George Armstrong Custer and John Guille Millais: Difference between pages

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{{Infobox Artist
{{redirect|Custer}}
| name = John Guille Millais
{{Refimprove|date=September 2007}}
| Born =
{{Infobox Military Person
| image =
|name= George Armstrong Custer
| imagesize =
|born= {{birth date|1839|12|5}}
| caption =
|died= {{Death date and age|1876|6|25|1839|12|5}}
| birthname =
|placeofbirth= [[New Rumley, Ohio]]
| birthdate = {{birth date|1865|03|24|mf=y}}
|placeofdeath=[[Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument|Little Bighorn, Montana]]
| location = Annat Lodge, [[Perthshire]], [[Scotland]]
|placeofburial=
| deathdate = {{death date and age|1931|3|24|1865|3|24|mf=y}}
|image= [[Image:G a custer.jpg|250px]]
| deathplace =[[Horsham]], [[West Sussex]], England
|caption=
| nationality =
|nickname=
| field = [[Painting]], [[Sculpture]], [[Ornithology]], [[Gardening]],
|allegiance= [[United States|United States of America]]
| training =
|branch= [[United States Army]]
| movement =
|serviceyears=1861–76
| works = ''Natural History of British Feeding Ducks''; ''Mammals of Great Britain and Northern Ireland''; ''Biography of John Everett Millais''.
|rank= [[Major General#United States| Major General]] of Volunteers
| patrons =
[[Lieutenant colonel (United States)|Lieutenant Colonel]] ([[Regular Army (United States)|Regular Army]])
| awards = Fellow of the Zoological Society (FZS)
|commands=[[Michigan Brigade]]<br/>[[7th Cavalry Regiment (United States)|7th U.S. Cavalry]]
|unit=
|battles=[[American Civil War]]
*[[First Battle of Bull Run]]
*[[Peninsula Campaign]]
*[[Battle of Antietam]]
*[[Battle of Chancellorsville]]
*[[Gettysburg Campaign]]
**[[Battle of Gettysburg]]
*[[Overland Campaign]]
**[[Battle of the Wilderness]]
**[[Battle of Yellow Tavern]]
**[[Battle of Trevilian Station]]
*[[Valley Campaigns of 1864]]
*[[Siege of Petersburg]]
[[Indian Wars]]
*[[Battle of Washita River|Battle of the Washita]]
*[[Battle of the Little Bighorn]]
|awards=
|laterwork=
}}
}}
''' George Armstrong Custer''' ([[December 5]], [[1839]] &ndash; [[June 25]], [[1876]]) was a [[United States Army]] officer and [[cavalry]] commander in the [[American Civil War]] and the [[Indian Wars]]. At the start of the Civil War, Custer was a cadet at the [[United States Military Academy]] at [[West Point, New York|West Point]], and his class's graduation was accelerated so that they could enter the war. Custer graduated last in his class and served at the [[First Battle of Bull Run]] as a staff officer for [[Major General#United States| Major General]] [[George B. McClellan]] in the [[Army of the Potomac]]'s 1862 [[Peninsula Campaign]]. Early in the [[Gettysburg Campaign]], Custer's association with cavalry commander Major General [[Alfred Pleasonton]] earned him promotion from [[First Lieutenant#United States|First Lieutenant]] to [[Brigadier general (United States)| Brigadier General]] of United States Volunteers at the age of 23.<ref name="nps-nm">{{cite web
|url=http://www.nps.gov/archive/libi/custer.html
|title=George Armstrong Custer &ndash; Little Bighorn Battlefield NM
|publisher=National Park Service
|date=2000
|accessdate=2008-05-25
}}</ref>


Custer established a reputation as an aggressive cavalry brigade commander willing to take personal risks by leading his [[Michigan Brigade]] into battle, such as the mounted charges at [[Battle of Hunterstown| Hunterstown]] and [[Battle of Gettysburg, Third Day cavalry battles|East Cavalry Field]] at the [[Battle of Gettysburg]]. In 1864, with the Cavalry Corps under the command of Major General [[Philip Sheridan]], Custer led his "Wolverines", and later a [[division (military)|division]], through the [[Overland Campaign]], including the [[Battle of Trevilian Station]], where Custer was humiliated by having his division trains overrun and his personal baggage captured by the [[Confederate States Army| Confederates]]. Custer and Sheridan defeated the Confederate army of [[Lieutenant general (United States)| Lieutenant General]] [[Jubal A. Early]] in the [[Valley Campaigns of 1864]]. In 1865, Custer played a key role in the Appomattox Campaign, with his division blocking [[General]] [[Robert E. Lee]]'s retreat on its final day.<ref>{{citation
|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=e0cDAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA71&lpg=PA71&dq=Custer+Appomattox+&source=web&ots=6vXRZp50_3&sig=2zef4uer33chlmvCWFvzLzIx_CE&hl=en
|title=George Armstrong Custer
|last= Dellenbaugh
|first= Frederick Samuel
|publisher=The Macmillan Company
|date=1917
|pages=71–81
|accessdate=2008-03-16
}}</ref>


John Guille Millais (1865 – 1931) known as Johnny Millais was an English travel writer,gardener, artist and naturalist who specialised in ornithology and bird portraiture. He travelled extensively around the world in the late Victorian period detailing wildlife often for the first time. He is noted for illustrations that are of a particularly exact nature.
At the end of the Civil War (April 15, 1865), Custer was promoted to Major General of United States Volunteers.<ref name="nps-nm"/> In 1866, he was appointed to the [[Regular Army (United States)| Regular U.S. Army]] rank of [[Lieutenant colonel (United States)| Lieutenant Colonel]], leading the [[7th Cavalry Regiment (United States)| 7th U.S. Cavalry]] and served in the [[Indian Wars]]. His distinguished war record, which started with riding dispatches for [[Winfield Scott|General Scott]], has been overshadowed in history by his role and fate in the Indian Wars. Custer was defeated and killed at the [[Battle of the Little Bighorn]] in 1876, against a coalition of [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] tribes composed almost exclusively of [[Sioux]], [[Cheyenne]], and [[Arapaho]] warriors, and led by the Sioux warrior [[Crazy Horse]] and the Sioux chiefs [[Chief Gall|Gall]] and [[Sitting Bull]]. This confrontation has come to be popularly known in American history as [[Battle of the Little Bighorn|Custer's Last Stand]].


==Birth and family==
Custer was born in [[New Rumley, Ohio]], to Emanuel Henry Custer (1806–1892), a farmer and blacksmith, and Marie Ward Kirkpatrick (1807–1882).<ref>[[Media:1850 census Custer.jpg|Custer]] in the [[1850 US Census]] in North Township, [[Ohio]]</ref> Throughout his life Custer was known by a variety of nicknames. He was called alternately "Autie" (his early attempt to pronounce his middle name) and Armstrong. The names "Curley" and "Jack" (a phonetic name for his initials GAC which was on his satchel) were used by his troops. When he went west, the [[Plains Indians]] called him "Yellow Hair" and "Son of the Morning Star." His brothers [[Thomas Custer]] and [[Boston Custer]] died with him at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, as did his brother-in-law, [[James Calhoun (soldier)|James Calhoun]], and nephew, [[Henry Armstrong Reed|Henry Armstrong "Autie" Reed]]. His other full siblings were Nevin Custer and Margaret Custer; he also had several older half-siblings.


