Custer's Women

CUSTER’S WOMEN

Terry Alexander

Major General George Armstrong Custer, USA (Left, Seated), poses for famed photographer Matthew Brady with his wife, Elizabeth (Right), and younger brother, Lieutenant Thomas W. Custer (Standing), following the end of the Civil War in 1865.

GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER. Perhaps no other name in western history stirs as much debate as the famous “Boy General.” Custer was born on December 5th, 1839 and died at the battle of the Greasy Grass on June 25th, 1876, in Montana. Elizabeth’s last glimpse of George Custer was in May 1876 as he rode through the gates of Fort Abraham Lincoln for the last time in pursuit of Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse. She didn’t receive word of her husband’s death for three weeks. The press, several army officers, and many government officials blamed Custer for the defeat. President Ulysses S. Grant publicly blamed Custer for the disaster. Fearing that her husband would be the scapegoat, Elizabeth Custer contacted Frederick Whittaker, and assisted him in writing George Custer’s Biography. The book praised George’s career and set the tone for future biographies.

She was born Elizabeth Clift Bacon, nicknamed Libbie, on April 8th, 1842, in Monroe, Michigan. The daughter of Daniel Bacon, a well-respected circuit court judge and state senator. Her mother and siblings had died before she turned thirteen. The judge vowed to his dead wife to protect his remaining daughter. Libbie met George Custer when he was on leave in late 1862. Daniel didn’t approve of the young Custer and thought his daughter could do better. Captain Custer was not allowed in their home and Libbie was forbidden to see him outside of it. His family was poor, and his father was a blacksmith. It wasn’t until his promotion to Brevet Brigadier General that he relented and allowed Libbie and George to see each other socially. They were married at the First Presbyterian Church on February 9th, 1864.

Libbie never remarried and remained devoted to her husband for the remainder of her life.

Photo by Charles W. Hill, Monroe County Historical Museum Archives Collection.

Libbie was nearly destitute after her husband’s unfortunate demise and took a job in New York to survive. She petitioned congress to increase the benefits paid to the widows whose husbands were killed in battle. She got thirty dollars a month from the government. She became an outspoken advocate of George Custer’s legacy. She gave lectures about frontier life and their time at different postings. She wrote three books, Boots and Saddles published in 1885, Tenting on the Plains published in 1887 and Following the Guidon published in 1890. Each book aimed at glorifying her husband’s memory. While each book is factually accurate, they are all slanted to present George Custer in a better light.

She never remarried and remained devoted to her husband for the remainder of her life. She treasured a letter she received from Theodore Roosevelt which stated that ‘George was one of my boyhood heroes and a shining light to all the youth of America.’ She never visited the site of the battle. She sat in the stands behind President Taft as he dedicated the George Custer statue in Monroe, Michigan in 1910.

Libbie Custer died on April 4th, 1933, in New York City, four days shy of her ninety-first birthday. She was interred next to her husband at the cemetery at West Point. George and Libbie were childless. In her later life she admitted to a reporter that she regretted not having a son to carry her husband’s name.

THE OTHER WOMAN

Mo-Nah-Se-Tah was born in 1850. She was the daughter of Cheyenne Chief Little Rock. In 1868, Custer was dispatched to the Indian Territories to find a band of hostiles. He found the village of Chief Black Kettle on the banks of the Washita River and attacked on November 28th, 1868. Little Rock as well as Black Kettle and his wife were among the casualties. Mo- Nah-Se-Tah as well as fifty-three other women and children were taken prisoner. She gave birth to a child in January 1869. Custer appointed her as assistant to his camp keeper. Captain Frederick Benteen and Chief of Scouts Ben Clark have both stated that Custer had the young woman escorted to his tent at night for many months after the birth of the first child. In the eyes of the Cheyenne the pair were unofficially married.

One of the few photographs of George Custer's mistress and "unofficial wife," Mo-Nah-Se-Tah, daughter of Cheyenne Chief Little Rock.

Mo-Nah-Se-Tah gave birth to a second child in late 1869. Many people believe the child to be the offspring of George Custer, but many historians believe that George was sterile due to contracting gonorrhea during his time at West Point and that his brother Tom was the child’s actual father. The boy was given the name of Yellow Bird. Mo-Nah-Se-Tah later returned to her tribe. After the battle, several Cheyenne women found Custer. A Sioux warrior was preparing to cut the body and the women begged him not to, telling the warrior he was a relative. The women took their sewing awls and pierced Custer’s eardrums so he could hear them better in the other world. He had promised Stone Forehead that he would not make war on the Cheyenne again and the Cheyenne promised to kill him if he did.

Mo-Nah-Se-Tah died in 1922.

Ptebloka Ska, which was mistranslated to White Cow Bull—he acquired his Indian name after he killed a stray longhorn bull with one arrow. He fancied Mo- Nah-Se-Tah and wanted her for his own. In 1938 he accompanied David Humphreys Miller to the Little Bighorn battlefield. Miller was an American artist, author and film advisor, who specialized in the culture of the plains Indians. In 1935 he began painting the survivors of the Battle of Greasy Grass, His first portrait was of Chief Henry Oscar One Bull.

He completed his final painting in 1942. He painted a total of 72 survivors. He served as technical advisor on the films Cheyenne Autumn and How the West was Won and the TV show Daniel Boone. Joseph White Cow Bull gave him the following interview at the Little Big Horn.

“I spent most of my time with the Cheyenne, since I knew their tongue and their ways almost as well as my own. I had never taken a wife although I had many women. One woman I wanted was a pretty young Cheyenne named Monahseetah.’

