George Custer Popular Books
George Custer Biography & Facts
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 American Indian Wars. Custer graduated from West Point and though he has been characterized as an inept student for having been last in his graduating class, he actually finished thirty-fourth out of a starting class of one hundred and eight candidates. Following graduation, he worked closely with General George B. McClellan and the future General Alfred Pleasonton, both of whom recognized his ability as a cavalry leader. He was subsequently promoted to brigadier general of volunteers at age 23. Only a few days after his promotion, he fought at the Battle of Gettysburg, where he commanded the Michigan Cavalry Brigade. Despite being outnumbered, Custer defeated J. E. B. Stuart's attack at what is now known as East Cavalry Field. In 1864, he served in the Overland Campaign and Philip Sheridan's army in the Shenandoah Valley, defeating Jubal Early at Cedar Creek. In 1865, he destroyed or captured the remainder of Early's forces at the Battle of Waynesboro. His division blocked the Army of Northern Virginia's final retreat and received the first flag of truce from the Confederates. He was also present at Robert E. Lee's surrender to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia. After the war, Custer was commissioned as a lieutenant colonel in the Regular Army and was sent west to fight in the Indian Wars, mainly against the Lakota and other Plains Peoples. On June 25, 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 every soldier of the five companies he led. This event became known as "Custer's Last Stand". His dramatic end was as controversial as the rest of his career, and the reaction to his life and career remains deeply divided. His mythologized status in American history was partly established through the energetic lobbying of his wife Elizabeth Bacon "Libbie" Custer throughout her long widowhood which spanned six decades. Family and ancestry Custer's paternal ancestors, Paulus and Gertrude Küster, came to the North American English colonies around 1693 from the Rhineland in Germany, probably among thousands of Palatines whose passage was arranged by the English government to gain settlers in New York and Pennsylvania. Custer's maternal ancestors were of English and Ulster Scots descent, having ancestries from England and Northern Ireland. According to family letters, Custer was named after George Armstrong, a minister, in his devout mother's hope that her son might join the clergy. Birth, siblings, and childhood Custer was born in New Rumley, Ohio, to Emanuel Henry Custer (1806–1892), a farmer and blacksmith, and his second wife, Marie Ward Kirkpatrick (1807–1882), who was of English and Scots-Irish descent. He had two younger brothers, Thomas and Boston. His other full siblings were the family's youngest child, Margaret Custer, and Nevin Custer, who suffered from asthma and rheumatism. Custer also had three older half-siblings. Custer and his brothers acquired a life-long love of practical jokes, which they played out among the close family members. Emanuel Custer was an outspoken Jacksonian Democrat who taught his children politics and toughness at an early age. In a February 3, 1887, letter to his son's widow Libby, Emanuel related an incident from when George Custer (known as Autie) was about four years old: "He had to have a tooth drawn, and he was very much afraid of blood. When I took him to the doctor to have the tooth pulled, it was in the night and I told him if it bled well it would get well right away, and he must be a good soldier. When he got to the doctor he took his seat, and the pulling began. The forceps slipped off and he had to make a second trial. He pulled it out, and Autie never even scrunched. Going home, I led him by the arm. He jumped and skipped, and said 'Father you and me can whip all the Whigs in Michigan.' I thought that was saying a good deal but I did not contradict him." Education In order to attend school, Custer lived with an older half-sister and her husband in Monroe, Michigan. Before entering the United States Military Academy, Custer attended the McNeely Normal School, later known as Hopedale Normal College, in Hopedale, Ohio. The school was known for training teachers for elementary schools. While attending Hopedale, Custer and classmate William Enos Emery were known to have carried coal to help pay for their room and board. After graduating from McNeely Normal School in 1856, Custer taught school in Cadiz, Ohio. His first sweetheart was Mary Jane Holland. Custer entered West Point as a cadet on July 1, 1857, as a member of the class of 1862. His class numbered seventy-nine cadets embarking on a five-year course of study. With the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, the course was shortened to four years, and Custer and his class graduated on June 24, 1861. He was 34th in a class of 34 graduates: 23 classmates had dropped out for academic reasons while 22 classmates had already resigned to join the Confederacy. Throughout his life, Custer tested boundaries and rules. In his four years at West