Lesson 3: Custer, The Black Hills, and Gold
At Home With the Custers
Though the winter of 1874-75 was long and cold ,George and Libbie Custer managed to stay warm and cozy in their home at Fort Abraham Lincoln in the Dakotas.
The Custer Home, Ft. Abraham Lincoln
Immense snowdrifts piled up while the temperature often reached below –45 degrees. But the fireplaces in the Custer home roared with warmth. Custer’s rank provided him with the services of a cavalry private whose only responsibility was to keep the fires burning.
Libbie Custer
Libbie Custer arrived at the fort in 1873. Of her arrival, she writes: “Our quarters were lighted, and as we approached, the regimental band played ‘Home, Sweet Home,’ followed by the general’s favorite ‘Garryowen.’ “
Even before the arrival of the Custers, this garrison had experienced harassment by Indians. The depredations had begun before the post was even completed. The arrival, in 1873, of several hundred men to the fort did not end these attacks, either, as there were three attacks that year by Indians.
Lt. Col. Custer
Fort Abraham Lincoln was considered the finest Army post on the plains where it was constructed on a flat plain below Fort McKeen in present-day North Dakota. The fort’s stables were large enough to house 600 cavalry horses. The Custer house, built in 1874, after a fire destroyed the original one, was a 10-room mansion, including eight closets, pantry, kitchen, and cellar. The Custer home did double duty as a church whenever a minister visited. Its spaciousness served well for parties and receptions and “The Custer House was always open and entertaining seemed to rank for priority with Indian fighting.”
As to the military accommodations, according to Libbie Custer:
Fort Lincoln was built with quarters for six companies. The barracks for the soldiers were on the side of the parade ground nearest the river, while seven detached houses for officers faced the river opposite. On the left of the parade ground was the long granary and the little military prison, called the ‘guard house.’
Mrs. Custer goes on to explain that there were also quarters for the laundresses that were easily detected by the swinging clotheslines, and were commonly called “Suds Row.” There were also log huts for the Indian scouts and their families, as well as a level plane for parades and drills. Accommodating officers and enlisted alike were a sutler’s store with a billiard room, a barbershop, and later a photographer’s establishment.
In spite of these simple accommodations, the fort was far from being the civilized world that Mrs. Custer and other military wives from the east had previously been accustomed to.
Lt. Thomas Custer
At least the Custers had family stationed with them. Custer’s younger brother Captain Thomas Custer, holding two Congressional Medals of Honor, was serving under his brother’s command.
At Fort Lincoln, also, was Lieutenant James Calhoun, brother-in-law to Lt. Col. George Custer and Lt. Thomas Custer, as well as younger brother Boston.
Boston Custer
Kid brother Boston Custer had joined his older brothers, George and Thomas. The expedition into the Black Hills had been the boy’s first wilderness trip.
Harry Armstrong Reed
Nephew, Harry Armstrong Reed joined the extended Custer family in the Dakotas sometime prior to July 29, 1876.
The sources for this section are:
Ambrose, Stephen E. Crazy Horse and Custer: The Parallel Lives of Two American Warriors. Random House, Inc. New York, 1996.
Connell, Evan S. Son of the Morning Star: Custer and the Little Bighorn. North Point Press, San Francisco, 1984.
Custer, Elizabeth Bacon. Boots and Saddles. Downloaded from Internet.
Hart, Herbert M. Old Forts of the Northwest. Superior Publishing Company, no date given.
Utley, Robert M. Little Bighorn Battlefield: Official National Park Handbook. Division of Publications, National Park Service, 1994.
Topics for discussion:
Keeping in mind that the Sioux and Cheyenne were virtually a conquered people, and that the United States desperately needed to rectify a financial situation, was the government wrong or justified in their attempt to take the Black Hills away from the Indians?
Bibliography:
Ambrose, Stephen E. Crazy Horse and Custer: The Parallel Lives of Two American Warriors. Random House, Inc. New York, 1996.
Connell, Evan S. Son of the Morning Star: Custer and the Little Bighorn. North Point Press, San Francisco, 1984.
Bourke, John G. On the Border with Crook. Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1891.
Crook, George. Martin F. Schmitt, Editor. General George Crook: His Autobiography. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 1986.
Custer, George Armstrong. My Life on the Plains Leisure Books, New York.
Custer’s Report: printed as Executive Document No. 32, 43rd Congress, Second Session, Washington, D.C., 1874. Reprinted in Robinson, A History of the Dakota, 289; and derived here from: Ambrose, Stephen E. Crazy Horse and Custer: The Parallel Lives of Two American Warriors. Random House, Inc. New York, 1996.
Lazarus, Edward. Black Hills White Justice: The Sioux Nation Versus the United States, 1775 to the Present. Harper Collins Publishers, 1991.
Sandoz, Mari. Crazy Horse: The Strange Man of the Oglalas. Lincoln, Neb., 1942.
Wallace, Robert. The Miners: The Old West. Time-Life Books, New York, 1976.
Wheeler, Keith. The Scouts: The Old West. Time-Life Books, Alexandria, Virginia, 1978.
