The Custer Story: The Life and Intimate Letters of General George A. Custer and His Wife Elizabeth

by Marguerite Merington (Editor)

During separations enforced by the military, Lieutenant General George A. Custer and his wife, Elizabeth, corresponded about the Civil War, the perils of frontier life, and the chain of events that would lead to his tragic death at the Little Big Horn in Montana Territory. Their letters reveal the nuances of personal and political loyalties rarely expressed by historians and novelists. And they reveal a devotion rare among wartime marriages. He was her "Autie," her "Darling Boy," and she was his "Libbie," his "Darling Sunbeam."When Elizabeth Custer died in 1933, after fifty-seven years of widowhood, she left behind these treasured letters. Her friend and literary executor, Marguerite Merington, edited them, adding related materials and a thread of narrative reaching from Custer's birth on an Ohio farm to the final fury at the Little Big Horn.

Genres: History, Biography, Westerns, American Civil War, Nonfiction

347 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1987

Reviews

[Roberta]

We all know the outcome of the Battle of the Little Big Horn but this book tells the story leading up to the battle using a collection of selected letters written by George Armstrong Custer, his wife Libbie, their parents, and a few others. It is an up-close-and-personal glimpse into a time and place that has become historical cliché.

There should be a photo of Libbie Custer next to the word "Optimist" in the dictionary. She is a master of the understatement which sometimes leads to her letters being [unintentionally] funny.

Libbie to Mrs. Sabin, 1866, near Fort Hays, Kansas:

Dear Aunt Eliza - I am never happier than when sleeping in a tent. It is so comfortable. Storms are our only trouble - thunder, lightning, freshies, wind. But our tent is well staked. We were at Ft. Leavenworth lately, but could not get back for three weeks, as a storm had destroyed culverts, railroad bridges, also six miles of the railroad.

Even after the road was repaired the country was flooded. There was another storm like it last week. It will cost the company about $4,000 to repair the damage.

Streams rise about a foot a minute. A few nights ago the creek near by began to rise. All hands were set to work to bring cook tent, dining and servant's tent up the hill, a rapid move at night.

There are drawbacks to Kansas, but it is a fine spot to begin life in, with good farming land.

There is some trouble with Indians, within twenty miles from us, coming down from the North. A part of the regiment is still in camp, so that I am not afraid, near such a large body of men.

Mails come irregularly, on account of freshies. also sometimes the Indians cut the tracks.

[noreast_bookreviewsnh]

The Custer Story : The Life and Intimate Letters of General George A Custer and His Wife Elizabeth - edited by Marguerite Merington
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A treasure trove of personal correspondence following the incredible life and rise of an American icon George Armstrong Custer. Born in Ohio and raised in Monroe, Michigan, Custer would attend West Point and graduate in 1861 at the outbreak of the Civil War as a 2nd Lieutenant in the US cavalry. Custer would achieve great success during the Civil War as an audacious and risk taking fighter and would rise to the rank of Brevet Major General whilst only being in his early 20’s. After the war Custer would be assigned to restoring order throughout the south and protecting rail lines for the new railroads going west. He would again gain great acclaim as an expert Indian fighter in the west culminating in his unfortunate demise at the Battle of Little Bighorn along with his entire troop of over 200 men while engaged with a large group of Sioux and Cheyenne Indians led by Sitting Bull in 1876 in Montana. This book gives intimate detail of his life and deeds through firsthand letters between him and his wife Elizabeth, as well as many letters between Custer and military leaders of the period (Sheridan, Sherman, Nelson Miles, Alfred Terry). Highly recommend!
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#bookstagram #read #book #bookreview #custer #littlebighorn #indian #indianwars #west #civilwar #civilwarhistory #westpoint #georgearmstrongcuster #generalcuster #union

[NDH]

At least ten years ago, I read something somewhere about a new book purporting to contain the private letters of “those lusty Custer’s”, and I remember thinking how trashy it was to try to make a buck by turning the private lives of two long-dead people into pornography. I resolved to not buy the book.

In the intervening years, I read what the Custer’s themselves wrote (eg, Boots and Saddles, the Galaxy articles) as well as several books about them, until finally I thought, “What was that book of their private letters I’d heard about long ago and maybe I’ll read it after all.” So I searched for it, and the only thing I could find was this, published in 1950, and compiled by a woman who claimed to be Libby’s nearest friend and who’d served as her private secretary for the last decades of her life. Indeed, she (Marguerite Merington) claimed that “This assembling of their letters was prepared at Mrs. Custer’s request.”

I have no reason to doubt that that is true, but I’d like to know more about MM

In any case, the book turned out to be quite a pleasure. The story of their intertwined lives is ably told through their personal letters (to each other as well as to/from family members and others), supplemented by other materials (officers’ memoirs, official documents and communications), narrated and arranged in largely chronological order by Ms. Merington. She (MM), being a journalist and reasonably successful playwright herself, makes excellent use of the dramatic possibilities of her material and kept me eagerly turning the pages even though I already knew the ending.

What I don’t know is how much MM left out, and to what extent she invented ‘stuff’ or put words into her characters’ mouths (so to speak) in order to convey whatever it was she was trying to convey. It’s a great love story, tragedy and all, but there isn’t anything about the rumored estrangement that afflicted the Custer marriage at some point. Indeed, the years 1869-1873 are a bit confusing, with some breakdown of the chronology, and not much commentary by MM about what was going on between them. George was in NY a lot; Libby was …Kentucky? Monroe?…and why? Something seems to be missing. And what about the Monasetah interlude? I suppose it’s asking too much to expect letters on such topics to have survived, but I can’t help but wonder what’s been lost or left out.

Whatever the case may be—and I shall probably break down and re-read TJ Stiles’ history of Custer—I enjoyed this book thoroughly. It’s not quite Romeo and Juliet, not even Abelard and Eloise, but it is a valuable and delightful glimpse into the minds and hearts of two minor characters on the great stage of American history. I wish I could have known them.

[Ó Ruairc]

This book is a compilation of letters written by Custer and his wife, Elizabeth. Most of the letters contained in the book are missives that husband and wife wrote to each other; however, the reader will also find letters written by the Custers to other people: relatives, friends, and associates.

Though there are a few notes in parenthesis, this particular book should have explanatory footnotes for every letter. While perusing the correspondences, the reader comes across a lot of names that are quite unfamiliar. Footnotes explaining who these people were would have made this book all the more engaging. There may be a similiar book somewhere that does this, but this one does not.

[Fredrick Danysh]

Copies of letters between George Armstrong Custer and his wife Elizabeth. They help define Custer's character and ego. These letters are good background regarding Custer's character.