The Ten Oddest Things About George Armstrong Custer

 

Here are the ten oddest things about George Armstrong Custer, whose glittering career ended in disaster at Little Bighorn

One:Baby-Talk Nickname: Family called him “Autie” his whole life after toddler George mispronounced his middle name “Armstrong.”

Two: West Point’s Worst Cadet: Graduated dead last (the infamous “goat”) in 1861 after racking up a mountain of demerits for pranks—snowball fights, stolen chickens, even wearing a wig to hide non-regulation hair.

Three: Cinnamon-Scented Locks: The vain cavalryman drenched his long golden curls in cinnamon oil so they smelled sweet during charges.

Four: Dandy Uniforms: Rode into battle wearing black velvet jackets trimmed with gold lace, bright red scarves, and wide-brimmed sombreros—looking more like a showman than a soldier.

Five: Boy General at 23: Promoted to brigadier general at age 23 after daring charges; newspapers dubbed him the youngest Union general.

Six: Surrender Table Trophy: His wife Libbie received the actual small table Grant used to draft Lee’s surrender at Appomattox. She loaned the table to the Smithsonian in 1912. Title to the table was transferred to the Smithsonian after her death.

Seven: Custer Family Massacre: Five members of his immediate family—including two brothers, a nephew, and brother-in-law—died with him at Little Bighorn.

Eight: Court-Martialed for Love: Suspended a year in 1867 for abandoning his Kansas regiment without permission just to see his beloved Libbie.

Nine: Custer’s Luck: Eleven horses shot out from under him during the Civil War; he emerged unscathed every time—until June 25, 1876.

Ten: Last-Minute Haircut: Contrary to legend, he cropped his famous curls short right before Little Bighorn to beat the summer heat.

Custer’s Last Stand Re-examined

Custer’s Last Stand: Portraits in Time

General Ambrose Burnside After the Civil War

 

With the collapse of the Confederacy in April 1865, Union Major General Ambrose Burnside—infamous for the Union debacle at Fredericksburg and the Crater fiasco at Petersburg—resigned his commission on April 15, closing a checkered military career. The 1847 West Point graduate returned to civilian life.

Burnside dove into industry, becoming president of several emerging railroad companies.  He was elected governor of Rhode Island for three one year terms beginning in 1866.

In 1871, Burnside became a co-founder of the National Rifle Association becoming the groups first president.

In 1874, the affable Burnside was elected to the U.S. Senate, winning re-election in 1880. He chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee until his sudden heart attack death on September 13, 1881, in Bristol, Rhode Island.

Treasure Legends of the Civil War

The Civil War Wedding

Joshua Chamberlain After the Civil War

 

In the spring of 1865, Union hero Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, the "Lion of Little Round Top," mustered out. His bayonet charge at Gettysburg had etched him into legend, but a wound suffered at Petersburg in 1864 , a Minié ball that shattered his pelvis, left him in chronic agony.

Returning to Maine, Chamberlain's entered politics. Elected governor in 1866, he served four one-year terms, championing veterans' aid, education reform, and Black civil rights amid Ku Klux Klan threats. A moderate Republican, he navigated partisan strife, finally earning the Medal of Honor in 1893 for his actions at Gettysburg.

Chamberlain’s marriage was complex and sometimes strained.  Modern biographers often describe their relationship as: deeply loving but mismatched, shaped by 19th‑century expectations of gender, duty, and sacrifice, and a casualty of war, in its own way. 

In 1871, Chamberlain became president of Bowdoin College where he had once been a professor of rhetoric and oratory.  There, the former professor modernized curricula, boosted enrollment, and fostered intellectual rigor.  In 1880, Chamberlain commanded the militia to restore order during a disputed Maine election.

In 1898, Chamberlain at the age of 70, volunteered to command US Army forces in the Spanish American War. He was passed over due to health issues.

He died in 1914 at the age of eighty-five.  His memoirs The Passing of the Armies were published posthumously in 1915.

