What unit did Custer serve in during the civil war?

Answer 1

Custer was just finishing his third year at the US Military Academy at West Point when the war started in 1861. His entire class of 34 was graduated a year early due to the pressing need for trained officers. Custer was 21 years old, and graduated last in his class (34 out of 34). The brand new 2nd Lieutenant Custer was assigned to the 2nd Cavalry. This regiment is legendary now. It was one of two new mounted units created in the early 1850s to patrol the vast new territory won from Mexico in the Mexican-American War. These were the first new regiments created in the American Army in decades. Promotion in the Army before the Civil War was strictly by seniority. There was no retirement system, so officers stayed on until they died of old age, or else resigned in disgust and became (most often) engineers in private employment. There were no engineering schools at American universities then, so trained (military) engineers were much sought after, especially by the rapidly expanding railroad industry. The slow promotion meant that an officer such as Robert E. Lee was still only a captain in the regular Army, after more than twenty years service, and this despite being considered the best officer in the Army by the Army's Commanding General, Winfield Scott. (Scott had been Commanding General since 1839, and was still on the job when the Civil War started, after 53 years of service, because he could not retire. He was 75 years old, and weighed over 400 pounds when the Civil War began). So, the creation of these new regiments in the early 1850s also created new slots for officers, and the Secretary of War (and later president of the Confederate States of America) Jefferson Davis, himself a West Point graduate and a hero of the Mexican War, used his first-hand knowledge of the officer corp of the small US Army to promote the best officers to the new positions opened up by the creation of these new regiments. There were eight men who became full four star generals in the Confederate Army, and four of them had served in the 2nd Cavalry. Robert E. Lee was promoted to lieutenant-colonel, skipping over the grade of major, and was second in command of the 2nd US Cavalry. All these officers had just resigned and gone south when Custer joined his new regiment, which had been brought east at the start of the war. Custer with his regiment was at the First Battle of Bull Run in late July, 1861, where he spent most of the day carrying messages on horseback. Soon after Bull Run the US Army renumbered its mounted units, of which there were five before the war. There were the First and Second Dragoons, the Regiment of Mounted Rifles, and the most recently created 1st and 2nd Cavalry. All were now redesignated as "cavalry" and they were numbered in order of their creation. So, the 2nd Cavalry became the 5th Cavalry, and that's what it remains today. The 1st, 5th and 7th Cavalry are all part of the 1st US Cavalry Division (Airmobile) based at Fort Hood, Texas, which won great renown in Vietnam. The 7th Cavalry was of course Custer's last unit, at the Little Big Horn. After service with the 2nd/5th Cavalry Custer became a staff officer, on the staff of General George B. McClellan, during the Peninsula Campaign of May-June, 1862. Custer held the temporary ("brevet") rank of captain. (A "brevet" officer wore the insignia of his higher "brevet" rank and commanded at that higher level - but got paid at his lower "permanent" rank). He led four companies of the 4th Michigan Infantry in a successful attack during this campaign, but that was only for that particular day. When McClellan was fired in November 1862 Custer reverted to his permanent rank of 1st Lt. Throughout this period, and the following time, Custer continued on the books of the 5th Cavalry but was on "detached" service. Custer next became a staff officer for General Alfred Pleasonton, who commanded the cavalry division of the Army of the Potomac. Pleasonton obviously thought highly of his brash, glory seeking staff aide. On June 28, 1863, as the armies were maneuvering to Gettysburg, Custer was promoted to Brigadier General of Volunteers (a brevet rank) and given command of a brigade of cavalry in the cavalry division of Judson Kilpatrick (whose own men called him "Kill Cavalry"). Custer was elevated to this lofty height despite having no command experience and being only 23 years of age. In the newspapers he was usually called "The Boy General". A brigade usually had four or five regiments in it. Custer's Brigade was the "Michigan Brigade", consisting of the 1st, 5th, 6th and 7th Michigan Volunteer Cavalry. Custer had spent much of his childhood in Monroe, Michigan. Custer with his brigade was in several cavalry skirmishes in the first few days of his command, then turned in what was his finest performance of the war at Gettysburg, on the last day of the Battle, July 3, 1863. General Lee's plan for that day is still little understood. What Lee intended was that simultaneously with "Pickett's Charge" hitting the Union line from the front, 6000 Rebel cavalry under Jeb Stuart were to circle north of Gettysburg and hook back in and hit the same part of the Union line from the rear. Had this happened, a Confederate victory at Gettysburg would have been the very likely result. But it did not happen, because Stuart and the Confederate cavalry force ran into Custer with his Wolverine Brigade, and Custer stopped them. Where this took place was "East Cavalry Field" a preserved portion of the Gettysburg Battlefield several miles east of town, that hardly anyone ever visits. That was the high point of the war for Custer. Custer was also present at Appomattox, where his brigade was part of the force that got in front of Lee's during the night of April 8/9, and cut Lee off from further efforts to escape. General Longstreet of the Confederate Army related a tale of Custer that day, the day Lee surrendered his Army to Grant. There was a cease-fire between the armies, under a flag of truce, while Lee and Grant were arranging to meet and then meeting to agree to terms. This took some hours. Meanwhile Custer sent in his own flag of truce and met with General Longstreet. At this meeting Custer demanded that Longstreet immediately surrender to Custer, or Custer was going to "pitch in". Longstreet replied coldly that Custer could "pitch in" all he pleased, and Custer went away, his bluff for glory unsuccessful.

Custer had a colorful and controversial military career. After the Civil War he was even court-martialed in 1867.

Most of Custer's combat duties were served in cavalry units. He remained an active officer from the beginning of the Civil War in 1861 to its end in 1865. The complete history of the higher level officers he reported to is not easy research.

He stood among many other young Civil War soldiers for his bravery, but its difficult for this writer to imagine himself leading a cavalry unite into battle at the age of 23. I believe few men could.

Prior to combat duties he served under McDowell as a messenger.

Custer was part of many Union army campaigns in the Calvary. He served under several Union generals. Among them were:

1. McClellan

2. Barnard

3. Pleasonton, who promoted Custer to the rank of brigadier general at age 23.

4. Sheridan

Other points of interest regarding Custer are:

Custer was present at the surrender of Lee at Appomattox. Reportedly this table was given to him as a gift by Sheridan for his wife. The table now resides at the Smithsonian Institute in Wash. DC.

When Grant was appointed by Lincoln to lead the Army of the Potomac, newspapers reported that he graduated last in his class at West Point.

Custer reported to Sheridan and Terry in the so called Indian Wars. Sheridan was involved with enforcing President Grant's decree that certain Native American Tribes enter US Government established reservations. Violence ensued when the Native Americans did not obey Grant's commands.