The Last Days of George Armstrong Custer Read Online Free PDF

rather than simply directing movements from a safe position in the rear. This one distinct trait had instilled within his troops a confidence that if Custer, a general, had the nerve to charge into the blazing guns of the enemy then there was no reason to believe that if they followed victory would not be within their grasp.
    Edwin Havens of the Seventh Michigan described Custer in a letter dated July 9, 1863: “He is a glorious fellow, full of energy, quick to plan and bold to execute, and with us has never failed in any attempt he has yet made.” Another proud Wolverine praised: “Our boy-general never says, ‘Go in, men!’ HE says, with that whoop and yell of his, ‘Come on, boys!’ and in we go, you bet.” Captain S. H. Ballard of the Sixth Michigan said: “The command perfectly idolized Custer. When Custer made a charge, he was the first sabre that struck for he was always ahead.” Another said that Custer “was not afraid to fight like a private soldier … and that he was ever in front and would never ask them to go where he would not lead.” Lieutenant James Christiancy wrote: “Through all that sharp and heavy firing the General gave his orders as though conducting a parade or review, so cool and indifferent that he inspired us all with something of his coolness and courage.”
    The Michigan Brigade was so impressed that they had whipped Jeb Stuart at Gettysburg that they began to emulate their commander by adopting Custer’s trademark scarlet neckties, which he wore to make himself conspicuous to his troops during a battle.
    The young, dashing Boy General with the yellow curls and outlandish uniform certainly made for excellent copy. Newspaper and magazine correspondents saw a rising star, and the Custer legend was born.
    Eleven days later, at Falling Waters, Custer’s brigade nipped at Lee’s retreating heels and captured fifteen hundred prisoners and three battle flags. An admiring private from the Fifth Michigan describing the hand-to-hand combat in that affair marveled when he saw Custer “plunge a saber into the belly of a rebel who was trying to kill him. You can guess how bravely soldiers fight for such a general.” Custer continued to distinguish himself throughout 1863, particularly at Culpeper, where he received his lone war wound—shrapnel in the foot.
    As Armstrong Custer was gaining national fame as a general and commander of the Michigan Brigade, Libbie Bacon had obeyed her father’s wishes and refused to see or accept mail from Custer. That silence would be broken, however, when Annette “Nettie” Humphrey, a friend of Libbie’s and the future wife of Custer’s adjutant Jacob Greene, emerged as a go-between to pass information between the couple.
    Libbie gradually fell in love with the gallant General Custer, and at a masquerade ball at the Humphrey house on September 28, 1863, she promised to marry him if he could gain her father’s consent. Custer composed the most important letter of his life and asked that he simply be permitted to correspond with Libbie. The judge relented—no doubt partially due to Custer’s growing fame—and granted Libbie permission to write. Her first letter began: “My more than friend—at last—Am I a little glad to write you some of the thoughts I cannot control?”
    The romance escalated to the point that Custer wrote to Judge Bacon in late 1863 asking for Libbie’s hand in marriage. The judge replied that he might ponder the matter for weeks or even months. Custer persisted with a frontal assault worthy of any cavalry charge and finally received the judge’s blessing. He then persuaded Libbie to marry him at the soonest possible moment.
    At 8:00 P.M. on February 9, 1864, George Armstrong Custer and Elizabeth Clift Bacon were united in marriage at the First Presbyterian Church, which still stands, in a storybook wedding with a