== Early Life ==
The Custer family had emigrated to America in the late 17th Century from [[Westphalia]], Germany. Their surname originally was "Küster". George Armstrong Custer was a great-great-grandson of Arnold Küster from Kaldenkirchen, [[Duchy of Jülich]] (today [[North Rhine-Westphalia]] state), who settled in [[Hanover, Pennsylvania]].


John Guille Millais was the fourth son and seventh child of Sir [[John Everett Millais]], the Pre-Raphaelite Painter and his wife [[Effie Gray]]. He grew up in London and Perthhire with a wide interest in natural history which embraced horticulture, big game hunting and particularly wildfowl. As a boy he made a collection of birds shot around the Perthshire coast of Scotland where he spent much of his childhood. This formed the basis of a lifetime collection of around 3,000 specimens that he later housed in a private museum in Horsham in West Sussex, England. <ref> Birds of the World – Chapter on Great Bird Artists IPC magazines 1969 </ref>
Custer's mother's maiden name was Marie Ward. At the age of 16, she married Israel Kirkpatrick, who died in 1835. She married Emanuel Henry Custer in 1836. Marie's grandparents, George Ward (1724–1811) and Mary Ward (nee Grier) (1733–1811), were from [[County Durham]], [[England]]. Their son James Grier Ward (1765–1824) was born in Dauphin, Pennsylvania and married Catherine Rogers (1776–1829), and their daughter, Marie Ward, was Custer's mother. Catherine Rogers was a daughter of Thomas Rogers and Sarah Armstrong. According to family letters in ''The Custer Story'', Custer was named after George Armstrong, a minister, in the hopes of his devout father that his son might become part of the clergy.


==Early life==
== Working Life ==
[[Image:George-a-custer west-point.jpg|thumb|USMA Cadet George Armstrong "Autie" Custer, ca. 1859]]
Custer spent much of his boyhood living with his half-sister and his brother-in-law in [[Monroe, Michigan]], where he attended school and is now honored by a statue in the center of town.<ref>[[Media:1870 census Custer.jpg|Boston Custer]] in the [[1870 US Census]] in [[Monroe, Michigan]] </ref> Before entering the [[United States Military Academy]], Custer attended the McNeely Normal School, later known as Hopedale Normal College, in [[Hopedale, Ohio,]] and known as the first co-educational college for teachers in eastern [[Ohio]]. While attending Hopedale, Custer, together with classmate William Enos Emery, was known to have carried coal to help pay for their room and board. Custer graduated from McNeely Normal School in 1856 and taught school in Ohio.


Millais began his career in the army with the Seaforth Highlanders but after six years he resigned to travel the world. His was clearly a wanderlust based on a desire to see record and paint the natural world. To this end he travelled widely in Europe, Africa and North America. In the New World in the 1880s/90s he explored Canada and Newfoundland and helped map uncharted areas of Alaska.
Custer was graduated a year early, last of 34 cadets<ref name=Eicher>Eicher, p. 196.</ref> in the Class of 1861 from the [[United States Military Academy]], just after the start of the Civil War.<ref>[[Media:1860 census Custer.jpg|Custer]] in the [[1860 US Census]] at [[West Point]]</ref> Ordinarily, such a showing would be a ticket to an obscure posting and mundane career, but he had the fortune to graduate just as the war caused the army to experience a sudden need for new officers. His tenure at the Academy was a rocky one, and he came close to expulsion each of his four years due to excessive demerits, many from pulling pranks on fellow cadets.


In 1903 he was a founder of the Society for the Preservation of the Wild Fauna of the Empire (SPWFE).Clearly a clubbable and convivial man Millais founded the [[Shikar Club]] in 1909 a dining club where like minded associates could dine and discuss their adventures in Africa. Members included the famous hunters [[Frederick Selous]], the brother of ornithologist [[Edmund Selous]], Arthur Nuemann and the explorer and game hunter [[Frank Wallace]]. The club still survives and includes the [[Duke of Edinburgh]] amongst its members.
==Civil War==
===McClellan and Pleasonton===
[[Image:Custer7.jpg|thumb|Second Lieutenant George Custer (right) with captured Confederate Lieutenant Washington, at Fair Oaks, 1862 (Library of Congress)]]
Custer was commissioned a [[Second Lieutenant#United States of America| second lieutenant]] in the 2nd U.S. Cavalry and immediately joined his regiment at the [[First Battle of Bull Run]], where Army commander [[Winfield Scott]] detailed him to carry messages to Maj. Gen. [[Irvin McDowell]]. After the battle he was reassigned to the 5th U.S. Cavalry, with which he served through the early days of the [[Peninsula Campaign]] in 1862. During the pursuit of [[Confederate States Army|Confederate]] General [[Joseph E. Johnston]] up the Peninsula, on [[May 24]], [[1862]], Custer persuaded a colonel to allow him to lead an attack with four companies of Michigan infantry across the [[Chickahominy River]] above New Bridge. The attack was successful, resulting in the capture of 50 Confederates. Major General [[George B. McClellan]], commander of the [[Army of the Potomac]], termed it a "very gallant affair," congratulated Custer personally, and brought him onto his staff as an aide-de-camp with the temporary rank of [[Captain (United States)| captain]]. In this role, Custer began his life-long pursuit of publicity. On one occasion when McClellan and his staff were reconnoitering a potential crossing point on the [[Chickahominy River]], they stopped and Custer overheard his commander mutter to himself, "I wish I knew how deep it is." Custer dashed forward on his horse out to the middle of the river and turned to the astonished officers of the staff and shouted triumphantly, "That's how deep it is, General!"<ref>Tagg, p. 184.</ref>


During the Great War (1914 – 1918) whilst in his fifties he served in the secret service of the Royal Navy in Norway and in Iceland. In the period immediately after the War J G Millais wrote and published a book on his life and hunting exploits in Africa and Scotland . ‘''Wanderings and Memories’'' chronicled his passion for big game hunting and also his fondness for Scotland of his childhood. There is also contains a chapter from a famous elephant hunter of the day Arthur Neumann who was a close friend. <ref> Wanderings and Memories J G Millais Longmans and Co., London (1919) </ref>. This edition went to several reprints including an American edition renamed ‘''A Sportsman’s Wanderings’'' <ref> A Sportsman’s Wanderings J G Millais Houghton Miffen Company Boston (1920) </ref>
[[Image:Lincoln and generals at Antietam.jpg|thumb|right|Custer (extreme right) with [[Abraham Lincoln|President Lincoln]], [[George B. McClellan]] and other officers at the [[Battle of Antietam]], 1862]]
In 1921 he travelled with his son [[Raoul Millais]] to the southern Sudan and mapped for the first time large areas of Bahr al Ghazal, an exploit which led to a book on the Upper Nile <ref> Far Away Up The Nile J G Millais London (1924)</ref>
When McClellan was relieved of command in November 1862, Custer reverted to the rank of [[First Lieutenant#United States|First Lieutenant]]. Custer fell into the orbit of Major General [[Alfred Pleasonton]], who was commanding a cavalry division. The general was Custer's introduction to the world of extravagant uniforms and political maneuvering, and the young lieutenant became his protégé, serving on Pleasonton's staff while continuing his assignment with his regiment. Custer was quoted as saying that "no father could love his son more than General Pleasonton loves me." After the [[Battle of Chancellorsville]], Pleasonton became the commander of the Cavalry Corps of the Army of the Potomac and his first assignment was to locate the army of [[Robert E. Lee]], moving north through the [[Shenandoah Valley]] in the beginning of the [[Gettysburg Campaign]]. In his first command, Custer affected a showy, personalized uniform style that alienated his men, but he won them over with his readiness to lead attacks (a contrast to the many officers who would hang back, hoping to avoid being hit); his men began to adopt elements of his uniform, especially the red neckerchief. Custer distinguished himself by fearless, aggressive actions in some of the numerous cavalry engagements that started off the campaign, including [[Battle of Brandy Station|Brandy Station]] and [[Battle of Aldie|Aldie]].


