Custer's Dead Officers: First Lieutenant James Calhoun

 

On June 25, 1876, at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, five companies of the U.S. Seventh Cavalry, under the direct command of George Armstrong Custer were wiped out.  Among the dead was:

First Lieutenant James Calhoun was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1845. He enlisted in the Union Army in 1864 . By the end of the Civil War, he held the rank of sergeant.

After the war, Calhoun accepted a commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in the infantry and served in the western territories.  He married Margaret “Maggie” Custer, sister of George Armstrong Custer, in 1872. This connection brought him into the inner circle of the so-called “Custer Clan.”

Calhoun was promoted to 1st Lieutenant and transferred to Company C of the 7th U.S. Cavalry, which was commanded by Captain Tom Custer, George’s brother. At the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876, Calhoun was acting commander of Company C, as Tom Custer was serving as aide-de-camp to his brother. Calhoun and his men made their last stand on what is now known as Calhoun Hill, where evidence suggests they fought fiercely before being overwhelmed.

He was initially buried on the battlefield. His remains were later moved to Fort Leavenworth

Calhoun was nicknamed “The Adonis of the Seventh” because of his striking appearance.

Custer’s Last Stand Re-examined

The Great Northern Rebellion of 1860 (alternate history)

Custer's Dead Officers: First Lieutenant William W. Cooke

 

On June 25, 1876, at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, five companies of the U.S. Seventh Cavalry, under the direct command of George Armstrong Custer were wiped out.  Among the dead was:

First Lieutenant William W. Cooke, a Canadian who was the Regimental Adjutant and was known as "Queen's Own" Cooke.  Cooke was known for his long side whiskers that he always wore.

Cooke was awarded brevet promotions to captain, major and lieutenant colonel for this bravery during the Civil War.  He joined the Regular Army after the War and was made a second lieutenant in the 7^th Cavalry in 1866. 

In 1868 he participated in the Washita Campaign.  At the Battle of the Washita, Cooke, one of the best shots in the regiment, commanded forty sharpshooters.  Cooke’s men hid themselves on the northern side of the river and shot down Cheyenne fleeing Custer’s charge.  Chief Black Kettle and his wife Medicine Woman Later were killed by Cooke’s sharpshooters.

In 1871Cooke became the regimental adjutant reporting to Custer.  Cooke became a close friend of Tom Custer and became part of what was known as the Custer Gang, a close-knit group of Custer’s friends and relatives. 

The anti-Custer faction within the regiment, including Captain Frederick Benteen and Major Marcus Reno, began calling him “The Queen’s Own.”

On the day of battle at the Little Bighorn, June 25, 1876, Cooke was by the side of George Armstrong Custer.  He is remembered for writing Custer’s final orders to Captain Benteen: “Come On. Big village. Be quick. Bring packs. W.W. Cooke. P.S. Bring Packs”.

Cooke died alongside Custer. He was scalped twice, the second trophy being his side whiskers.  The Cheyenne warrior Wooden Leg claimed to have scalped the whiskers from one side of Cooke's face. He gave this trophy to his grandmother, who didn’t think much of it and discarded it two nights later at a victory dance.

Custer’s Last Stand: Portraits in Time

The Great Northern Rebellion of 1860 (alternate history)

An American at the Battle of Waterloo

 

Though not in an official U.S. capacity, one notable American did fight at the Battle of Waterloo, Colonel William Howe De Lancey.  Born in New York City in 1778, De Lancey came from a prominent Loyalist family that fled to England after the American Revolution.  He later joined the British Army and rose to become chief-of-staff to the Duke of Wellington during the Napoleonic Wars.

At Waterloo on June 18, 1815, De Lancey played a critical role in organizing troop movements and logistics.  Tragically, he was struck by a cannonball during the battle and died from his wounds a few days later.  His story became widely known due to a moving memoir written by his new bride, Magdalene Hall, who had joined him in Brussels shortly after their wedding and just before the battle.

