Married Life As Mrs. Custer
Libbie and George had a loving but tumultuous relationship. Both were stubborn, opinionated, and ambitious. Their private correspondences were filled with sexually charged double entendres. Despite hardships, they were utterly devoted to each other. She followed him to every assignment, even during the latter days of the Civil War. The depth of their relationship has been the subject of considerable interest in books and film.
Unlike many, Libbie was one of the only wives to follow their husbands wherever the army took them. She refused to be left behind, and joined Custer at the expense of the comfortable lifestyle to which she'd become accustomed as the child of a judge.
"...we gave ourselves the privilege of a swift gallop... ...I never noticed the surroundings until I found we were almost in the midst of an Indian village, quite hidden under the bluff. My heart literally stood still. I watched the general furtively. He was as usual perfectly unmoved, and yet he well knew that this was the country where it was hardly considered that the Indian was overburdened with hospitality. ...
The next day the general thought I might rather not go with him than run the risk of such frights; but I well knew there was something far worse than fears for my own personal safety. It is infinitely worse to be left behind, a prey to all the horrors of imagining what may be happening to one we love. You eat your heart slowly out with such anxiety, and to endure such suspense is simply the hardest of all trials that come to the soldier's wife."
— Elizabeth 'Libbie' Custer, from her first book Boots and Saddles, on her life and adventures with her husband.
After the war, he reverted from his wartime rank of general to his Regular Army rank of Lieutenant Colonel and was assigned to a series of dreary and unsatisfying assignments in Texas, Kansas, and the Dakota Territory. Life on the frontier outposts was difficult and Custer’s career was plagued by problems including a court martial (brought about by his leaving the field to be with Libbie).
1876 campaign against the Sioux seemed like a chance for glory to George Armstrong Custer. The couple's final home together was at Fort Abraham Lincoln in what is now North Dakota. From there Libbie's husband led the Seventh Cavalry in pursuit of Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and the Sioux and Northern Cheyenne who refused to be confined to the reservation system.
Read more about this topic: Elizabeth Bacon Custer
Famous quotes containing the words married, life and/or custer:
“Don Pedro. But when shall we set the savage bull’s horns on the sensible Benedick’s head?
Claudio. Yes, and text underneath, “Here dwells Benedick, the married man?””
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Glorious bouquets and storms of applause ... are the trimmings which every artist naturally enjoys. But to move an audience in such a role, to hear in the applause that unmistakable note which breaks through good theatre manners and comes from the heart, is to feel that you have won through to life itself. Such pleasure does not vanish with the fall of the curtain, but becomes part of one’s own life.”
—Dame Alice Markova (b. 1910)
“Look, I’m not saying he didn’t make some major mistakes. When it comes to value judgments, Rob is right up there with Custer and Nixon.”
—Jonathan Reynolds, screenwriter. Leo (Richard Mulligan)