Custer Misses Centennial Exposition

A breveted major general on the Union side in the Civil War, George Armstrong Custer achieved notoriety as an “Indian fighter” in the American Indian Wars of the 1860s and 1870s. “General” Custer was a lieutenant colonel in the post-Civil War Regular Army and a regimental cavalry commander. His ill-timed death at the Battle of the Little Bighorn on 25 June 1876 scuttled his plan to arrive at the Centennial Exposition as the conquering hero of the Great Plains.