Wars and Invasions (Four alternative history stories)

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi 1861-1875: A Portrait

 

Custer's Dead Officers: Captain Tom Custer

 

On June 25, 1876, at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, five companies of the U.S. Seventh Cavalry, under the direct command of George Armstrong Custer were wiped out.  Among the dead was:

 Captain Tom Custer, 31, rode with the five companies led personally by George Custer.  Tom Custer had distinguished himself during the Civil War, receiving the Medal of Honor twice for bravery, becoming the first of only 16 individuals in American history to achieve this distinction.  

After the Civil War, Tom Custer was appointed a first lieutenant in the 7^th cavalry.  He was wounded at the Battle of the Washita and took part in the Black Hills expedition of 1874.  During the 1876 campaign he served as aide-de-camp to his older brother Lt. Colonel George A. Custer and died with his brother on Last Stand Hill.

 In an interview given in 1900, Dr, Henry Porter recounted: “As soon as we could, several of the officers and myself went over to where Custer had fought…. We found Custer's body stark naked, as white and clean as a baby's. He was shot in the head and breast. The body of Captain Tom Custer, General Custer's brother, was horribly mutilated. He was disemboweled, and his head had been crushed in by a blow from a stone hammer used by the Indians. The only arrow wound I found was in his head. He had the Sioux mark of death, which was a cut from the hip to the knee, reaching to the bone. His heart was not cut out, as has been reported…”

 In fact, Tom Custer’s body had been so badly mutilated that his remains were identified only by a recognizable tattoo of his initials on his arm.

 The bodies of George and Tom Custer were wrapped in canvas and blankets, then buried on the field in a shallow grave.  When soldiers returned a year later, the brothers' grave had been scavenged by animals and the bones scattered.  According to a witness, "Not more than a double handful of small bones were picked up."  George Custer was reinterred with full military honors at West Point Cemetery on October 10, 1877.   The remains of Tom Custer, were reinterred at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

Legends of the Superstition Mountains

Custer’s Last Stand Re-examined

Custer's Dead Officers: Captain Myles Keogh

 

On June 25, 1876, at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, five companies of the U.S. Seventh Cavalry, under the direct command of George Armstrong Custer were wiped out.  Among the dead was:

Captain Myles Keogh an Irish immigrant and seasoned soldier, joined the Seventh Cavalry in 1866 after distinguished service in the Union Army during the Civil War.

During the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Keogh commanded a detachment on Battle Ridge. He and his men attempted to hold the southern end of the ridge but were overrun by Lakota and Cheyenne warriors. His body was found surrounded by several of his men, and his horse, Comanche, survived the battle—later becoming a symbol of the fallen regiment

The medals of Captain Miles Keogh tell an interesting story.  The senior captain among the five companies wiped out with Custer, Keogh's body was found at the center of a group of troopers that included his two sergeants, company trumpeter and guidon bearer.

 Keogh was stripped but not mutilated, perhaps because of the "medicine" the Indians saw in two Papal medals he wore on a chain around his neck.  Vatican records confirm these two medals were given to Keogh during The Papal War of 1860.

 Captain Benteen secured the medals which were sent to Keogh’s sister in Ireland.  They remained in the family until 1988 when they passed into the hands of a well-known collector.  The medals were recently auctioned off for $35,000.

History's Ten Worst Generals

Custer’s Last Stand: Portraits in Time

Custer's Dead Officers: First Lieutenant William Van Wyck Reily

 

First Lieutenant William Van Wyck Reily was one of the youngest officers in the 7th Cavalry Regiment and among those killed at the Battle of the Little Bighorn on June 25, 1876.

Born on December 12, 1853, Reily came from a naval family.  Reily himself entered the Naval Academy in 1870 but resigned in 1872 after academic difficulties. He later joined the 10th U.S. Cavalry as a Second Lieutenant in 1875 and transferred to the 7th Cavalry in early 1876, just months before the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

He was described as a “dashing and handsome officer,” though some accounts suggest he was still learning to ride when the regiment departed on the final campaign.  His a signet ring was later recovered from a captured Cheyenne warrior in1877 and returned to Reily’s mother. His remains were reinterred at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Washington, D.C.

Sneak Attack! (Four Alternative History Stories)

Wars and Invasions (Four alternative history stories)

Custer’s Dead Officers: 2nd Lieutenant James 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. 