== Artistic Career ==
===Brigade command and Gettysburg===
[[Image:Custer-Pleasonton.jpg|thumb|right|Captain Custer (left) with General [[Alfred Pleasonton]] (right) on horseback in [[Falmouth, Virginia]].]]
On [[June 28]], [[1863]], three days prior to the [[Battle of Gettysburg]], General Pleasonton promoted Custer from lieutenant to brigadier general of volunteers.<ref name="nps-nm"/><ref>{{citation
|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=_FohAAAAMAAJ&dq=custer+%22united+states+volunteers%22&source=gbs_summary_s&cad=0
|title=History of the Third Pennsylvania Cavalry, Sixtieth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers in the Civil War 1861-1865
|author=Third Pennsylvania Cavalry Association
|publisher=Franklin Printing Co.
|date=1905
|page=[http://books.google.com/books?id=_FohAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA251&lpg=PA251&dq=custer+%22united+states+volunteers%22&source=web&ots=O0A2aamTNi&sig=Mpb-YQmbmRnpa74ajaq44YQ8rKU&hl=en 250–251]
}}</ref> Despite having no direct command experience, he became one of the youngest generals in the [[Union Army]] at age 23. Two captains&mdash;[[Wesley Merritt]] and [[Elon J. Farnsworth]]&mdash;were promoted along with Custer, although they did have command experience. Custer lost no time in implanting his aggressive character on his brigade, part of the division of Brig. Gen. [[Judson Kilpatrick]]. He fought against the Confederate cavalry of [[J.E.B. Stuart]] at [[Battle of Hanover|Hanover]] and [[Battle of Hunterstown|Hunterstown]], on the way to the main event at Gettysburg.


Millais’ is one of the most respected of British ornithologists and bird artists <ref> Birds of the World – Chapter on Great Bird Artists IPC magazines 1969 Unattributed quote</ref> producing between 1890 and 1914 a series of books on birds and other natural history subjects. In the study of ornithology he was renowned for his portraiture of wildfowl and game birds, the subjects of his three most famous works: ‘''Natural History of British Feeding Ducks’'';<ref>Natural History of British feeding Ducks J G Millais (1902)</ref> ''‘British Diving Ducks’'';<ref> British Diving Ducks J G Millais (1913) </ref> and ‘''British Game Birds’''. <ref> British Game Birds J G Millais (1909) </ref>
Custer's style of battle was often claimed to be reckless or foolhardy, but military planning was always the basis of every Custer "dash". As the Custer Story in Letters explained, "George Custer meticulously scouted every battlefield, gauged the enemies weak points and strengths, ascertained the best line of attack and only after he was satisfied was the "Custer Dash" with a Michigan yell focused with complete surprise on the enemy in routing them every time. One of his greatest attributes during the Civil War was what Custer wrote of as "luck" and he needed it to survive some of these charges.


They rank amongst some of the finest work on wildfowl ever published. Each bird receives individual treatment in text and detailed exact chromolithographs , some of which are by his friend and pre eminent bird artist of the day [[Archibald Thorburn]] (1860 – 1935). Each species is represented by two or three individuals on a plate drawn in attitudes of feeding, resting and courtship.
At Hunterstown, in an ill-considered charge ordered by Kilpatrick against the brigade of [[Wade Hampton III|Wade Hampton]], Custer fell from his wounded horse directly before the enemy and became the target of numerous enemy rifles. He was rescued by the bugler of the 1st Michigan Cavalry, Norville Churchill, who galloped up, shot Custer's nearest assailant, and allowed Custer to mount behind him for a dash to safety.


The books are lavish and with just 400 to 600 original editions published are now prized as examples of a certain type of High Victorian grandeur. Millais’ skills are essentially Victorian as private wealth allowed him to indulge on a grand scale his passions. He was undoubtedly tenacious. His son Raoul Millais spoke of him as an ‘astonishing man and his power of concentration was such that once he took up a subject he never left it until he knew more about it than anyone in the World’ <ref> Raoul Millais: his life and work Duff Hart Davis (1998) ISBN 1-85310-977-0 </ref>
One of many of Custer's finest hours in the Civil War was just east of Gettysburg on [[July 3]], [[1863]]. In conjunction with [[Pickett's Charge]] to the west, Robert E. Lee dispatched Stuart's cavalry on a mission into the rear of the Union Army. Custer encountered the Union cavalry division of [[David McM. Gregg]], directly in the path of Stuart's horsemen. He convinced Gregg to allow him to stay and fight, while his own division was stationed to the south out of the action. At [[Battle of Gettysburg, Third Day cavalry battles|East Cavalry Field]], hours of charges and hand-to-hand combat ensued. Custer led a mounted charge of the 1st Michigan Cavalry, breaking the back of the Confederate assault. Custer's brigade lost 257 men at Gettysburg, the highest loss of any Union cavalry brigade.<ref>Tagg, p. 185.</ref>
This tenacity to get a job done to the best of abilities was never better illustrated in his preparations for ''Mammals of Great Britain and Ireland''(1904)<ref> Mammals of Great Britain and Ireland J G Millais Longman, Green & Co., (1904)</ref> where he spent months with the whaling fleet in the Atlantic in order to study first hand a group of mammals that had hitherto received little attention. The work which appeared in a limited print run in 1904 also contains illustrations and chromolithographs by [[George Edward Lodge]] (1860-1954) and Archibald Thorburn.