Point, he amassed a record total of 726 demerits, one of the worst conduct records in the history of the academy. The local minister remembered Custer as "the instigator of devilish plots both during the service and in Sunday school. On the surface he appeared attentive and respectful, but underneath the mind boiled with disruptive ideas." A fellow cadet recalled Custer as declaring there were only two places in a class, the head and the foot, and since he had no desire to be the head, he aspired to be the foot. A roommate noted, "It was alright with George Custer, whether he knew his lesson or not; he simply did not allow it to trouble him." Civil War McClellan and Pleasanton Like the other graduates, Custer was commissioned a second lieutenant; he was also assigned to the 2nd U.S. Cavalry Regiment and tasked with drilling volunteers in Washington, D.C. On July 21, 1861, he was with his regiment at the First Battle of Bull Run during the Manassas Campaign where Army commander Winfield Scott detailed him to carry messages to Major General Irvin McDowell. After the battle, he continued participating in the defense of Washington D.C. until October 1861, when he became ill. He was absent from his unit until February 1862. In March, he participated with the 2nd Cavalry in the Peninsula Campaign in Virginia until April 4. On April 5, Custer served in the 5th Cavalry Regiment which participated in the Siege of Yorktown from April 5 to May 4 and was aide to Major General George B. McClellan. McClellan was in command of the Army of the Potomac during the Peninsula Campaign. On May 24, 1862, during pursuit of Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston .... Discover the George Custer popular books. Find the top 100 most popular George Custer books.
Best Seller George Custer Books of 2024
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Custer
Jeffry D. WertGeorge Armstrong Custer has been so heavily mythologized that the human being has been all but lost. Now, in the first complete biography in decades, Jeffry Wert reexamines the lif...
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The Deadwood Trail
Ralph ComptonThey had beaten the harsh odds of the frontier. But for the two powerful ranchers, the most formidable trail lay ahead. There had never been a trail drive like this before...The on...
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Eleven Years in the Rocky Mountains and Life on the Frontier
Frances Fuller VictorWith centuries of literature, it's inevitable that some will fall through the cracks. We hunt down public domain works and restore them so they're not lost to the world. Who are w...
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The Other Custers
Bill Yenne & George Armstrong CusterNot one, not two, but three Custer brothers died at the Little Bighornand so did their only sister's husband. Most do not realize that not one, not two, but three Custer brothers d...
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On the Border with Crook
John Gregory BourkeThe definitive look at one of the most famous American generals of the American Indian Wars.After serving over fifteen years with General George Crook, John Gregory Bourke, his rig...
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George Armstrong Custer
Frederick Samuel DellenbaughCuster holds a unique place in American military history, a hero and villain in equal measure, famous for what was seen as a heroic defeat but was in fact a huge miscalculation by ...
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The Curse of Destiny
Romain WilhelmsenGeorge Armstrong Custer, strongwilled and strong of body, lived a life of defiance and brilliance until he met his fate at the battle of the Little Big Horn. How could this colorfu...
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Custer at Gettysburg
Phillip Thomas Tucker“A mosaic of thousands of tiny pieces that, seen whole, amounts to a fascinating picture of what probably was the most important moment of the Civil War.” Thomas E. Ricks, New...
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Blood Song
Terry C. JohnstonBlood SongTerry C. JohnstonFrontier Scout Seamus Donegan is heading for Montana Territory with his new bride when war erupts in the Black Hills of Dakota. Sitting bull and Crazy ho...
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Valley of the Shadow
Ralph PetersWinner of the 2015 Boyd Award for Literary Excellence in Military FictionIn the Valley of the Shadow, they wrote their names in blood.From a daring Confederate raid that nearly sei...
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George Armstrong Custer and the Royal Buffalo Hunt of 1872
Raymond C. WilsonAlready established as an Indian fighter on the Great Plains, Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer's 1872 visit to Nebraska wasn't for war, but for entertainment. It was here...
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Armstrong
H. W. Crocker"Delightfully funny alternative history." WINSTON GROOM, bestselling author of Forrest Gump and El Paso "Droll satire, this is the West as it might have been if the Siou...
