George Armstrong Custer
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George Armstrong Custer (December 5th, 1839 - June 25th, 1876) was a Union soldier during the American Civil War who later fought against the Native Americans where he was killed by them in Little Bighorn in Montana. He was from a small town in Ohio called New Rumley. He was also of German, English, Northern Irish, Scottish, Norwegian, and Swedish descent. He treated the Native Americans very cruelly, alongside his men and much like many European explorers did before him.
Custer graduated from West Point in 1861 at the bottom of his class, but as the Civil War was just starting, trained officers were in immediate demand. He worked closely with General McClellan and the future General Pleasonton, both of whom recognized his qualities as a cavalry leader, and he was brevetted brigadier general of Volunteers at age 23. Only a few days after his promotion, he fought at Gettysburg, where he commanded the Michigan Cavalry Brigade and despite being outnumbered, defeated J. E. B. Stuart's attack at what is now known as the East Calvary Field. In 1864, Custer served in the Overland Campaign and in Sheridan's army in the Shenandoah Valley, defeating Jubal Early at Cedar Creek. His division blocked the Army of Northern Virginia's final retreat and received the first flag of truce from the Confederates, and Custer was present at Robert E. Lee's surrender to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox.
After the war, Custer was appointed a lieutenant colonel in the Regular Army and was sent west to fight in the Indian Wars. On June 25th, 1876, while leading the 7th Cavalry Regiment at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in Montana Territory against a coalition of Native American tribes, he was killed along with over one third of his command during an action later romanticized as "Custer's Last Stand".
His dramatic end was as controversial as the rest of his career, and reaction to his life and career remains deeply divided. Custer's bold leadership in battle is unquestioned, but his legend was partly of his own fabrication through his extensive journalism, and perhaps more through the energetic lobbying of his wife Libbie Custer throughout her long widowhood.
Trivia edit
- Since he was young at the rank of a Major General during the Civil War, he got the alias, "The Boy General".
- He was known by the Native Americans as "Blue Eyes" and "Yellow Hair" based on his very different appearance from them.
- There is a Controversial Adult game called Custers Revenge which involves, the General Raping a Native American woman tied up to a pole while avoiding arrows the game was criticized by Native American activists and by civil rights activists