Showing the Boy General mounted on Vic (short for Victory), the horse he rode into battle, and immortality, on the last day of his life. Born on December 5, 1839, George Armstrong “Autie” Custer attended West Point when he realized that the education was free. Graduating in 1862 he was sent off to the Civil War as a captain. Within a year he had fought his way up to Brigadier General and, within a week of his appointment as a General, he fought off the super forces of Jeb Stuart at Gettysburg, possibly saving the day for the Union. Custer accepted the flag of surrender from the Confederate forces at Appomattox, and his mentor, General Phillip Sheridan, bought the table that Grant wrote the surrender terms on and presented the table as a gift to Custer’s wife with a note saying that no man was more responsible for bringing about these results then her gallant husband, George Custer. Sadly, his final battle has overshadowed the true importance of Custer as a historical figure. He risked his life many more times in the four years of the Civil War to preserve the Union and abolish slavery then he ever did fighting Indians on the plains in the last 10 years of his life. |