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. 

Custer’s Last Stand: Portraits in Time

Custer’s Last Stand Re-examined

American Indian Patriots in the American Revolution

 

Daniel Nimham 

Stockbridge, Massachusetts began as a mission or “praying town” for Mochicans and Wappinger Indians.  The so-called Stockbridge Indians supported the Patriot cause during the Revolution vowing:

 “Wherever your armies go, there we will go; you shall always find us by your side; and if providence calls us to sacrifice our Lives in the field of battle, we will fall where you fall, and lay our bones by yours. Nor shall peace ever be made between our nation and the Red Coats.

Some of the Stockbridge Indians enlisted as early as 1775, primarily as scouts and sharpshooters, and were eventually allowed to serve in their own company.  The unit suffered devastating casualties fighting near Knightsbridge, New York (in what is now the Bronx) in 1778.

Daniel Nimham was the last chief of the Wappinger People.  He joined the Patriot cause in Boston at the age of 49.  He and his son Abraham were killed at the Battle of Knightsbridge.

Who Were the Slaves of the Founding Fathers?

How Martha Washington Lived: 18th Century Customs

The Wounded Knee Medals

 

In July 1862, Congress authorized a Medal of Honor to be awarded to soldiers who “distinguish themselves by their gallantry in action.”  The first medals were presented in 1863, and it remains the highest decoration for valor the United States can bestow on an individual in the armed services.  There were 421 Medals of Honor awarded during the Indian Wars from 1865 to 1891.

A controversy surrounds the Medals of Honor awarded to participants in the 1890 Battle of Wounded Knee in South Dakota. Twenty such medals were awarded. In 2013 Calvin Spotted Elk, a direct descendant of Chief Spotted Elk killed at Wounded Knee, launched a petition to rescind medals of the soldiers who participated in the battle arguing that this was not a battle but a massacre.  He cited the high number of killed and wounded Lakota women and children and the one sided casualty count.  The Lakota suffered 300 killed of which 200 were women and children.  The Seventh Cavalry suffered 25 killed, many from friendly fire.

A Department of Defense review recommended in 2024 that no medals be revoked.

Custer's last Stand Re-examined

The Plot to Kidnap Benedict Arnold

 

Sergeant Major John Champe (1752 -1798) was a senior enlisted soldier in the Continental Army serving in the Virginia Cavalry under “Light Horse Harry” Lee.  In October 1780, “Lee’s Legion” was encamped near Bergen, New Jersey, a few miles from the Hudson River.  It was   here that Champe, a native of Loudon County, became involved in one of the most fantastic plots of the war.  Namely, the kidnapping of the traitor Benedict Arnold.

In September 1780, Arnold’s plot to surrender the stronghold of West Point (and possibly George Washington as his prisoner) to the British unraveled.  Arnold fled to the British and was rewarded with cash and the rank of brigadier general in the British Army.  George Washington wanted the traitor brought before him alive, “My aim is to make a public example of him.”  Washington’s plan called for a soldier to cross the Hudson River and present himself in New York as a deserter.  With the aid of spies already in New York, this secret agent would then kidnap Arnold and bring him back across the Hudson into American lines. Did General Lee know of a man up to the task?  Indeed he did, one John Champe who “was about twenty-three or twenty-four years of age, had enlisted in 1776, rather above the common size, full of bone and muscle, with a saturnine countenance, grave, thoughtful, and taciturn, of tried courage and inflexible perseverance.”

Champe was intrigued with the plan which he found “powerful and delicious.” Champe was not concerned with the danger but was troubled by the idea of being seen as a deserter.  General Lee assured Champe that his reputation would be protected if the enterprise failed.  And so the die was cast.  On the night of October 20, 1780, John Champe rode off with his arms to desert to the British.  An American patrol spotted him and, when he did not halt when given the command, the patrol gave chase. Only moments ahead of the pursuing patrol, Champe plunged into the Hudson River and swam toward a British warship. The warship sent a boat to pick him up and fired upon the pursuing Americans.

