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Mistakes That Helped Shape U.S. into What it Is Today

Khalid Elhassan October 16, 2019 34 min

32. The Civil War Prodigy Who Came to a Boneheaded Ending

George Armstrong Custer, circa 1865. Wikimedia

George Armstrong Custer (1839 – 1876) was a military version of Doogie Howser, MD. He graduated from West Point in 1861 at the bottom of his class, but went on to prove himself a cavalry prodigy during the Civil War. He became one of that conflict’s “Boy Generals” when he was brevetted as a brigadier at age 23.

After the war, Custer’s rank came back down to earth, and he had to make do with being a lieutenant colonel. For years, Custer’s career languished, but he was an ambitious drama queen, with a constant itch to regain the celebrity status of his Civil War days. Trying to scratch that itch in foolhardy ways ended up dooming him and hundreds of his men to an ignominious end.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.