Thom Hatch - Glorious War: The Civil War Adventures of George Armstrong Custer

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To Lynn and Cimarron,

two very special people

Contents

Maps

Prologue

On the afternoon of July 3, 1863, Confederate Major General George E. Pickett led over thirteen thousand gray-clad soldiers on a brazensome say suicidalcharge across an open meadow toward the center of the Union line at Cemetery Ridge. It was apparent to both sides that the outcome of the three-day battle for Gettysburg, and possibly the Civil War, would be decided by the success or failure of this audacious maneuver.

The tactic had been brilliantly designed by General Robert E. Lee as a coordinated effort with a detachment of Confederate cavalry that would simultaneously strike the Union rear from another direction and cause havoc along the lines. If this collaborative plan was successful, Pickett and his mile-wide line of men would smash through that blue-clad front to rout the Yankees and place the future of the Army of the Potomac and the Union itself in dire jeopardy.

Three miles east of Gettysburg down the Hanover Road, legendary Confederate cavalry commander Major General James Ewell Brown Jeb Stuart and his six thousand horsemenknown as the Invincibleswere poised to support Pickett by attacking the Union rear. When the cannon barrage was fired from Gettysburg, Stuart would lead his mounted troops down Cress Ridge on a purposeful ride toward the Yankee lines.

Stuart had been a thorn in the side of the North throughout the first two years of the war. As commander of the Army of Northern Virginias elite cavalry, he had redefined the role of horsemen as an independent arm capable of wreaking havoc upon his enemy and had not come close to being challenged by the outclassed Union cavalry. His bold raids into enemy territory had disrupted communication and supply lines, gathered vital intelligence, and destroyed millions of dollars worth of propertyin addition to bloodying his enemy at will. His spectacular 1862 ride around McClellans army had embarrassed the North and instilled confidence in the Souths belief that it could prevail. Stuart had been elevated to a lofty position in the hearts of his Southern admirers that rivaled that of a knight of King Arthurs court and had gained at least grudging respect from his Northern opponents. Now he had been called upon to play a significant role in the pivotal Gettysburg battle.

Blocking Stuarts access to the battlefield in support of Pickett was only one brigade of Union cavalryabout twenty-three hundred men. This brigade of Wolverines from Michigan was commanded on the field by twenty-three-year-old Brigadier General George Armstrong Custer, who had been promoted from brevet captain to his present rank only three days earlier. Custer had never before commanded a large unit in combat, having served mainly as an aide-de-camp on the staffs of several generals.

Although Custer had personally distinguished himself under fire, he was now placed in the precarious predicament of facing the finest cavalrymen and cavalry commander the Confederacy had to offer with only a small detachment of battle-weary, outnumbered troops at his disposal.

History has recorded and analyzed in scrupulous detail virtually every footfall taken by Picketts men across that open field and the resoluteness of the Union soldiers entrenched along the line on that day. The same cannot be said for this engagement three miles east of Gettysburg.

What, if anything, could Custer, the young, inexperienced cavalry officer, devise to stop Stuarts determined troopers from reaching the field and supporting Picketts charge?

With perhaps the destiny of the Union at stake, it was evident to observers that the old cavalry master Stuart was about to teach the upstart Custer a bloody lesson on his way to attacking the Union rear and securing victory for the South.

Or, by some miracle or quirk of fate, could this skirmish become the stuff from which legends are born?

George Armstrong Custer, known for only one day in his lifethe day he died, which has invariably tarnished his entire careerwas on the threshold of becoming a legend.

One

West Point Cadet

In January 1857, a letter addressed to George A. Custer, Esq. arrived in the mail at the Emanuel Custer residence in New Rumley, Ohio. This official-looking correspondence, which had been postmarked from the nations capital, was known to contain potentially life-changing news that the entire family had been anticipating with some anxiety.

Seventeen-year-old Georgeknown to his family as Armstrong or Autietore open the envelope to remove a form letter written on crisp, white stationery and signed by Secretary of War Jefferson Davis. The boy quickly scanned the words, his fair-skinned face flushing and his mischievous blue eyes lighting on fire.

Armstrong handed the letter to his father, who, after absorbing each word, in turn gave it to his wife, Maria, who read the message with a sense of sadness. This was the news that Maria had been dreadingnot so Armstrong.

The letter informed him that he had been awarded an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. There was a good chance that by this time the boy could no longer contain himself and let out a series of joyous whoops. He was a spirited boy who was prone to such displays of enthusiasm.

This coveted appointment, which would take effect in June, had not come without a great measure of surprisingly good fortuneagainst seemingly insurmountable oddsthat has baffled historians to this day.

Young Armstrong had arrived at the conclusion that he would require some sort of assistance in order to further his education at an institution of higher learning. Otherwise, due to the familys meager finances, he might be relegated to make his way in the world on merely a high school education and whatever skills he could muster on his own. There was a good chance that out of necessity he would be compelled to learn a trade, which was not to the liking of a young man with great dreams and high ambitions.

Armstrong had always been an avid reader of adventure novels and envisioned the glory that might be attained by a military career. On a more practical note, he believed that being a graduate of a prestigious school like West Point would open endless doors of opportunity. So he had made up his mind to shoot for the top. To that end, he wrote to his districts Republican representative, John A. Bingham, and requested an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point.

This audacious act by the son of an outspoken, lifelong Democrat demonstrates the undaunting determination that would be Custers lifelong hallmark. The odds that a son of Emanuel Custer, whose politics were the polar opposite to those of Bingham, could gain political patronage from a Republican were astronomical. And Armstrong himself did not help his cause in the least when he participated in a rally for Democratic presidential hopeful James Buchanan and later protested an appearance by Republican John C. Fremont.