George Armstrong Custer
Birth: 5 December 1839
Death: 25 June 1876

Remembered best for his "Last Stand" defeat at the hands of the Lakota Indians in the Battle of Little Bighorn, Custer was one of the most famous and flamboyant figures in United States military history. Ironically, Custer began his military career with a series of misadventures, including the dual and dubious honors of graduating last in his class at West Point Military Academy and, while still attending the academy, narrowly escaping court-martial charges. The young Custer did not seem destined for military fame.

Fortunately, after moving on to active duty, Custer managed to break free from his early career mishaps, and distinguished himself as an able leader during the Civil War, particularly during the Battle of Gettysburg. From then on, Custer advanced from victory to victory, and by the end of the Civil War he had managed to achieve the lofty ranks of Major General of Volunteers and Brevet Major General in the Regular Army.

Custer then went on to make a name for himself as a Lieutenant Colonel during the Indian Wars, where he proved himself to be a singularly brutal weapon of the United States government in its battles with the various Indian Nations. Though his Wild-West exploits brought him fame in the eastern newspapers, Custer's entanglements with the Native Americans would eventually bring him face-to-face with his destiny.

On 25 June 1876, after being sent by Ulysses S. Grant to fight the Lakota Indians in Montana, Custer came upon what he thought was a small band of Lakota warriors. The original battle plan called for Custer to meet up with Generals John Gibbon and George Crook before the attack, overpower the Lakota warriors, and claim an easy victory, but Custer was impatient for the arrival of his allies.

So, on the grassy plains of Montana, George Armstrong Custer split his 210 Cavalry forces into three groups and drove them into battle against the Lakota, expecting Crook and Gibbon to provide eventual backup and support. Custer never knew how critically faulted those expectations had become. First, the Sioux Indians, lead by Crazy Horse, had routed General Crook's forces. Crook's troops fell back to Wyoming, never having notified Custer of their retreat. Second, Custer and Gibbon did meet, but Custer's cavalry was sent ahead of the slow-moving infantry, which proved much too slow to offer the support Custer would require. Third, and most unfortunately for Custer and his men, the Lakotas far outnumbered the U.S. forces. The "small band of warriors" turned out to be an army of thousands of Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapahoe warriors, and the combined forces devastated Custer's cavalry. When the Indian forces departed, one thing that managed to survive the Battle of Little Bighorn was the enduring story of Custer's Last Stand.

You can find records for George Armstrong Custer in many of the Ancestry collections. Start with the military archives, and expand your search into the U.S. census, historical newspapers, and OneWorldTree.