GENERAL GEORGE A. CUSTER 391 listed his interest. Caring nothing for what was said of him, he was indifferent to praise or reward, and had a supreme contempt for money. His whole being was dominated by a Christian faith, at once so real and so earnest that, although his religious views were tinged with mysticism, the object of his life was the en- tire surrender of himself to work out whatever he believed to be the will of God. GENERAL GEORGE A. CUSTER* By Elbridge S. Brooks D (1839-1876) ^aring is always popular. The dashing fighter outranks the tactician and takes precedence over the engineer when the people's plaudits for valor fill the air. To be the beau sabreur of the army, as was Murat, in Napoleon's day, and as Custer was in Grant's, is as glorious as it is dramatic, as inspiring as it is picturesque. There were, in fact, many points of resemblance between these two dashing cavalry leaders Murat, the Frenchman, and Custer, the American. Both smelled powder as the aides-de- camp of their chiefs ; both rose rapidly from grade to grade, and from rank to rank, until they stood at the top ; both labored at the end under the burden of criticism and detraction ; and both met their death through a mistake, and fell like brave and gallant soldiers. George Armstrong Custer was born at New Rumley, in the State of Ohio, on December 5, 1839. His father was a blacksmith and farmer, of German stock, a descendant of a Hessian officer named Kustu one among many who came to conquer and remained to live and die as citizens of the land they had failed to subjugate. Young Custer was educated in the district school of New Rumley, and in the academy at Monroe, in Michigan, where he went in 1849 to nve w ' tn his sister Lydia. Returning to Ohio he taught school for a year or more in Hopedale, near New Rumley, and in 1857 was able to see his boyish dream come true, and, as a lad of seventeen, enter the United States Military Academy at West Point. Cadet Custer graduated from West Point in 1861, and hurried to the front at once, eager for service, for the war between the States had begun. He was made bearer of despatches by General Scott ; he fought at Bull Run as lieuten- ant in the Second United States Cavalry, to which he had been assigned ; he con- ducted successfully balloon reconnoissance along the Confederate lines, and so inspired General McClellan by his energy, courage, and persistence that he was appointed aide-de-camp to the general, with the rank of captain.
- Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.
