Custer, the Great American Hero

[W. Gray]

Custer was the great American hero. Very few men can equal his gallantry and bravery.

An outstanding soldier, he came up through enlisted ranks becoming a commissioned officer. At end of the Civil War, he was not yet twenty-one years old.

During the Civil War his bravery (and perhaps recklessness) earned him not one but two Medals of Honor from Congress. He was the first fighting man to receive two Medals of Honor and the only man to receive two during the Civil War. His heroics have been compared to the Civil War as Alvin York and Audie Murphy have been to World Wars I and II.

All of his brothers proclaimed him, without a doubt, hero of the Custer family. This included the oldest brother who graduated at the bottom of his class at West Point.

His daring was costly. He was badly wounded and, as a result, remained partially crippled in one arm. He could not put on a coat on without assistance.

Custer was ecstatic to remain on active duty after the war. He was extremely jubilant he was part of the Seventh Cavalry headed for a great battle somewhere to the west in the Dakotas or in Montana. He could kick some more butt, so to speak.

Indians hated Little Hair, as they called him. One, in particular, threatened to cut his heart out and eat it.

After the great battle, he was found full of arrows with his skull smashed and his scalp gone. Those discovering the battlefield could not pull out a deeply embedded arrow from his brain—obviously fired in the top of his head at very close range after he was down.

Both his abdomen and throat were split wide open. The only way anyone could identify him was by the initials TWC tattooed on one arm.

Thomas Ward Custer did not live to see his thirty-second birthday.

With the Seventh Cavalry that fateful day in June 1876, were brothers George Armstrong, Tom, and Boston. Also along were nephew Autie Reed and brother-in-law James Calhoun. They all followed older brother George's orders and met their death at the Little Big Horn.

[Roma Jean Turner]

What interesting info.  I have never heard that information about his family before.  Thanks

[Delmonico]

It is said that George often said Tom should have been the General, George had Tom arrested once during the war, tom refused to go back for medical aid when wounded.

[W. Gray]

Roma Jean,

One might say the Battle of the Little Big Horn was a family affair or a family outing.

[Roma Jean Turner]

It would have paid to be the Black Sheep of the family that day. Did they all wives and children?  I no Custer didn't.  If I remember his wife devoted the rest of her life to his memory.  I always wonder what happens to the families.  The people we never hear about.

[Delmonico]

Tom and Boston were not married. 

[W. Gray]

Custer, himself, was thirty-six and Elizabeth, his wife, was thirty-four. They had been married twelve years but no children. She never remarried and did not die until 1933. There is even a sound film of her talking about her husband. The film might have been part of an early newsreel.

Autie Reed was eighteen and probably not married.

James Calhoun was thirty and married to Custer's sister, Maggie who was twenty-four.

Boston Custer was twenty-five and not married.

Tom Custer was thirty-one and not married.

The Custer parents had nine children ranging in age from forty-eight to twenty-four.

Commissioned officers were removed from the battlefield and buried elsewhere. Generally, the others were buried and then reburied in a mass grave at the Little Big Horn.

Both Custer and Elizabeth are entombed at West Point.

[W. Gray]

Today was the big day, 132 years ago.

[pam]

Whether or not Custer was a hero depended which side you were on. Also he did not enlist he recieved an appointment to West Point in 1857 and graduated at the bottom of his class just missin being court-martialed by the commencing of the Civil War.

[W. Gray]

You are incorrect.

You misread and you misunderstood and you misspoke.

Go back to the top and read again.