Champe was questioned by a series of ever-higher-ranking British officers to whom he told the same story over and over.  Men like himself were following Benedict Arnold's example.  The morale among American troops was low.  The British already believed disaffection was rampant in Washington’s army and so were only too willing to believe Champe’s story.

He was introduced to Benedict Arnold, who made Champe one of his recruiting sergeants for the Loyalist American Legion.  Champe now had continuous access to Arnold’s house overlooking the Hudson River.  Champe sent General Lee his plan to abduct the traitor. Arnold’s fenced garden overlooked the river, and Arnold strolled in the garden every night before he went to bed.  Champe intended to pry fence boards loose, and with the help of one of Washington’s spies already in the city, would tie and gag Arnold and drag him to a waiting small boat.  If stopped by anyone Champe would say they were taking a drunken soldier to the guard house.

The plan now went awry.  The day before the planned abduction, Arnold moved his quarters to another part of Manhattan, taking Champe, his recruiter, with him.  Soon after, Arnold's American Legion sailed to join other British units in an invasion of Virginia.  After sailing up the James River, Arnold and his invasion force took Richmond. The British moved freely about Virginia burning and pillaging.  Washington’s attitude toward Arnold hardened, he no longer worried about Arnold becoming a martyr. After ordering Major General the Marquis de Lafayette to Virginia to confront the invaders, Washington ordered that if Arnold were captured he was to be summarily executed.

Back in his native Virginia, John Champe found himself in the odd position of fighting with Arnold’s troops, sometimes against his old commander General Lee.  Finally, Champe was able to escape through British lines and make his way to the Appalachian Mountains, eventually returning to “Light Horse Harry” Lee’s command. When Lee’s men learned the true story, they showed Champe “love and respect” for his “daring” adventure, Lee wrote years later in his memoir.

Widows of Custer's Seventh Cavalry

 

On June 25, 1876, at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, five companies of the U.S. Seventh Cavalry, under the direct command of George Armstrong Custer were wiped out.  News of Custer’s death reached Fort Abraham Lincoln and his wife Elizabeth “Libbie” Custer, on July 6.

On July 29, 1876, “Libbie” Custer met with the widows and children of the enlisted men who died at the battle of the Little Bighorn.  She thanked them for their friendship and bade them farewell.  She presented each child with a picture of her husband George Armstrong Custer in uniform.

The next morning four widows, Libbie Custer, Maggie Custer Calhoun the widow of Lt. James Calhoun, “The Adonis of the 7^th”, Nettie Brown Smith the widow of Lt. Algernon Smith, and Annie Yates the widow of Captain George Yates traveled by carriage and steamboat to Bismarck in the Dakota Territory.  From Bismarck they went by train on toward their final destinations.

The journey of the widows was widely reported in the press.  An article in The Findlay Jeffersonian reported, “It is a tragic sight.  It is now thought that Mrs. Custer will not long survive her husband.  Her condition is a critical one, and her death may be looked for at any time.  The bullet that pierced the brave Custer was also the death wound for his loving wife.”

Once settled in at her in-law’s home in Monroe Michigan, Libbie transformed the room she occupied into a shrine to her late husband, making the room a replica of their quarters at Fort Abraham Lincoln.  Custer’s uniforms were even placed in the wardrobe next to her own clothes.

The widows, especially Libbie were perplexed and irritated that some newspapers blamed Custer’s recklessness for the disaster at the Little Bighorn.  Much more congenial was a letter of condolence from Major General George B. McClellan under whom Custer once served during the Civil War.

“As a man, I mourn in your noble husband’s death the loss of a warm, unselfish and devoted friend.  As a soldier and citizen, I lament the death of one of the most brilliant ornaments of the service and the nation, a most able and gallant soldier, a pure and noble gentleman….It is some consolation to me, I cannot doubt it is to you, that he died as he had lived, a gallant gentleman, a true hero, fighting unflinchingly to the last desperate odds.” 

Libbie Custer found success as an author.  Her three books, Boots and Saddles (1885), Following the Guidon (1890), and Tenting on the Plains (1893) recount her life with Custer on the frontier.  Elizabeth Custer paints a human portrait of Custer as, “boyish”, as the soldier’s friend, and as a man devoted to his mother. 