He also wrote a biography of his father John Everett Millais<ref> The Life and Letters of Sir John Everett Millais, President of the Royal Academy. J G Millais London (1899)</ref> and Frederick Courtney Selous<ref> The Life of Frederick Courtney Selous DSO capt 25th Royal Fusilers J G Millais Longmans (1919)</ref>.In addition there were important authoritative works on rhododendrons,<ref> Rhododendrons J G Millais published in two volumes in 1917 and 1924</ref> azaleas and magnolias and also a number of sculptures of birds including one of fighting game birds now owned by the Horsham Museum.
===Marriage===
[[Image:George Armstrong Custer and Elizabeth Bacon Custer - Brady-Handy.jpg|thumb|George and Libbie Custer, 1864]]
Custer married [[Elizabeth Bacon Custer|Elizabeth Clift Bacon]] (1842&ndash;1933) on [[February 9]], [[1864]]. Following the [[Battle of Washita River]] in November 1868, Custer was alleged (by Captain Frederick Benteen, chief of scouts Ben Clark, and Cheyenne oral tradition) to have had a sexual relationship during the winter and early spring of 1868–1869 with [[Monaseetah]], daughter of the Cheyenne chief Little Rock (killed in the Washita battle).<ref name="utley-107">Utley 2001, p. 107.</ref> Monahsetah gave birth to a child in January 1869, two months after the Washita battle; Cheyenne oral history also alleges that she bore a second child, fathered by Custer, in late 1869.<ref name="utley-107"/>


===The Valley and Appomattox===
== The Sussex Years ==
When the cavalry corps of the Army of the Potomac was reorganized under Major General [[Philip Sheridan]] in 1864, Custer took part in the various actions of the cavalry in the [[Overland Campaign]], including the [[Battle of the Wilderness]] (after which he ascended to [[division (military)|division]] command), the [[Battle of Yellow Tavern]], where Jeb Stuart was mortally wounded, and the [[Battle of Trevilian Station]], where Custer was humiliated by having his division trains overrun and his personal baggage captured by the enemy. When Confederate [[Lt. Gen. (CSA)| Lieutenant General]] [[Jubal A. Early]] moved down the Shenandoah Valley and threatened [[Washington, D.C.]], Custer's division was dispatched along with Sheridan to the [[Valley Campaigns of 1864]]. They pursued the Confederates at [[Battle of Opequon|Third Winchester]] and effectively destroyed Early's army during Sheridan's counterattack at [[Battle of Cedar Creek|Cedar Creek]].


Johnny Millais settled his family in England at Horsham in West Sussex. The house was called Compton's Brow from where he created a private museum and a garden remembered for its beauty. He cultivated a number of new rhodedendrums including one he named after his wife and his daughter Rosamond Millais (often misspelt Rosamund). The garden did not survive his death but a few smaller notable plants were saved, some of which where replanted in the Windsor Great Park by his son Ted.
[[Image:GenGACuster.jpg|thumb|left|Brevet Major General George Armstrong Custer, US Army, 1865]]
Custer and Sheridan, having defeated Early, returned to the main Union Army lines at the [[Siege of Petersburg]], where they spent the winter. In April 1865 the Confederate lines were finally broken and Robert E. Lee began his [[Appomattox Campaign|retreat]] to [[Appomattox Court House]], pursued by the Union cavalry. Custer distinguished himself by his actions at [[Battle of Waynesboro|Waynesboro]], [[Battle of Dinwiddie Court House|Dinwiddie Court House]], and [[Battle of Five Forks|Five Forks]]. His division blocked Lee's retreat on its final day and received the first flag of truce from the Confederate force. Custer was present at the surrender at Appomattox Court House and the table upon which the surrender was signed was presented to him as a gift for his gallantry. Before the close of the war Custer received brevet promotions to Brigadier General and Major General in the [[Regular Army (United States)|Regular Army]] ([[March 13]], [[1865]]) and Major General of volunteers ([[April 15]], [[1865]]).<ref name=Eicher/> As with most wartime promotions, even when issued under the Regular Army, these senior ranks were normally only temporary.


Millais had the ability to convey the subtlety of the natural world with an artistic skill that marks him out as a great bird artist in particular. His gift was to communicate his love and respect for the natural world.
==Indian Wars==
[[Image:Custer9.jpg|thumb|right|Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer, 7th U.S. Cavalry, ca. 1875]]
On February 1, 1866, Custer was mustered out of the volunteer service and returned to his permanent rank of captain in the Regular Army, assigned to the [[5th U.S. Cavalry]]. Custer took an extended leave, exploring options in [[New York City]],<ref name="utley-38">Utley 2001, p. 38.</ref> where he considered careers in railroads and mining.<ref name="utley-39">Utley 2001, p. 39.</ref> Offered a position as adjutant general of the army of [[Benito Juárez]] of [[Mexico]], who was then in a struggle with [[Maximilian I of Mexico|Maximilian]], Custer applied for a one-year leave of absence from the U.S. Army, but his appointment was blocked by U.S. Secretary of State [[William H. Seward]], who feared offending [[France]].<ref name="utley-39"/> Following the death of his father-in-law in May 1866, Custer returned to Monroe, Michigan, where he considered running for Congress and took part in public discussion over the treatment of the American South in the aftermath of the Civil War, advocating a policy of moderation.<ref name="utley-39"/> In September 1866 he accompanied President [[Andrew Johnson]] on a train journey to build up public support for Johnson's policies towards the South. Custer denied a charge by the newspapers that Johnson had promised him a colonel's commission in return for his support, though Custer had written to Johnson some weeks before seeking such a commission.<ref name="utley-39-40">Utley 2001, pp. 39–40.</ref>


He died at Horsham on March 24th 1931, the sixty-sixth anniversay of his birth.<ref> John Guille Millais obituary in Geographical Journal Vol 77 6th June 1931</ref>
Custer was appointed Lieutenant Colonel of the newly created [[U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment]],<ref name="utley-40">Utley 2001, p. 40.</ref> headquartered at [[Fort Riley]], [[Kansas]].<ref name="utley-41">Utley 2001, p. 41.</ref> As a result of a plea by his patron General [[Philip Sheridan]], Custer was also recipient of a [[brevet]] rank of Major General.<ref name="utley-40"/> He then took part in General [[Winfield Scott Hancock]]'s expedition against the [[Cheyenne]] in 1867.


== References==
His career took a brief detour following the Hancock campaign when he was [[court-martial]]ed at [[Fort Leavenworth, Kansas]] for being [[AWOL]], after abandoning his post to see his wife, and was suspended for duty for one year. He returned to duty in 1868, before his term of suspension had expired, at the request of General [[Philip Sheridan]], who wanted Custer for his planned winter campaign against the Cheyenne.


{{reflist}}
Under Sheridan's orders, Custer took part in establishing [[Fort Supply|Camp Supply]] in Indian Territory in early November 1868 as a supply base for the winter campaign. Custer then led the 7th U.S. Cavalry in an attack on the Cheyenne encampment of [[Black Kettle]] – the [[Battle of Washita River]] on [[November 27]], [[1868]]. Custer reported killing 103 warriors, though estimates by the Cheyenne themselves of the number of Indian casualties were substantially lower; some women and children were also killed, and 53 women and children were taken prisoner. Custer had his men shoot most of the 875 Indian ponies the troops had captured. This was regarded as the first substantial U.S. victory in the [[Comanche War]], helping to force a significant portion of the Southern Cheyennes onto a U.S. appointed reservation.


== External Link==


In 1873, he was sent to the [[Dakota Territory]] to protect a [[railroad]] survey party against the [[Sioux]]. On [[August 4]], [[1873]], near the [[Tongue River (Montana)|Tongue River]], Custer and the 7th U.S. Cavalry clashed for the first time with the Sioux. Only one man on each side was killed. In 1874, Custer led [[Custer's 1874 Black Hills Expedition|an expedition]] into the [[Black Hills]] and announced the discovery of gold on [[French Creek (South Dakota)|French Creek]] near present-day [[Custer, South Dakota]]. Custer's announcement triggered the [[Black Hills Gold Rush]] and gave rise to the lawless town of [[Deadwood, South Dakota]].


