George Armstrong Custer Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids George Armstrong Custer

Allegiance	United States of America Union
Service/branch	United States Army Union Army
Years of service	1861–76
Rank	Major General of Volunteers Lieutenant Colonel (Regular Army)
Commands held	Michigan Brigade 3rd Cavalry Division 7th U.S. Cavalry
Battles/wars	American Civil War First Battle of Bull Run Peninsula Campaign Battle of Antietam Battle of Chancellorsville Gettysburg Campaign Battle of Gettysburg Overland Campaign Battle of the Wilderness Battle of Yellow Tavern Battle of Trevilian Station Valley Campaigns of 1864 Siege of Petersburg Indian Wars Battle of the Washita Battle of the Little Bighorn

George Armstrong Custer (December 5, 1839 – June 25, 1876) was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the Indian Wars. At the start of the Civil War, Custer was a cadet at the United States Military Academy at West Point, and his class's graduation was accelerated so that they could enter the war. Custer graduated last in his class and served at the First Battle of Bull Run as a staff officer for Major General George B. McClellan in the Army of the Potomac's 1862 Peninsula Campaign. Early in the Gettysburg Campaign, Custer's association with cavalry commander Major General Alfred Pleasonton earned him a brevet promotion from First Lieutenant to Brigadier General of United States Volunteers at the age of 23.

Images for kids

USMA Cadet George Armstrong "Autie" Custer, ca. 1859 with a Colt Model 1855 Sidehammer Pocket Revolver.
Custer with former classmate, friend, and captured Confederate soldier, Lieutenant James Barroll Washington, an aide to General Johnston, at Fair Oaks, Virginia, 1862
Custer (extreme right) with President Lincoln, General McClellan and other officers at the Battle of Antietam, 1862
Custer (left) with General Pleasonton on horseback in Falmouth, Virginia, 1863
Custer (left) with Alfred Pleasonton in autumn 1863
Mathew Brady photograph of Custer. From the Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress
Brevet Major General George Armstrong Custer, United States Army, 1865
Custer and Bloody Knife (kneeling left), Custer's favorite Indian Scout
Custer and his wife at Fort Abraham Lincoln, Dakota Territory, 1874
George and Libbie Custer, 1864
George A. Custer in civilian clothes, December 1869
Marker indicating where Custer fell on "Last Stand Hill" during Battle of the Little Bighorn – Crow Agency, Montana
Custer Memorial at his birthplace in New Rumley, Ohio
Monroe, Michigan, Custer's childhood home, unveiled the George Armstrong Custer Equestrian Monument in 1910