History's Ten Worst Generals

Love, Sex, and Marriage in the Civil War

zn.to/2qnUPfj

Jubal Early and the Lost Cause

 

In the aftermath of Appomattox in April 1865, Confederate Lieutenant General Jubal Anderson Early rejected the sting of surrender. Disguised as a ragged farmer, he slipped through Union lines, hiding in Franklin County, Virginia, before fleeing to Mexico. This "unreconstructed rebel" refused to accept defeat, embarking on a nomadic exile across the Caribbean and finally to Canada.

 Early channeled his fury into ink. His Memoir of the Last Year of the War for Independence published in 1867 recast the Confederacy's fall not as military folly, but as betrayal by weak leaders and Northern treachery. The book ignited the "Lost Cause" flame, a narrative that romanticized the Old South.

 Pardoned by President Andrew Johnson in 1869, Early returned to Lynchburg, resuming the practice of law. There, he weaponized words and oratory, through speeches that vilified federal overreach. As president of the Southern Historical Society, he helped erect monuments and curated histories, re-enforcing Southern identity.

Early became an outspoken and vehement critic of Confederate Lieutenant General James Longstreet who after the war worked for the Grant Administration.  Early found particular fault with Longstreet’s actions at the Battle of Gettysburg.  Early also often criticized Ulysses S. Grant as a "butcher."

 Jubal Early died unbowed in 1894, and was buried in Lynchburg.

Runaway Slaves in Virginia

The Great Northern Rebellion of 1860 (alternate history)

General Phil Sheridan After the Civil War

 

Following the American Civil War, Union General Philip Sheridan transitioned from battlefield triumphs to key roles in Reconstruction and westward expansion. In 1867, he was appointed military governor of the Fifth Military District, overseeing Texas and Louisiana. Known for his stringent enforcement, Sheridan removed Confederate sympathizers from office and suppressed Ku Klux Klan activities

Transferred to the Department of the Missouri, Sheridan directed campaigns against Plains tribes during the Indian Wars. Employing "total war" strategies from the Civil War, he authorized winter assaults, destruction of villages, and encouraged buffalo extermination to force Native Americans onto reservations. He oversaw conflicts like the Red River War (1874/1875), the Great Sioux War (1876/1877), and the Nez Perce War (1877), effectively subduing resistance but drawing criticism for brutality.

Promoted to lieutenant general in 1869, Sheridan succeeded William T. Sherman as Commanding General of the U.S. Army in 1883. He advocated for Yellowstone National Park's protection, deploying cavalry to safeguard it from exploitation. Marrying Irene Rucker in 1875, he enjoyed a quieter later life until suffering heart attacks. Congress promoted him to full general on June 1, 1888, weeks before his death on August 5 at age 57 in Nonquitt, Massachusetts. Buried at Arlington National Cemetery, Sheridan's legacy blends Civil War heroism with controversial conquests in the West.

Nuclear War 1962 (Alternate History)

Treasure Legends of the Civil War

General John Bell Hood after the Civil War

 

Confederate General John Bell Hood surrendered to Union forces in Natchez, Mississippi, on May 31, 1865. He moved to New Orleans, Louisiana, seeking to rebuild his life.  There, Hood ventured into business as a cotton broker, merchant, and insurance agent, eventually becoming president of the Life Association of America. Despite chronic pain from war wounds—including the loss of his right leg at Chickamauga and use of his left arm at Gettysburg—he embraced civilian pursuits.

In 1868, Hood married Anna Marie Hennen, and the couple had 11 children, including three sets of twins, over the next decade. He actively supported veterans through charitable work, attending reunions like the 1872 gathering of Hood's Texas Brigade in Houston. Hood also penned his memoir, Advance and Retreat: Personal Experiences in the United States and Confederate States Armies, defending his wartime decisions.  This was published posthumously.