===Battle of the Little Bighorn===
{{main|Battle of the Little Bighorn}}


[[Image:Custer Massacre At Big Horn, Montana June 25 1876.jpg|thumb|right|An 1899 [[chromolithograph]] entitled ''Custer Massacre at Big Horn, Montana &mdash; June 25, 1876'', artist unknown.]]
By the time of Custer's expedition to the Black Hills in 1874, the level of conflict and tension between the U.S. and many plains Indians tribes (including the [[Lakota Sioux]] and the [[Cheyenne]]) had become exceedingly high. Indians killed settlers and railroad workers, Americans continually broke treaty agreements and advanced further westward. To take possession of the Black Hills (and thus the gold deposits), and to stop Indian attacks, the U.S. decided to corral all remaining free plains Indians. The [[Ulysses S. Grant|Grant]] government set a deadline of [[January 31]], [[1876]] for all Lakota and Northern Cheyenne to report to their designated agencies (reservations) or be considered "hostile".


[[Category: 1865 births]]
The 7th Cavalry departed from Fort Lincoln on [[May 17]], [[1876]], part of a larger army force planning to round up remaining free Indians. Meanwhile, in the spring and summer of 1876, the Hunkpapa Lakota chief [[Sitting Bull]] had called together the largest ever gathering of plains Indians at Ash Creek, Montana (later moved to the Little Bighorn River) to discuss what to do about the whites.<ref>Marshall 2007, pg. 15</ref> It was this united encampment of Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho Indians that the 7th met at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
[[Category: 1931 deaths]]

[[Category: Bird artists]]
On [[June 25]], some of Custer's [[Crow Indian]] scouts identified what they claimed was a large Indian encampment along the [[Little Bighorn River]]. Custer divided his forces into three battalions: one led by [[Major (United States)|Major]] [[Marcus Reno]], one by Captain [[Frederick Benteen]], and one by himself. Captain Thomas M. McDougall and Company B were with the pack train. Benteen was sent south and west, to cut off any attempted escape by the Indians, Reno was sent north to charge the southern end of the encampment, and Custer rode north, hidden to the east of the encampment by bluffs, and planning to circle around and attack from the north.<ref>Welch 2007, pg. 149</ref><ref name="amfourthreeseven">Ambrose 1996, pg. 437</ref>
[[Category: English painters]]

[[Category: English illustrators]]
Reno began a charge on the southern end of the village, but halted midway and had his men dismount and form a skirmish line.<ref>Marshall 2007, pg. 2</ref><ref name="amfourthreeseven" /> They were soon overcome by mounted Lakota and Cheyenne warriors who counterattacked ''en masse'' against Reno's exposed left flank <ref>Testimony of Trooper Billy Jackson, in Goodrich, Thomas. Scalp Dance: Indian Warfare on the High Plains, 1865-1879. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1997. p. 242</ref> forcing Reno and his men to take cover in the trees along the river. Eventually, however, this position became untenable and the troopers were forced into a bloody retreat up onto the bluffs above the river, where they made their own stand.<ref>Marshall 2007, pg. 4</ref><ref>Ambrose 1996, pg. 439</ref> This, the opening action of the battle, cost Reno a quarter of his command.
[[Category: People of Huguenot descent]]

[[Category: British ornithologists]]
Meanwhile, unaware of Reno's failure, Custer had his command to the northern end of the main encampment, where he apparently planned to sandwich the Indians between his attacking troopers and Reno's command in a "hammer-and-anvil" maneuver. According to Grinnell's account, based on the testimony of the Cheyenne warriors who survived the fight,<ref>Grinnell, 1915, pp. 300–301</ref> at least part of Custer's command attempted to ford the river at the north end of the camp but were driven off by stiff resistance from the Indians and were pursued by hundreds of warriors onto a ridge north of the encampment. There, Custer was prevented from digging in by Crazy Horse, whose warriors had outflanked him and were now to his north, at the crest of the ridge.<ref>Marshall 2007, pp. 7–8.</ref> Traditional white accounts attribute to Gall the attack that drove Custer up onto the ridge, but Indian witnesses have disputed that account.<ref>cf. Michno, 1997, p. 168.</ref> For a time, Custer's men were deployed by company, in standard cavalry fighting formation—the skirmish line, with every fourth man holding the horses. This arrangement, however, robbed Custer of a quarter of his firepower, and as the fight intensified, many soldiers took to holding their own horses or hobbling them, further reducing their effective fire. When Crazy Horse and White Bull mounted the charge that broke through the center of Custer's lines, pandemonium broke out among the men of Calhoun's command,<ref>Michno, 1997, pp. 205–206</ref> though Keogh's men seem to have fought and died where they stood. Many of the panicking soldiers threw down their weapons<ref>Welch 2007, pg. 183; cf. Grinnell, p. 301, whose sources say that by this time, about half the soldiers were without carbines and fought only with six-shooters.</ref> and either rode or ran towards the knoll where Custer the other officers and about 40 men were making a stand. Along the way, the Indians rode them down, counting coup by whacking the fleeing troopers with their quirts or lances.<ref>cf. Michno, 1997. pp. 205–206: testimony of White Bull; p. 215: testimony of Yellow Nose.</ref>
[[Category: British travel writers]]

Initially, Custer had 208 officers and men under his command, with an additional 142 under Reno and just over a hundred under Benteen. The Indians fielded over 1800 warriors.<ref>cf. Michno, 1997, pp. 10–20; Michno settles on a low number around 1000, but other sources place the number at 1800 or 2000, especially in the works by Utley and Fox. The 1800–2000 figure is substantially lower than the higher numbers of 3000 or more postulated by Ambrose, Gray, Scott and others.</ref> As the troopers were cut down, the Indians stripped the dead of their firearms and ammunition, with the result that the return fire from the cavalry steadily decreased, while the fire from the Indians steadily increased. With Custer and the survivors shooting the remaining horses to use them as breastworks and making a final stand on the knoll at the north end of the ridge, the Indians closed in for the final attack and killed all in Custer's command. As a result, the Battle of the Little Bighorn has come to be popularly known as "Custer's Last Stand".

When the cavalry's main column did arrive three days later, they found most of the soldiers' corpses stripped, scalped, and mutilated.<ref>Marshall 2007, pg. 11; Welch 2007, pp. 175–181</ref> Custer’s body had two bullet holes, one in the left temple and one just above the heart.<ref>Welch 2007, pg. 175</ref> Following the recovery of Custer's body, he was given a funeral with full military honors and buried on the battlefield. He was reinterred in the [[West Point Cemetery]] on [[October 10]], [[1877]]. The battle site was designated a [[U.S. National Cemetery|National Cemetery]] in 1876.

==Controversial legacy==
[[Image:GACuster.jpg|thumb|left|George A. Custer in civilian clothes, ca. 1876]]

After his death, Custer achieved the lasting fame that eluded him in life. The public saw him as a tragic military hero and gentleman who sacrificed his life for his country. Custer's wife, [[Elizabeth Bacon Custer|Elizabeth]], who accompanied him in many of his frontier expeditions, did much to advance this view with the publication of several books about her late husband: ''Boots and Saddles, Life with General Custer in Dakota'' (1885), ''Tenting on the Plains'' (1887), and ''Following the Guidon'' (1891). General Custer himself wrote about the Indian wars in ''My Life on the Plains'' (1874).

