A Glimpse at History

On July 18, 1861 Custer left West Point as a Second Lieutenant. He arrived in Washington two days later and on sheer luck, he secured one of the last, if not the last, available government horses in the capital. He then carried War Department dispatches to Brig. General Irvin Mcdowell and was assigned to company G, 2nd U.S. Calvary. He reached his company just in time to participate in the First Battle of Bull Run where he was characterized as: “Though famished, exhausted, spent, Custer never let up, never slackened control.” He was regarded as fearless almost to the point of being reckless.

For the next two years, he served in various capacities and rose to the rank of brevet captain.  By the end of May 1862, he was serving under Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, serving under the Army of the Potomac during the Seven Days and Antietam campaigns.

One of his assignments during his many, was to go up in a Balloon and survey the area. Understand and document the topography. A funny story has surfaced to me of this event in Custer’s colorful career I would like to share with you. Custer didn’t seem to like heights as most people do not, which made him very uncomfortable as the balloon took off. Noticing this, the balloon operator began shaking the balloons basket. Custer became agitated to the point of decking the balloon operator. An understandable reaction, however, maybe just a little ill-timed as he was flying over the earth and did not know how to operate the aircraft. (I can just see the episode erupt, and find myself overcome with the giggles.)

Anyways, we will end this session with the fact that in June 1863, when Lincoln replaced Joseph Hooker as army commander with George G. Meade, his real opportunity came. The president granted Meade authority to replace any officers he chose. In doing so, he chose Custer, Wesley Merritt and Elon Farnsworth to Brigadiers. On June 29, Custer received a general’s star and command of the Michigan bridgade of calvary, comprising the 1st,5th,6th and 7th regiments. At 23, he was the youngest general in the Union Army.

Filed under: Civil War Blogs by Savannah Meade