Tragedy struck in 1878 when a yellow fever epidemic devastated New Orleans, collapsing his insurance business. Hood succumbed to the disease on August 30, 1879, just days after his wife and eldest daughter, leaving 10 destitute orphans. The Texas Brigade Association and Southern families supported the children for years.

Runaway Slaves in Virginia

 Love, Sex, and Marriage in the Civil War

The Greenland Nuclear Accident of 1968

 

On January 21, 1968, a U.S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortress bomber, part of the Cold War airborne alert mission, crashed near Thule Air Base in Greenland, scattering radioactive material from four thermonuclear bombs across the Arctic ice. The incident, known as the Thule Affair, began when a cabin fire forced the seven crew members to eject. Six survived, but co-pilot Captain Leonard Svitenko perished.

The plane slammed into sea ice at high speed, detonating the conventional explosives in the B28FI hydrogen bombs. While nuclear safety features prevented a full detonation, the crash released plutonium and other radioactive contaminants over several square miles, creating an environmental hazard.

In response, the U.S. launched a massive cleanup involving hundreds of American and Danish personnel. Over nine months, they removed 10,500 tons of contaminated ice and debris, shipping it to the U.S. for disposal. Controversy arose over a potentially lost bomb component in the ocean, raising long-term radiation concerns.

The accident exposed secret U.S. nuclear overflights, straining relations with Denmark, which banned nuclear weapons on its soil.

U.S. Intervention in Latin America 1898-1948

Sneak Attack! (Four Alternative History Stories)

General James Longstreet After the Civil War

 

After surrendering with Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox in 1865, James Longstreet relocated to New Orleans. Facing business failures amid political ostracism, he embraced Reconstruction, joining the Republican Party and endorsing Ulysses S. Grant's 1868 presidency. Appointed surveyor of customs in New Orleans, he earned Southern scorn as a "scalawag."

As Louisiana militia commander, Longstreet defended integrated government against white supremacists, leading black troops in the 1874 Battle of Liberty Place, where he was wounded. Moving to Gainesville, Georgia, in 1875, he held several federal posts from 1878 to his death in 1904.

Vilified by Lost Cause proponents like Jubal Early for alleged failures at Gettysburg and critiques of General Robert E. Lee, Longstreet rebutted charges in his 1896 memoirs, From Manassas to Appomattox.

He died of pneumonia on January 2, 1904, at age 82.

The Great Northern Rebellion of 1860 (alternate history)

Civil War Humor 1861-1865

Catholic Holy Relics in the United States

 

The United States is home to numerous holy relics, primarily Catholic ones, including fragments of saints' bodies (first-class relics), items they owned or touched (second-class), and pieces associated with Jesus, such as fragments of the True Cross.

These relics are venerated in churches, shrines, and chapels across the country, with some sites housing vast collections authenticated by the Church.

St. Anthony's Chapel in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, holds the largest collection of relics outside the Vatican, with over 5,000 items, including relics from more than 1,200 saints and multiple fragments of the True Cross.

Maria Stein Shrine of the Holy Relics in Maria Stein, Ohio, is the second-largest collection in the U.S., featuring over 1,200 relics (mostly first-class, such as bones) from around 900 saints, plus several fragments of the True Cross.

Other notable sites include: Churches and shrines in places like Louisville, St. Louis, Tampa, and Sedona.

Fragments of the True Cross are particularly widespread, found in at least a dozen documented locations, including the Shrine of the True Cross in Dickinson, Texas.

Spain: Legends and Lore

Lost Treasures and Wonders

The Death of General George Patton

 

On December 9, 1945, General George S. Patton Jr.—the audacious commander whose Third Army raced across Europe—set out for a pheasant hunt near Mannheim, Germany. In the back seat of his 1938 Cadillac staff car, driven by PFC Horace Woodring, Patton sat beside Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Hobart “Hap” Gay. At 11:45 a.m., near a railroad crossing a slow-turning 2.5-ton U.S. Army truck cut across their path. The low-speed collision—barely 20 mph—sent the unrestrained Patton slamming forward into the steel-framed glass partition.