Today Custer would be called a "media personality" who understood the value of good public relations and leveraged media effectively; he frequently invited correspondents to accompany him on his campaigns, and their favorable reportage contributed to his high reputation that lasted well into the 20th century. After being promoted to brigadier general, Custer sported a uniform that included shiny jackboots, tight olive corduroy trousers, a wide-brimmed slouch hat, tight hussar jacket of black velveteen with silver piping on the sleeves, a sailor shirt with silver stars on his collar, and a red cravat. He wore his hair in long glistening ringlets liberally sprinkled with cinnamon-scented hair oil. Later in his campaigns against the Indians, Custer wore a buckskin outfit along with his familiar red tie.

The assessment of Custer's actions during the Indian Wars has undergone substantial reconsideration in modern times{{Fact|date=July 2007}}. For many critics, Custer was the personification of the U.S. Government's ill-treatment of the Native American tribes, while others see him as a scapegoat for the Grant Indian policy, which he personally opposed.{{Fact|date=July 2007}} His testimony on behalf of the abuses sustained by the reservation Indians nearly cost him his command by the Grant administration. Custer once wrote that if he were an Indian, he would rather fight for his freedom alongside the hostile warriors "than be confined to the limits of a reservation".{{Fact|date=July 2007}}

Many criticized Custer's actions during the battle of the Little Bighorn, claiming his actions were impulsive and foolish,{{Fact|date=August 2007}} while others praised him as a fallen hero who was betrayed by the incompetence of his subordinate officers.{{Fact|date=August 2007}} The controversy over who is to blame for the disaster at Little Bighorn continues to this day. Maj. Reno's failure to press his attack on the south end of the Lakota/Cheyenne village and his flight to the timber along the river after a single casualty have been cited as a causative factor in the destruction of Custer's battalion, as has Capt. Benteen's allegedly tardy arrival on the field and the failure of the two officers' combined forces to move toward the relief of Custer. In contrast, critics at the time through the present have asserted at least three military blunders. First, while camped at Powder River, Custer refused the support offered by General Terry on 21 June of an additional four companies of the Second Cavalry. Custer stated that he "could whip any Indian village on the Plains" with his own regiment, and that extra troops would simply be a burden. At the same time, he left behind at the steamer ''Far West'' on the Yellowstone a battery of Gatling guns, knowing he was facing superior numbers. Before leaving the camp all the troops, including the officers, also boxed their sabers and sent them back with the wagons.<ref>[http://www.astonisher.com/archives/museum/wm_slaper_little_big_horn.html William Slaper's Story of the Battle] Personal account by a trooper in M company 7th Calvary.</ref> Finally, on the day of the battle, Custer divided his 600-man command in the face of superior numbers. Certainly reducing the size of his force by at least a sixth, and rejecting the firepower offered by the [[Gatling guns]] played into the events of June 25 to the disadvantage of the 7th cavalry.<ref>Goodrich, ''Scalp Dance'', 1997, pp. 233–234.</ref>

==Monuments and memorials==
[[Image:Custer Monument OH.jpg|thumb|Custer Memorial at his birthplace in [[New Rumley, Ohio]]]]* Counties are named in Custer's honor in five states: [[Custer County, Colorado|Colorado]], [[Custer County, Montana|Montana]], [[Custer County, Nebraska|Nebraska]], [[Custer County, Oklahoma|Oklahoma]] and [[Custer County, South Dakota|South Dakota]]. [[Custer County, Idaho]], is named for the General Custer mine, which, in turn, was named after Custer. There are several [[Custer Township|townships]] named for Custer in Minnesota and Michigan. There are also the towns of Custer, Michigan, Custer, South Dakota, Custar, Ohio, and the unincorporated town of Custer, Wisconsin. A portion of [[Monroe County, Michigan]], is informally referred to as "Custerville." [http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060928/NEIGHBORS04/609270311]

* '''[[Custer National Cemetery]]''' is within [[Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument]], the site of Custer's death.
* There is an equestrian statue of Custer in [[Monroe, Michigan]], his boyhood home. Originally located near city hall, in the center of town, it was moved years later to Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Park, a small park near the River Raisin and away from the main thoroughfares of the city. Due to lobbying by Libbie Custer and others, it was eventually moved to its current location, on the corner of Monroe and Elm Streets, on the edge of downtown Monroe.

* '''[[Fort Custer National Military Reservation]]''', near [[Augusta, Michigan]], was built in 1917 on 130 parcels of land, mainly small farms leased to the government by the local chamber of commerce as part of the military mobilization for [[World War I]]. During the war, some 90,000 troops passed through Camp Custer. Following the Armistice of 1918, the camp became a demobilization base for over 100,000 men. In the years following World War I, the camp was used to train the [[Officer Reserve Corps]] and the [[Civilian Conservation Corps]]. On [[August 17]], [[1940]], Camp Custer was designated Fort Custer and became a permanent military training base. During [[World War II]], more than 300,000 troops trained there, including the famed [[5th Infantry Division (United States|5th Infantry Division]] (also known as the "[[Red Diamond Division]]") which left for combat in Normandy, France, June 1944. Fort Custer also served as a prisoner of war camp for 5,000 German soldiers until 1945. Today Fort Custer's training facilities are used by the Michigan National Guard and other branches of the armed forces, primarily from Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana. Many [[Reserve Officer Training Corps]] (ROTC) students from colleges in Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana also train at this facility, as well as do the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]], the [[Michigan State Police]], and various other law enforcement agencies. (https://www.mi.ngb.army.mil/ftcuster/default.asp)

* The establishment of '''[[Fort Custer National Cemetery]]''' (originally Fort Custer Post Cemetery) took place on [[September 18]], [[1943]], with the first interment. As early as the 1960s, local politicians and veterans organizations advocated the establishment of a national cemetery at Fort Custer. The National Cemeteries Act of 1973 directed the Veterans' Administration to develop a plan to provide burial space to all veterans who desired interment in a national cemetery. After much study, the NCS adopted what became the regional concept. Fort Custer became the Veterans' Administration's choice for its Region V national cemetery. Toward this goal, Congress created Fort Custer National Cemetery in September 1981. The cemetery received {{convert|566|acre|km2}} from the Fort Custer Military Reservation and {{convert|203|acre|km2}} from the VA Medical Center. The first burial took place on [[June 1]], [[1982]]. At the same time, approximately 2,600 gravesites were available in the post cemetery, which made it possible for veterans to be buried there while the new facility was being developed. On Memorial Day 1982, more than 33 years after the first resolution had been introduced in Congress, impressive ceremonies marked the official opening of the cemetery.(http://www.cem.va.gov/nchp/ftcuster.htm)

* Custer Hill is the main troop billeting area at [[Fort Riley, Kansas]].

* The [[US 85th Infantry Division]] was nicknamed The Custer Division.

* The Black Hills of South Dakota is full of evidence of Custer, with a county, town, and the [[Custer State Park]] all located in the area.