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The Ultimate George Custer Collection
George Custer, Elizabeth Custer, Charles River Editors & Charles H.L. JohnstonIncludes: Charles River Editors’ original biography of Custer “Boots and Saddles” or Life in Dakota with General Custer by Elizabeth B. Custer Custer’s My Life on the Plains Custer...
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The Boy Generals
Adolfo OviesFirst in a trilogya study of the strategy, tactics, and rivalry between two leaders of the Army of the Potomac’s cavalry during the American Civil War. George Armstrong Custer’s ca...
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Those Damn Horse Soldiers
George WalshMany accounts of the Civil War battles, armies, and key figures have been written over the years, but none have looked at the bloodiest war in our nation's history through the eyes...
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Nomad
Brian W. DippieBetween 1867 and 1875, George Armstrong Custer contributed fifteen letters under the apt pseudonym Nomad to the New Yorkbased sportsman’s journal Turf, Field and Farm. Previously a...
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Wildest Lives of the Frontier
John Richard StephensBy and about the greatest celebrities of frontier America, these are the stories of their adventures told in their own words through excerpts from autobiographies, articles they wr...
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The Better Brother
Roy BirdYears of painstaking research have uncovered more detail on Thomas Ward Custer, the younger brother of the legendary General George Custer. Historians are now coming to understand ...
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Spiro George v. Gary Custer
Supreme Court of AlaskaRABINOWITZ, Justice. This appeal concerns a dispute over the existence of an oral contract between Spiro George ("George") and Gary Custer ("Custer") for an option to pu...
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Custer
Jay Monaghan"The best book yet written about Custer and the full significance of his career. . . . Deserves a medal of honor for extraordinary service in the great cause of making history live...
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Son of the Morning Star
Evan S. ConnellSon of the Morning Star is the nonfiction account of General Custer from the great American novelist Evan S. Connell. Custer's Last Stand is among the most enduring events in Ameri...
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On the Plains with Custer
Edwin L. Sabin & Charles H. StephensThis historical western was written before Custer was known as General, a time when those who knew and marched with Custer were still alive. Edwin L. Sabin tells the story of a man...
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George Armstrong Custer and the Pennypackers of Pennsylvania
Raymond C. WilsonWhile researching family genealogy, I was surprised to learn that my wife is related to Major General George Armstrong Custer, Major General Galusha Pennypacker, Governor Samuel W....
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Eleven Years in the Rocky Mountains and Life on the Frontier, Also a History of the Sioux War, and a Life of Gen. George A. Custer With Full Account of His Last Battle
Frances Fuller VictorWhen the author of this book has been absorbed in the elegant narratives of Washington Irving, reading and musing over Astoria and Bonneville, in the cozy quiet of a New York study...
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Custerology
Michael A. ElliottOn a hot summer day in 1876, George Armstrong Custer led the Seventh Cavalry to the most famous defeat in U.S. military history. Outnumbered and exhausted, the Seventh Cavalry lost...
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The Most Desperate Acts of Gallantry
Daniel T. Davis“Presents Custer’s Civil War accomplishments in clear and engaging prose, while its ample images and battle maps place unfamiliar readers in the action.” The Civil War MonitorThrou...
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Blood Brothers
Deanne StillmanWinner of the 2018 Ohioana Book Award for Nonfiction The littleknown but uniquely American story of the unlikely friendship of two famous figures of the American WestBuffalo Bill C...
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The Summer of 1876
Chris WimmerFrom the creator of the "Legends of the Old West" podcast, a book exploring the overlapping narratives of the biggest legends in frontier mythology.The summer of 1876 was a key tim...
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Coming Through Fire
Duane SchultzThe Attack Along the Washita River, Custer’s Last Victory and the Action That Led to the Plains Indians’ United Quest for RetributionThe cold dawn of November 27, 1868, was the mom...
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Little Bighorn
John HoughLittle Bighorn is the beautifully written, uniquely American story of the comingofage of eighteenyearold Allen Winslow during the Battle of the Little Bighorn and the fraught weeks...
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The Removes
Tatjana SoliAs the first wave of pioneers travel westward to settle the American frontier, two women discover their inner strength when their lives are irrevocably changed by the hardship of t...
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Custer
Larry McMurtryThis lavishly illustrated volume reassesses and celebrates the life and legacy of the West’s most legendary figure, George Armstrong Custer, from “one of America’s great storytelle...