 He suffered a severe spinal cord injury. Bleeding from a deep scalp laceration, Patton remained conscious.  He lay in traction for twelve days.

 On December 20 a blood clot traveled to his lungs. He died in his sleep at 5:55 p.m. on December 21, 1945, at age 60, from a pulmonary embolism.  On Christmas Eve he was buried, at his own request, among the men of his Third Army in Luxembourg American Cemetery.

 A conspiracy theory surrounding General Patton's death alleges that his December 9, 1945, low-speed car accident was deliberately staged as part of an assassination plot, rather than a tragic mishap, with the goal of silencing his outspoken anti-Russian views.  Believers in this theory claim Patton was a loose cannon who might expose scandals, run for president in 1948, or spark WW 3, making him a threat to U.S., British, or Soviet interests.

Wars and Invasions (Four alternative history stories)

The Invasion of Canada 1933

The Klan Act of 1871: Then and Now

 

The Enforcement Act of 1871 also known as the Klan Act, was enacted to combat the violent anti-government vigilantism of the Ku Klux Klan in the post-Civil War South.  The core purpose of the act was to make it a federal crime to “injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate” American citizens in the free exercise of their constitutional rights, especially when done by a group.

The act was passed April 20, 1871, during the administration of President Ulysses S. Grant.  The statute has been subject to only minor changes since then.  In its early history, under the Grant Administration, this act was used to bring to justice those who were violating the Civil Rights of newly freed African Americans. 

In February 2021, a suit was filed alleging violations of the Act pertaining to attempts to reject certification of the election results during the 2021 United States Electoral College vote count, as well as alleging conspiracy to incite violence leading to the 2021 United States Capitol attack.

In 2026, the Klan Act has been invoked in the case off anti-government vigilantes in the state of Minnesota who allegedly disrupted a church service in furtherance of a political agenda. Federal prosecutors allege that the Minnesota church protest amounted to a conspiracy to interfere with the congregants’ constitutional right to unimpeded practice of their religion—exactly the type of conduct the statute was designed to criminalize.

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi 1861-1875: A Portrait

The Gilded Age and Revolution

General William T. Sherman After the Civil War

 

Following the American Civil War, William Tecumseh Sherman, the Union general renowned for his "March to the Sea," continued his military career with distinction. In 1869, after Ulysses S. Grant's election to the presidency, Sherman succeeded him as Commanding General of the United States Army, a position he held until 1883. Promoted to full general, he oversaw operations in the West, leading campaigns against Native American tribes during the Indian Wars. Sherman advocated for a harsh strategy to subdue resistance, viewing it as necessary for national expansion, though he criticized corrupt agents on reservations.

Retiring in 1884, Sherman relocated to New York City, where he became a sought-after speaker and author. He published his memoirs in 1875, reflecting on the war's brutality. Despite his popularity, he staunchly rejected political ambitions, quipping that if nominated for president, he would not run, and if elected, he would not serve.

Sherman died of pneumonia on February 14, 1891, in New York, leaving a complex legacy.

 

Women Doctors in the Civil War

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi 1861-1875: A Portrait

“The Mad Mullah” of Somalia

 

In the scorched sands of 19th-century Somaliland, where nomadic clans roamed under the  relentless sun, Sayyid Muhammad Abdullah Hassan was born in 1856.  He was to become a staunch enemy of foreign influence in Somalia.

Hassan pursued religious studies, and after a transformative Hajj to Mecca in the 1890s,  embraced the strict fundamentalist message of the Salihiyya order.

Returning to Somalia in 1895, he preached against foreign encroachments and missionary influences, uniting disparate Somali tribes under a banner of Islamic purity and independence.

In 1899, he declared jihad, founding the Dervish movement—a guerrilla force that waged relentless campaigns against British, Italian, and Ethiopian forces.

