General Sheridan’s favorite officer in his command was George Armstrong Custer, a cavalryman who became known for his bravery and daring during the Civil War. But while Custer’s Civil War exploits made him a familiar figure to American newspaper readers, he became even more famous in 1876, when Sioux warriors killed him and all 264 soldiers under his command at the Battle of Little Bighorn.

Born in Ohio in 1839, Custer moved to Michigan as a youngster. In 1857, he enrolled at West Point. He graduated in 1861, but ranked last in his class. Three weeks after graduating from the academy, he fought at the First Battle of Bull Run (July 1861) in the cavalry of the Union’s Army of the Potomac.

Over the next four years, Custer fought in many of the Civil War’s biggest and bloodiest battles. During this time, the young officer built a reputation as a bright strategist and a fearless soldier. In fact, Custer once said that he would “be willing . . . to see a battle every day during my life.” Everyone who knew the dashing young soldier knew that such statements accurately represented his feelings about the war. But Custer was not universally loved. Some of the soldiers in his command viewed him as an unnecessarily harsh disciplinarian. Even people who liked Custer admitted that his thirst for publicity and fame sometimes got out of hand.

Nonetheless, Custer’s battlefield performances impressed Sheridan. After Sheridan took command of the Army of the Potomac’s cavalry in 1863, he quickly promoted Custer through the ranks. Custer eventually became the youngest major general in American military history. During Sheridan’s Shenandoah Valley campaign of 1864, Custer’s cavalry led many of the Union offensives (attacks) on Confederate foes. The performance of Custer’s troops made it much easier for Sheridan to seize control of the valley by the end of the year.

After the Civil War ended, Custer stayed in the U.S. military. When federal efforts to seize lands from Native American tribes heated up, Custer transferred to military posts in the West. In 1876, he led the army’s Seventh Cavalry in a campaign against Sioux and Cheyenne Indians in southern Montana. But on June 25, Custer stumbled into a large war party led by the legendary chief Sitting Bull (c. 1831– 1890) near the Little Bighorn River. Custer and his cavalrymen were wiped out in the resulting battle, which remains the most famous Indian military victory in American history.

Custer is an interesting example.

In the Civil War he actually commanded exactly the same as he did at his last stand. His first action as a brigade commander he impetuously attacked Confederate cavalry at Hanover outside Gettysburg and was repulsed. He was only saved because his brigade was part of a larger force. Similarly at Trevalian Station in 1864, his command actually got cut off and had to be rescued.

Sheridan liked Custer because he worshipped Sheridan and believed in his offensive philosophy. But while commanding the Cavalry Corps, Sheridan himself was a pretty poor commander. He only became more effective when he was an army commander (though he had great subordinates like Crook and Wright while an army commander!)

Custer’s only real shining moments in the Civil War came at Yellow Tavern where his brigade took out JEB Stuart in a meeting engagement and in the pursuit to Appomattox when the cavalry corps cut the Confederate line of retreat off at Saylor’s Creek and Appomattox Station.

Custer’s philosophy of basically putting your head down and charging was fairly ineffectual in the Civil War as it was at Little Big Horn. The only major difference was that he was part of a larger force at all times in the Civil War and that the targets of his charges were often weakened Confederate forces, usually cavalry. At Little Big Horn he acted as he had always, including the Washita battle in 1868 where his command was saved from defeat primarily because he withdrew it before the Indians could mass against him.