George Custer and the Death of Lieutenant Sturgis

 

On June 16, 1875, James “Jack” Sturgis graduated from West Point and was appointed a 2nd Lt, in the 7th Cavalry.  Jack Sturgis, at twenty-two, was the youngest officer in the regiment.  He was also the son of the 7^th cavalry’s commanding officer, Colonel Samuel Sturgis. 

Colonel Sturgis and Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer had a sometimes-prickly relationship.  Colonel Sturgis found himself almost always on detached duty leaving Custer in command of the troops in the field most of the time.  Sturgis suspected that this was the preference of Custer’s mentor Lt. General Philip Sheridan and often felt slighted.

Lt. Jack Sturgis would have had little time to get to know Custer.  He arrived at his duty station at Fort Abraham Lincoln in October 1875.  In March 1876 Custer went East to testifying before Congress.  Custer would not return until May 1876 in time to lead the troops in the field in the campaign against the Sioux.

On June 25, 1876, on the day of Custer’s last fight, Lt. Sturgis was with Company E, one of the five companies under Custer’s direct command that day, all of which were destroyed.  According to archaeological evidence and Native American accounts, it appears that Company E conducted a disciplined retreat toward Last Stand Hill until overwhelmed. 

Jack Sturgis’s body was never officially identified.  His blood-soaked underwear was picked up by General Terry’s troops across the river in the remnants of a Lakota camp. Several decapitated corpses were found near the river, and one soldier later claimed he recognized Sturgis’s scorched head along with several others in a Lakota fire pit.

It is believed that the unidentified remains of Jack Sturgis were buried in a mass grave with the enlisted soldiers.  In 1877 his mother, Jerusha Sturgis, insisted on seeing the spot where her son died. A marker was placed in the vicinity of Last Stand Hill in deference to his visiting mother. A photograph in the U/S. Signal Corps archives shows a heap of stones beside a crudely labeled board.  This fictitious grave was dismantled after the grief-stricken woman’s departure.

Colonel Samuel Sturgis never forgave Custer for the death of his son and became one of Custer’s most vocal critics.  Sturgis wrote that Custer, “was a brave man, but also a very selfish man.  He was insanely ambitious of glory.”

He wrote that Custer was “tyrannical and had no regard for the soldiers under him.”  Sturgis accused Custer of making his attack, “recklessly, earlier by thirty-six hours than he should have done, and with men tired out from forced marches.”   Pro-Custer editors rushed to Custer’s defense, which prompted a further stinging attack by Sturgis.

In 1877, plans were being made for a memorial statue to honor Custer. Colonel Sturgis wrote, “If a monument is to be erected to General Custer for God’s sake let them hide it in some dark valley, or veil it, or put it anywhere the bleeding hearts of the widows, orphans, fathers and mothers of the men so uselessly sacrificed to Custer’s ambition can never be wrung at the sight.”  The statue was eventually placed at West Point.

The watch of Jack Sturgis was restored to his parents in 1878, having been traded by Sioux who had escaped to Canada.

Custer’s Last Stand: Portraits in Time