George Armstrong Custer (December 5, 1839 to June 25, 1876) was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the American Indian Wars. He graduated last in his class from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1861, but rose rapidly, being promoted to brevet brigadier general of volunteers at age 23 and commanding the Michigan Brigade at the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863. After the Civil War he was commissioned a lieutenant colonel in the Regular Army and sent west to fight in the Indian Wars, mainly against the Lakota, Sioux and other Great Plains peoples. On June 25, 1876, while leading the Army's 7th Cavalry Regiment at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in Montana Territory, he was killed along with every soldier of the five companies he led, an event known as Custer's Last Stand.
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US Army side, 7th Cavalry commander, killed at the Little Bighorn within this war, opposing Crazy Horse's Lakota forces.
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1. Wikipedia: George Armstrong Custer
WikipediaIntroductionQuote, Introduction
On June 25, 1876, while leading the Army's 7th Cavalry Regiment at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in the southeastern Montana Territory against a coalition of Western Native American tribes, he was killed along with every soldier of the five companies he led of his regiment.
1. Wikipedia: George Armstrong Custer
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December 5, 1839 - June 25, 1876
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