 Elizabeth Custer was widowed at the age of thirty-four and spent the next fifty-seven years, until her death in 1933, glorifying and defending her husband’s reputation.   Only after her death did historians begin seriously re-examining the Custer legend.

Custer’s Last Stand: Portraits in Time

Custer’s Last Stand Re-examined

Whiskey: the Death of Custer?

 

Heavy drinking was common in the frontier army. But did it lead to the death of George Armstrong Custer?

Was Major Marcus Reno drunk at the Battle of the Little Bighorn?  Did this cause Custer’s death?  Pro-Custer partisans have argued for almost one hundred and fifty years that this was the case.  But the evidence is mixed.

 Captain Edward S. Godfrey recounts that Major Reno had a half a gallon keg of whiskey with the pack train.

 We have two eyewitness accounts of Reno having liquor on the battlefield on June 25,1876.  Private William O. Taylor recounts that when Major Reno charged the village, “The Major and Lieutenant Hodgson were riding side by side a short distance in the rear of my Company. As I looked back Major Reno was just taking a bottle from his lips. He then passed it to (the Lt) Lieutenant Hodgson. It appeared to be a quart flask, and about one half or two thirds full of an amber colored liquid. There was nothing strange about this, and yet the circumstances remained indelibly fixed in my memory.

Much later in the afternoon, when the pack train joined Major Reno’s command on Reno Hill, Lieutenant Edward Mathey reported that Reno greeted them holding a bottle of whiskey and calling out, “I got half a bottle yet.”

 Assuming that Major Reno started the day with a fresh flask and consumed all of the alcohol himself, he may have consumed from 7-11 straight shots of whiskey between approximately 12 PM and 5 PM when the pack train arrived.

 Heavy drinking was common in the frontier army. Many soldiers drank because they believed liquor was nutritious, stimulated digestion, and relaxed the nerves. Liquor was also consumed to help wash down food that was often poorly cooked, greasy, salty, and sometimes even rancid.

 During the Civil War, a variety of alcoholic beverages were distributed as medicine, thought to cure a host of ailments.

 Major Reno drank, but so did other officers, including many in the Seventh Cavalry.   One of Reno’s predecessors, Major Robert Wickliffe Cooper, who served with Custer in 1866-1867, was a serious alcoholic.  During an expedition against the Cheyenne and Sioux, Cooper ran out of whiskey causing him to experience extreme withdrawal symptoms.  He committed suicide on June 8, 1867 while in a fit of delirium. 

Prior to the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Major Reno’s drinking had never been said to have impaired his abilities.

At the Reno Court of Inquiry, the accusation of Major Reno’s drunkenness came from the testimony of civilian mule packers B.F. Churchill and John Frett who had personal grievances against Reno because he demanded to know why they were not on the battle line during the siege of Reno Hill. 

Lt. Edward G. Mathey stated that Reno showed no signs of drunkenness. Lieutenant Wallace testified that he saw no evidence of insobriety and had never even heard the accusation until the court convened. Lt. Edgerly testified that Major Reno was perfectly sober.  Captain Benteen testified that Reno was entirely sober at the time.  Custer partisans considered such testimony as part of an Army cover-up.

Ultimately, the court of inquiry did not find Major Reno remiss in his duty in any way, which did not save him from being found guilty by the pro-Custer Press and partisans, leading to his descent into alcoholism and personal degradation.

While there were witnesses to testify on Major Reno’s behalf, there were no such witnesses to testify for the soldiers who died with Custer.  Many Sioux and Cheyenne eyewitnesses, including Lazy White Bull, Soldier Wolf, Hollow Horn Bear and Iron Hawk all said Custer’s men acted “drunk” and this explained why the soldiers became crazy and shot each other and themselves instead of shooting at their enemies.

Other warriors including Wooden Leg, Little Hawk and Bobtail Horse found bottles of whiskey on dead troopers.

Custer’s Crow scout Goes Ahead reported that even Custer was drunk during the battle. While implausible, this testimony still stands as part of the historical record.

