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What people don’t know about Custer, eclipses that which they think they know. Most people’s knowledge of Custer is the defeat at LBH.

They know nothing of:

Why he was there
What his orders were
How plains Indians were fought (this alone changes the perception of fighting Indians)
Why he attacked in the 25th instead of the 26th
Why Benteen was sent on an oblique
Why Reno was sent down Reno Creek
Why he went down the River to attack from the East
Why Sheridan put so much faith in Custer
What didn’t happen that contributed to his defeat

Outside the LBH, Custer’s accomplishments in the Civil War are largely unknown.

Everyone knows of Lee, Grant, Sherman, Longstreet, Forrest and so on, but few even know that at Appomattox, Custer captured some of Lee’s artillery and forced Lee to surrender to Grant. Phil Sheridan bought the table the treaty and gave it to Custer’s wife, Libby with this note:

“Permit me to say, Madam,” Sheridan wrote to Libbie, “that there is scarcely an individual in our service who has contributed more to bring about this desirable result than your gallant husband.”

After Libbie’s death in 1933, her will specified that the table be given to the Smithsonian Institution.

Like Custer or hate him, history hasn’t been kind to him and most people don’t know what they think they know as they criticize him…