*[[Custer Observatory]] is the oldest observatory on Long Island. Located in Southold, New York, it was founded in 1927 by [[Charles Elmer]] (co-founder of the Perkin-Elmer Optical Company), along with a group of fellow amateur-astronomers. This name was chosen to honor the hospitality of Mrs. Elmer, formerly May Custer, the Grand Niece of General George Armstrong Custer.

* The [[Fort_Abraham_Lincoln#Custer_House|Custer house]] at Fort Lincoln near present day Mandan North Dakota as it appeared during his stay there has been reconstructed along with the soldiers barracks, block houses, etc. There are re-enactments each year of Custer's 7th Cavalry leaving for the Little Big Horn.

* On [[July 2]], [[2008]], a marble monument to Brigadier General Custer was dedicated at the site of the 1863 Civil War [[Battle of Hunterstown]] in [[Adams County, Pennsylvania]].

==See also==
{{portal|United States Army|United States Department of the Army Seal.svg}}
{{portal|American Civil War}}
*[[List of American Civil War generals]]
*[[Cultural depictions of George Armstrong Custer]]

==Notes==
{{reflist|2}}

==References==
*Ambrose, Stephen E. (1996 [1975]). ''Crazy Horse and Custer: The Parallel Lives of Two American Warriors''. New York: Anchor Books.
*{{cite book | author=Eicher, John H. and David J. Eicher. | title=Civil War High Commands | location=Stanford, California | publisher=Stanford University Press | year=2001 | id=ISBN 0-8047-3641-3}}
*Goodrich, Thomas. ''Scalp Dance: Indian Warfare on the High Plains, 1865-1879. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1997.
*{{cite book | author=Gray, John S. | title=Custer’s Last Campaign: Mitch Boyer and the Little Bighorn Remembered | publisher=University of Nebraska Press | year=1993 | id=ISBN 0-8032-7040-2}}
*{{cite book | author=Grinnell, George Bird | title=''The Fighting Cheyennes'' | publisher=The University of Oklahoma Press reprint 1956 | year=1915 | page=296–307 | id=ISBN 0-7394-0373-7}}
*Longacre, Edward G. (2000). ''Lincoln's Cavalrymen: A History of the Mounted Forces of the Army of the Potomac.'' Stackpole Books. ISBN 0-8117-1049-1.
*Mails, Thomas E. ''Mystic Warriors of the Plains''. New York: Marlowe & Co., 1996.
*Marshall, Joseph M. III. (2007). ''The Day the World Ended at Little Bighorn: A Lakota History''. New York: Viking Press.
*Merington, Marguerite, Ed. ''The Custer Story: The Life and Intimate Letters of General Custer and his Wife Elizabeth.'' (1950)
*Michno, Gregory F. (1997). ''Lakota Noon: The Indian Narrative of Custer's Defeat.'' Mountain Press Publishing Company. ISBN 0-8784-2349-4.
*Perrett, Bryan. ''Last Stand: Famous Battles Against the Odds.'' London: Arms & Armour, 1993.
*{{cite book | author=Scott, Douglas D., Richard A. Fox, Melissa A. Connor, and Dick Harmon. | title=Archaeological Perspectives on the Battle of the Little Bighorn | publisher=University of Oklahoma Press | year=1989 | isbn=0-8061-3292-2}}
* Punke, Michael, "Last Stand: [[George Bird Grinnell]], the Battle to Save the Buffalo, and the Birth of the New West", Smithsonian Books, 2007, ISBN 978 0 06 089782 6
* Tagg, Larry. (1988). [http://www.rocemabra.com/~roger/tagg/generals/ ''The Generals of Gettysburg.''] Savas Publishing. ISBN 1-882810-30-9.
*Urwin, Gregory J. W., ''Custer Victorious,'' University of Nebraska Press, 1990, ISBN 978-0803295568.
*Utley, Robert M. (2001). ''Cavalier in Buckskin: George Armstrong Custer and the Western Military Frontier,'' revised edition. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-3387-2.
*Vestal, Stanley. ''Warpath: The True Story of the Fighting Sioux Told in a Biography of Chief White Bull.'' Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1934.
*{{cite book | author=Warner, Ezra J. | title=Generals in Blue: Lives of the Union Commanders | publisher=Louisiana State University Press | year=1964 | id=ISBN 0-8071-0822-7}}
*Welch, James, with Paul Stekler. (2007 [1994]). ''Killing Custer: The Battle of Little Bighorn and the Fate of the Plains Indians''. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
*Wert, Jeffry D. ''Custer: The controversial life of George Armstrong Custer.'' New York: Simon & Schuster, 1964/1996. ISBN 0-684-83275-5.
*{{cite book | author=Wittenberg, Eric J. | title=Glory Enough for All : Sheridan's Second Raid and the Battle of Trevilian Station | publisher=Brassey's Inc | year=2001 | id=ISBN 1-57488-353-4}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite book
|author= Newsom TM
|url=http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/History/History-idx?id=History.Newson
|title=History: Thrilling scenes among the Indians. With a graphic description of Custer's last fight with Sitting Bull
|publisher=Kessinger Publishing, LLC
|date=2007
|accessdate=2008-03-09
|isbn=978-0548629888
|format=
|work=
}}
*{{cite book
|author= Victor FF
|url=http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/History/History-idx?id=History.Victor
|title=History: Thrilling scenes among the Indians. With a graphic description of Custer's last fight with Sitting Bull
|publisher=Columbian book company
|date=1877
|accessdate=2008-03-09
|isbn=
|format=
|work=
}}
*{{cite book
|author= Whittaker F
|url=http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/History.Whittaker
|title=A complete life of Gen. George A. Custer : Major-General of Volunteers; Brevet Major-General, U.S. Army; and Lieutenant-Colonel, Seventh U.S. Cavalry
|publisher=Sheldon and Company
|date=1876
|accessdate=2008-03-09
|isbn=
|format=
|work=
}}
*{{cite book
|author= Finerty JF
|url=http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/History.Finerty
|title=War-path and bivouac : or, The conquest of the Sioux : a narrative of stirring personal experiences and adventures in the Big Horn and Yellowstone expedition of 1876, and in the campaign on the British border, in 1879
|publisher=Donohue Brothers
|date=1890
|accessdate=2008-03-09
|isbn=
|format=
|work=
}}

==External links==
{{commons|George Armstrong Custer}}
*[http://www.custermuseum.org Custer Battlefield Museum]
*{{findagrave|249}} Retrieved on [[2008-02-12]]
*[http://www.littlebighorn.info Little Bighorn History Alliance]
*[http://www.custerwest.org Custerwest.org:Site For Traditional Scholarship]
*[http://library.uww.edu/collectn/arccuster.html Kenneth M Hammer Collection on Custer and the Battle of the Little Big Horn, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater]
*[http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Custer Gallery of Custer images]
{{Gettysburg figures}}