Custer’s Last Stand: Portraits in Time

Custer’s Last Stand Re-examined

The Price of Glory: The Parallel lives of Wesley Merritt and George Armstrong Custer

 

 

Merritt and Custer opposite each other across the table

     Two outstanding Civil War era cavalry officers had remarkably similar careers: Wesley Merritt and George Armstrong Custer.  One became a footnote in history.  The other became a legend.

     Merritt was born in 1836.  Custer was born in 1839.  Both men graduated from West Point.  Merritt in 1860, Custer in 1861.  Both were commissioned as second lieutenants.  Both men became captains in 1862.

     In 1863, Merritt was appointed brigadier general of volunteers for his "gallant and meritorious service" at the Battle of Brandy Station.  Being promoted directly from being a 26-year-old captain to brigadier general was unusual, but in addition to Wesley Merritt two others attained this distinction in 1863, Captain Elon J. Farnsworth and 23-year-old Captain George Armstrong Custer. Custer became a brigadier general of volunteers, commanding the Michigan Cavalry Brigade (the "Wolverines").

     Both Wesley Merritt and George Custer were in the thick of the fighting in the East for the duration of the war, and both became brevet Major Generals, Custer in March 1865 and Merritt in April 1865.

     After the war both Merritt and Custer reverted to their permanent ranks in the regular army.  Merritt was appointed lieutenant colonel of the newly raised U.S. 9th Cavalry on July 28, 1866, and in July 1867 was sent to command Fort Davis, Texas.  On July 28, 1866, Custer was appointed lieutenant colonel of the newly created 7th Cavalry Regiment.

     In 1868, Custer led the 7th Cavalry in an attack on the Cheyenne encampment of Chief Black Kettle at the Battle of Washita. The Battle of Washita was regarded as the first substantial U.S. victory in the Southern Plains War, and it helped force a large portion of the Southern Cheyenne onto a U.S.-assigned reservation.  In 1873, Custer was sent to the Dakota Territory to protect a railroad survey party against the Lakota. In 1874 Custer led an expedition into the Black Hills and announced the discovery of gold. On June 25, 1876, George Armstrong Custer and all the men under his direct command were killed at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

     Wesley Merritt was made colonel of the 5th Cavalry on July 1, 1876, which he commanded in the Battle of Slim Buttes. The Battle of Slim Buttes was fought on September 9–10, 1876, in the Great Sioux Reservation between the United States Army and Miniconjou Sioux.  It marked the first significant victory for the army since the stunning defeat of Custer at the Little Bighorn. 

     As colonel of the 5th Cavalry, Merritt was a member of the court of inquiry convened to consider the behavior of Major Marcus Reno at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. The court of inquiry did not find Major Reno remiss in his duty.  The court found that Reno had been confronted with so overwhelming a force of Indians that to have charged into the village would have resulted in the total annihilation of his battalion.  The court found that had he held his second position in the timber, the same result would probably have occurred. 

     In the later career of Wesley Merritt, we get an inkling of what might have happened to George Armstrong Custer had he not been killed at the Little Bighorn. Merritt served on the frontier until being appointed superintendent of West Point, a post he filled from 1882 to 1887. In 1887, he was appointed brigadier general in the Regular Army. He was promoted to major general in the U.S. Army in 1895.

     Merritt served during the Spanish American War of 1898 and became the first American military governor of the Philippines.  General Merritt retired from the Army in 1900 and died from natural causes at the age of 74 in 1910. He is buried at West Point Cemetery.

    After the Battle of the Little Bighorn, the bodies of George Custer and his brother Tom were wrapped in canvas and blankets, then buried on the field in a shallow grave.  When soldiers returned a year later, the brothers' grave had been scavenged by animals and the bones scattered. "Not more than a double handful of small bones were picked up." George Custer was reinterred with full military honors at West Point Cemetery on October 10, 1877. 

     Today, the highly successful, respected and decorated Wesley Merritt is remembered, if at all, as a footnote to history.  George Armstrong Custer is, for good or ill, a household name.

Custer’s Last Stand: Portraits in Time

Custer’s Last Stand Re-examined