson likened the Union to a circle that had been broken and required mending and therefore called his tour Swinging Round the Circle. Custer believed that he was engaging in a public service by pleading for leniency toward the vanquished Southerners. After all, many of his friends from West Point had been Confederate officers and he had always practiced decent treatment of them during the war.

Custer's participation was not well received by the Northern press, which attacked him vehemently for associating with traitor Southerners. Even in Custer country—Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana—the reception was unpleasant at best. This initial foray into politics had become a disaster. Custer soon decided he was better suited as a soldier and not a politician. Consequently, the Custers decided to leave the presidential party before the completion of the trip in order to escape the protesters and bad publicity.

On July 28, 1866, Congress authorized four new cavalry regiments—including the Seventh Cavalry, which would be formed at Fort Riley, Kansas. Custer would have preferred a colonelcy and command of one of the regiments but with the influence of Phil Sheridan was appointed a lieutenant colonel—second-in-command under Colonel Andrew Jackson (“A. J.”) Smith—of the Seventh Cavalry. He accepted the commission and made plans for him and Libbie to travel to their new duty station on the Great Plains, where he would resume his business of fighting, this time against hostile Indians.

Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer, wife Libbie, and their cook, Eliza Brown, reported for duty at Fort Riley, Kansas, on the evening of November 3, 1866. Custer, however, soon traveled to Washington to appear before an examining board and did not participate in the training of the unit until his return just before Christmas. In February 1867, commanding officer Colonel Smith departed to head the District of the Upper Arkansas and Custer assumed de facto command—a position he would hold until June 25, 1876. Enlisted recruits had arrived at the fort throughout the summer and fall, and by the end of the year the over eight hundred troops were joined by most of the officers.

The enlisted cavalryman of Custer's era was a volunteer who was paid thirteen dollars a month. Many young men had been attracted to military service by the prospect of romance and adventure, the shiny new uniforms they would wear, the pomp and circumstance of hearing the regimental band strike up a jaunty tune, and an escape from their mundane lives on the farm or apprenticeships in the city. There was romance and adventure to be found in the military, so they thought. Quite a number of them were emigrants from Ireland, Italy, Germany, and England—which often posed a language problem—and many were Civil War veterans.

These would-be soldiers reported to their duty station and found that their lives would be quite different than they had envisioned. They arrived at Fort Riley to discover a cluster of crude buildings in a remote location that was surrounded by a barren prairie covered with sagebrush that was scalded by the sun in summer and buried under snow and freezing temperatures in the winter. And they soon learned that upon signing up they had forfeited all rights as American citizens and were now under an alien jurisdiction that resembled a brutal dictatorship—and they were at the very bottom of this pecking order.