His fighters effectively employed hit-and-run tactics.  The British mounted four major expeditions against the Dervishes between 1900 and 1904 but failed to subdue the movement.  Dubbed the "Mad Mullah" by the British, Hassan was suspected of conspiring with Germany in World War one to raise a widespread Muslim uprising in British controlled areas.

No such uprising arose, but the British continued to pursue Hassan’s forces after World War one, finally smashing the Dervish strongholds by the use of aerial bombardment in 1920.

A fugitive, Hassan died of influenza in Ethiopia on December 21, 1920.

History's Ten Worst Generals

Wars and Invasions (Four alternative history stories)

Truman Tries to Buy Greenland

 

On April 9, 1940 Denmark was occupied by Nazi Germany.  One year later, on April 1941 the United States occupied Greenland to defend it against a possible German invasion.   The occupation continued until 1945.

In 1946, American President Harry Truman’s quietly explored purchasing Greenland from Denmark, viewing the vast Arctic island as a strategic bulwark. American planners saw Greenland as a crucial platform for air bases and early warning systems against potential Russian bombers crossing the polar route toward North America.

Secretary of State James Byrnes raised the idea with the Danish foreign minister during a visit to New York, suggesting that an outright sale might be the “most clean-cut and satisfactory” arrangement. The United States was prepared to offer about 100 million dollars …(2 billion dollars in today’s money) in gold, a substantial sum in the immediate postwar period.

The U.S. bid for Greenland had historical precedents. At the outbreak of World War I in Europe, the United States fearing that the Danish West Indies would be seized by Germany as a submarine base offered to buy the islands.  The sale price was equivalent to 614 million dollars in today’s money. The deal was finalized on January 17, 1917. The United States took possession on March 31, 1917, and the islands were renamed the Virgin Islands of the United States

Denmark ultimately rejected the notion of selling Greenland in 1946, but the episode underscored the island’s growing geopolitical value. Instead of a purchase, Washington secured expanded defense rights and air base access, integrating Greenland into the broader Western security architecture without formally changing its sovereignty.

                                                             Secrets of American History

Nuclear War 1962 (Alternate History)

Winter Misery at Valley Forge 1778

 

General George Washington wrote of the march into Valley Forge: "To see men without clothes to cover their nakedness, without blankets to lay on, without shoes by which their marches might be traced by the blood from their feet, and almost as often without provisions as with; marching through frost and snow and at Christmas taking up their winter quarters within a day's march of the enemy, without a house or hut to cover them till they could be built, and submitting to it without a murmur is a mark of patience and obedience which in my opinion can scarce be paralleled."

George Washington reached out for support, writing, "for some days past, there has been little less, than a famine in camp. A part of the army has been a week, without any kind of flesh, and the rest for three or four days. Naked and starving as they are, we cannot enough admire the incomparable patience and fidelity of the soldiery.

The Continental Army that marched into Valley Forge consisted of about 12,000 people, including soldiers, women, and children. That winter, starvation and disease killed nearly 2,000 soldiers.

Murder in Colonial Virginia

Who Were the Slaves of the Founding Fathers?

George Washington’s Winter Storm

 

      Weather information goes back a long time in Virginia, thanks to record keeping by observers such as George Washington, James Madison and Thomas Jefferson. Snow is the most common form of natural disaster in Northern Virginia.  George Washington recorded that a gigantic snow storm on January 28, 1772 left thirty six inches of snow on the ground in Northern Virginia.  This number is the unofficial record for the area.  Washington also reported a late season cold snap, with spits of snow and a hard wind on May 4, 1774.  During the winter of 1783-1784 the Potomac River froze over in November and the ice did not break up until March 15.  The previous year an entire regiment of the Virginia infantry marched across the frozen Rappahannock River. 

How Martha Washington Lived: 18th Century Customs

 

Love, Sex, and Marriage in Colonial America 1607-1800