‘She was in her mid-twenties but had never married any man in her tribe. She had a seven-year old son born out of wedlock and tribal law forbade her getting married—Actually, she should have had two children, she was pregnant when she was captured in 1858 and gave birth to the first child in January of 1869. The Cheyenne considered her and Custer to be married.

John Yellowbird Steel was rumored to be the son of George Custer by Mo-Nah-Se-Tah. Most historians, however, regard this as unlikely.

‘They said the boy’s father had been a white soldier, named Long Hair. He had killed her father in the Battle of the Washita. He took her to his tent and told her he wanted her for his second wife, and so he had her. After a while his first wife, a white woman found out about Monahseetah and forced him to send her away.’

When Humphreys asked if the child was at camp on the Little Big Horn River, White Cow Bull replied.

“He was named Yellow Bird and had light streaks in his hair. He was always with his mother during the daytime. I tried to talk to her at night. I wanted to walk with her under the courting blanket. She would only talk to me through the teepee flap and never came outside.”

Many of the survivors of the battle claimed they didn’t know that George Custer was at the Little Bighorn. Wooden Leg said, “No one could recognize anyone in the fight, with the dust and confusion it was impossible to find a single individual. Shave Elk stated, “We did not suspect we were fighting Custer, and did not recognize him either alive or dead.” Others claim to have known Custer was present and celebrated his death well into the wee morning hours.

It will never be known who fired the fatal bullets that killed George Armstrong Custer. He was shot twice, once under the heart and once in the left temple, either wound would prove to be a mortal injury. Custer had cut his long hair prior to leaving Fort Abraham Lincoln. Major E. S. Godfrey stated that Custer rode Victory, shortened to Vic, on that fateful day in June, a sorrel with four white stockings, and a white blaze face. He wore a buckskin jacket with a whitish gray hat with a large brim and a low crown. He carried a Remington Sporting Rifle and two English Bulldog self cocking revolvers with white handles and a ring in the butt for a lanyard. Six to eight officers in the Seventh Cavalry also wore buckskin jackets, George Custer’s outfit and armaments distinguished him from others in his command.

On the day of the battle, White Cow Bull stated the white cavalry was charging across the river at Medicine Tail Coulee. He and several other warriors were there trying to fight them back. He noticed a man in a buckskin jacket and a big hat, on a sorrel horse with four white stockings and moved his rifle to that man and fired. The man fell into the river and the charge stopped, while several soldiers dismounted and helped the man back on the horse. The soldiers turned and galloped away in a frenzied retreat. Some historians have given the account credence, saying that the undisciplined retreat and defense on the hillside tended to indicate that Custer was either dead or severely wounded. Several Indians at the battle have also stated that White Cow Bull was the one that killed Custer and that it happened early in the battle. Reno and Benteen stated that the last time they saw Custer alive that he had removed the jacket and wore only his regulation blouse. Custer’s body was found on Last Stand Hill, over a mile away. One report also stated that White Cow Bull found the body on the battlefield and remembering how close the soldier’s bullets came to killing him, drew his knife to take the soldier’s trigger finger. An old Cheyenne woman and Mo-Nah-See-Tah stopped him, the old woman said, “Stop he is our relative”. White Cow Bull stated he turned and began to search for bullets among the dead. He saw the old woman shove her sewing awl into Custer’s ears, stating “you will hear us better in the other world.” After that day he never saw Mo- Nah-See-Tah again and never took a wife. Joseph White Cow bull died in 1942.

Other accounts give White Cow Bull somewhat less credit for killing Custer. Brave Bear recounted a story of shooting a cavalry officer on a sorrel horse with white-stocking feet near the end of the battle. He Dog and Foolish Elk also witnessed an officer running from the battle on a sorrel with white stockings, who shot himself in the head when it appeared that the Indians would catch him. Buffalo Calf Road Woman was credited with knocking Custer from his horse with a war club prior to his death. Noisy Walking captured Custer’s horse— Vic—and took him to Canada with him when Sitting Bull fled the country.

The victorious Indians celebrated their victory for a short time, but then packed their teepee’s away and left the area within two days. The area couldn’t support so many people and horses. The scattered Indians feasted and celebrated their victory during July. After the celebrations ended, many returned to the reservations. The number of warriors quickly dropped to around 600.

The country received word of the Custer massacre on the Fourth of July, the centennial anniversary of the founding of the United States. It was the beginning of the end of the Indian Wars. One historian called it “The Indians Last Stand.” The death of Custer and his command at the Little Bighorn galvanized the country and the government was forced to take action. Generals Crook and Terry remained immobile for seven weeks until they received an additional two thousand troops. They moved out in August to engage the Sioux and Cheyenne.

General Nelson A. Miles took command in October 1876. Crazy Horse surrendered later at Fort Robinson, In September of 1877, he was killed while resisting imprisonment by a bayonet-wielding guard. In May 1877 Sitting Bull escaped into Canada. On May 7th the Great Sioux war ended with the defeat of the last remaining band of Miniconjou Sioux. Sitting Bull returned to the United States and surrendered to authorities on July 19, 1881. He was placed at the Standing Rock Reservation. On December 15, 1890, Sitting Bull was arrested and ordered to mount a horse. A crowd of Lakota had gathered around his home. The chief refused and the police attempted to force him. Catch-the-Bear shouldered his rifle and shot Lieutenant Henry Bullhead. Bullhead fired his revolver striking Sitting Bull in the chest. Police officer Red Tomahawk shot Sitting Bull in the head. He died between noon and one pm. Six police officers and seven Lakota were killed after Sitting Bull crashed to the ground.

—Terry Alexander is a western, science fiction and horror writer with a vast number of publishing credits to his name. He's also a connoisseur of all things related to the Hollywood Western. He and his wife, Phyllis, live on a small farm near Porum, Oklahoma.