{{Persondata
|NAME = Custer, George Armstrong
|ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
|SHORT DESCRIPTION = [[United States Army]] [[cavalry]] commander in the [[American Civil War]] and the [[Indian Wars]]
|DATE OF BIRTH = [[December 5]], [[1839]]
|PLACE OF BIRTH = [[New Rumley, Ohio]], [[United States]]
|DATE OF DEATH = [[June 25]], [[1876]]
|PLACE OF DEATH = [[Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument|Little Big Horn, Montana]], [[United States]]
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Custer, George Armstrong}}
[[Category:United States Army generals]]
[[Category:Union Army generals]]
[[Category:People of Ohio in the American Civil War]]
[[Category:People of Michigan in the American Civil War]]
[[Category:People of the Black Hills War]]
[[Category:Comanche Campaign]]
[[Category:United States Military Academy alumni]]
[[Category:People from Harrison County, Ohio]]
[[Category:People from Monroe, Michigan]]
[[Category:Michigan Brigade]]
[[Category:American military personnel killed in the American Indian Wars]]
[[Category:German-Americans]]
[[Category:English Americans]]
[[Category:1839 births]]
[[Category:1876 deaths]]
[[Category:Deaths by firearm in Montana]]

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Revision as of 18:05, 10 October 2008

John Guille Millais
Known forPainting, Sculpture, Ornithology, Gardening,
Notable workNatural History of British Feeding Ducks; Mammals of Great Britain and Northern Ireland; Biography of John Everett Millais.
AwardsFellow of the Zoological Society (FZS)


John Guille Millais (1865 – 1931) known as Johnny Millais was an English travel writer,gardener, artist and naturalist who specialised in ornithology and bird portraiture. He travelled extensively around the world in the late Victorian period detailing wildlife often for the first time. He is noted for illustrations that are of a particularly exact nature.


Early Life

John Guille Millais was the fourth son and seventh child of Sir John Everett Millais, the Pre-Raphaelite Painter and his wife Effie Gray. He grew up in London and Perthhire with a wide interest in natural history which embraced horticulture, big game hunting and particularly wildfowl. As a boy he made a collection of birds shot around the Perthshire coast of Scotland where he spent much of his childhood. This formed the basis of a lifetime collection of around 3,000 specimens that he later housed in a private museum in Horsham in West Sussex, England. [1]

Working Life

Millais began his career in the army with the Seaforth Highlanders but after six years he resigned to travel the world. His was clearly a wanderlust based on a desire to see record and paint the natural world. To this end he travelled widely in Europe, Africa and North America. In the New World in the 1880s/90s he explored Canada and Newfoundland and helped map uncharted areas of Alaska.

In 1903 he was a founder of the Society for the Preservation of the Wild Fauna of the Empire (SPWFE).Clearly a clubbable and convivial man Millais founded the Shikar Club in 1909 a dining club where like minded associates could dine and discuss their adventures in Africa. Members included the famous hunters Frederick Selous, the brother of ornithologist Edmund Selous, Arthur Nuemann and the explorer and game hunter Frank Wallace. The club still survives and includes the Duke of Edinburgh amongst its members.

During the Great War (1914 – 1918) whilst in his fifties he served in the secret service of the Royal Navy in Norway and in Iceland. In the period immediately after the War J G Millais wrote and published a book on his life and hunting exploits in Africa and Scotland . ‘Wanderings and Memories’ chronicled his passion for big game hunting and also his fondness for Scotland of his childhood. There is also contains a chapter from a famous elephant hunter of the day Arthur Neumann who was a close friend. [2]. This edition went to several reprints including an American edition renamed ‘A Sportsman’s Wanderings’ [3] In 1921 he travelled with his son Raoul Millais to the southern Sudan and mapped for the first time large areas of Bahr al Ghazal, an exploit which led to a book on the Upper Nile [4]

Artistic Career

Millais’ is one of the most respected of British ornithologists and bird artists [5] producing between 1890 and 1914 a series of books on birds and other natural history subjects. In the study of ornithology he was renowned for his portraiture of wildfowl and game birds, the subjects of his three most famous works: ‘Natural History of British Feeding Ducks’;[6] ‘British Diving Ducks’;[7] and ‘British Game Birds’. [8]

They rank amongst some of the finest work on wildfowl ever published. Each bird receives individual treatment in text and detailed exact chromolithographs , some of which are by his friend and pre eminent bird artist of the day Archibald Thorburn (1860 – 1935). Each species is represented by two or three individuals on a plate drawn in attitudes of feeding, resting and courtship.

The books are lavish and with just 400 to 600 original editions published are now prized as examples of a certain type of High Victorian grandeur. Millais’ skills are essentially Victorian as private wealth allowed him to indulge on a grand scale his passions. He was undoubtedly tenacious. His son Raoul Millais spoke of him as an ‘astonishing man and his power of concentration was such that once he took up a subject he never left it until he knew more about it than anyone in the World’ [9] This tenacity to get a job done to the best of abilities was never better illustrated in his preparations for Mammals of Great Britain and Ireland(1904)[10] where he spent months with the whaling fleet in the Atlantic in order to study first hand a group of mammals that had hitherto received little attention. The work which appeared in a limited print run in 1904 also contains illustrations and chromolithographs by George Edward Lodge (1860-1954) and Archibald Thorburn.

He also wrote a biography of his father John Everett Millais[11] and Frederick Courtney Selous[12].In addition there were important authoritative works on rhododendrons,[13] azaleas and magnolias and also a number of sculptures of birds including one of fighting game birds now owned by the Horsham Museum.

The Sussex Years

Johnny Millais settled his family in England at Horsham in West Sussex. The house was called Compton's Brow from where he created a private museum and a garden remembered for its beauty. He cultivated a number of new rhodedendrums including one he named after his wife and his daughter Rosamond Millais (often misspelt Rosamund). The garden did not survive his death but a few smaller notable plants were saved, some of which where replanted in the Windsor Great Park by his son Ted.

Millais had the ability to convey the subtlety of the natural world with an artistic skill that marks him out as a great bird artist in particular. His gift was to communicate his love and respect for the natural world.

He died at Horsham on March 24th 1931, the sixty-sixth anniversay of his birth.[14]

References

  1. ^ Birds of the World – Chapter on Great Bird Artists IPC magazines 1969
  2. ^ Wanderings and Memories J G Millais Longmans and Co., London (1919)
  3. ^ A Sportsman’s Wanderings J G Millais Houghton Miffen Company Boston (1920)
  4. ^ Far Away Up The Nile J G Millais London (1924)
  5. ^ Birds of the World – Chapter on Great Bird Artists IPC magazines 1969 Unattributed quote
  6. ^ Natural History of British feeding Ducks J G Millais (1902)
  7. ^ British Diving Ducks J G Millais (1913)
  8. ^ British Game Birds J G Millais (1909)
  9. ^ Raoul Millais: his life and work Duff Hart Davis (1998) ISBN 1-85310-977-0
  10. ^ Mammals of Great Britain and Ireland J G Millais Longman, Green & Co., (1904)
  11. ^ The Life and Letters of Sir John Everett Millais, President of the Royal Academy. J G Millais London (1899)
  12. ^ The Life of Frederick Courtney Selous DSO capt 25th Royal Fusilers J G Millais Longmans (1919)
  13. ^ Rhododendrons J G Millais published in two volumes in 1917 and 1924
  14. ^ John Guille Millais obituary in Geographical Journal Vol 77 6th June 1931

External Link

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