A towering figure in American history, General George Washington will forever be remembered for the bravery, principles, and integrity that led him to become the first President of the United States. The following facts focus on Washington’s excruciating demise that he endured in his final hours and the events that transpired following his passing.

10Diagnosis And Treatment

Since 1799, speculation has arisen as to whether or not Washington fell victim to medical malpractice. In an article written in The New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. David Morens states that accusations of malpractice “were very much in the air during and immediately after the great man died.” Morens goes on to state, however, that he would not consider it malpractice in context of today’s usage. What remains troubling is that of the three doctors providing Washington’s care, no two agreed about the means of treatment.

Morens hints that the doctors were perhaps protecting their reputation to avoid potential charges. Washington’s diagnosis was also subject of debate and to date. It remains unclear as to what he truly succumbed to, be it an acute infection, malpractice, or a combination of both.

9Vile Concoction

It’s hard to imagine the pain Washington endured as the hours passed and his infected throat became more red and inflamed. To lessen the swelling in the early morning hours, Washington’s personal secretary, Col. Thomas Lear, provided the president a tonic of molasses, butter, and vinegar.

Washington had labored breathing and could barely speak, let alone drink a vile concoction that he could not swallow. His attempts to do so were met with choking, distress, and convulsions. If that alone didn’t notify the reaper, Washington was advised to gargle with vinegar and sage tea, followed by bouts of suffocation and expectorating phlegm. His difficulty grasping his breath substantially worsened as the hours passed and did so until 10 minutes prior to his passing, when his breathing became less strenuous, slowly letting go.

8Punctuality

Following Washington’s retirement, he spent much of his time working outside on the lands of his estate at Mount Vernon. Even through the intolerable winter conditions of snow, rain, hail, and high winds, Washington pushed through for five long hours, seeing to it that his work was completed for the day.

Priding himself on his punctuality, he remained in his damp clothes throughout dinner. The following day, Washington subjected his immunity to the harsh outdoors yet again even though he had developed a painful sore throat throughout the night. This would be the last day Washington would roam his estate, retiring for the evening with worsening symptoms that would awake him in agony around 3:00 AM. Had it not been for his fixated and stubborn ways, Washington would have lived to see spring. Instead, three physicians were summoned, undoubtedly sealing his fate.

7Infertility

From endocrine disorders to STDs, historians have long speculated the possible causes of Washington’s infertility. One theory was his extensive exposure to mercurous chloride, which he received in his twenties for treatment of abdominal pain and chronic bloody diarrhea.

Even on his deathbed, Washington’s physicians were prescribing him the toxic substance in combination with potassium tartrate, which causes intense nausea and vomiting. In layman’s terms, America’s founding father was inadvertently being poisoned by perilous medical remedies.

When these failed to produce beneficial results, Dr. Dick suggested a tracheotomy. A debate ensued between him and Dr. Craik, who ultimately vetoed the suggestion. Dr. Dick had only recently been trained in the procedure, leaving the outcome awfully uncertain.

6Criticism And Irony

News traveled much slower in the late 18th century, and in December 1799, it took four full days for word of Washington’s passing to reach Congress in Philadelphia. In fact, Congress was in session when notified, while Washington’s funeral was taking place hundreds of miles away at Mount Vernon.

As Washington was lowered into the ground, so was the harsh criticism he had faced in life. He had been viewed by many as a sell-out to the British, but this was overshadowed by the loss of the country’s founding father and dignified hero. Interestingly enough, the Union Washington so courageously fought to establish would be threatened nearly 69 later by Robert E. Lee, the son of the man who had spoken the infamous words, “First in War, First in Peace, First in the Hearts of His Countrymen.”

5Spanish Fly

As Washington’s condition worsened, his discomfort reached new heights upon the tortuous application of Spanish Fly. This powdered concoction was applied to the very source causing Washington’s agony, his throat.

Spanish Fly (cantharides) is a poisonous extract from the dried bodies of the beetle Cantharis vesicatoria. It causes blistering and has been used criminally as an aphrodisiac, often with dire consequences. In fact, it has been known to poison African cattle via contaminated drinking water, causing excitement, diarrhea, and inflammation of the kidneys.

It was assumed that the “treatment” would draw out the toxins plaguing Washington’s haggard body, not knowing the blistering pain was further exhausting his immunity. This senseless and excruciating false remedy continued throughout the day.

4Burial Dispute

Washington instructed in his will that his remains be buried in a new family mausoleum, unaware of the obstacles his request would face throughout the following century.

Despite his wishes, the House and Senate appealed to the Washington family to transfer his remains from Mount Vernon to the Capitol to be entombed under a marble monument. Martha Washington chose not to oppose the wishes of the public. However, disagreements arose over the type of monument, and funding stalled the project for years. Approaching Washington’s centennial in 1832, John A. Washington, owner of Mount Vernon, rejected any further plans to transfer the patriarch’s remains, effectively settling the issue that had spanned 33 years.

3Dehydration

In the late hours of Washington’s suffering, he was subjected to throat swabs of salve followed by an enema. This not only further incapacitated him but reduced him to a debilitated and vulnerable soul. The complications lead to a serious loss of body water, not including the noxious mineral imbalance in his blood. These, in turn, often lead to grave illnesses of the kidneys and heart. In addition, abdominal pain and cramping with persistent dizziness and nausea is often noted for those who have abused enemas.

In Washington’s case, where his perceived treatments were deemed beneficial, his soul was inadvertently being siphoned under a degrading set of circumstances.

2Washington’s Will

For a momentary respite from the agonizing details of Washington’s final hours, let us focus on one positive aspect of December 14, 1799: the last will of America’s founding father. It was written five months prior, on July 9, and Washington instructed Martha to retrieve his will hours just before his passing.

She handed her husband the two revisions, and in his frail and gravely ill state, he asked Martha to burn one and safeguard the other. Of the notable provisions made, Washington laid out instructions for freeing his slaves as well as the support for those who were too old, ill, or young to support themselves. In addition, Washington provided stocks to finance a school for orphaned children. His concern for the future of the United States and the well-being of those who had served him, all the while clinging to life, is a testament to the nobility of his character.

1Bloodletting

Washington’s physicians postulated that his airway obstruction was due to inflammation of the tongue, upper trachea, and larynx. In accordance with medical professor William Cullen’s recommended treatment, Washington was bled over a period of 9–10 hours with a quantity of blood estimated around 3.75 liters.

Six weeks after his passing, Dr. James Brickell expressed disgust in an article that was not made public until 1903 pertaining to the clinical wisdom of Washington’s physicians and the therapeutic modalities administered. Dr. Brickell argues that given Washington’s age and fragile state, the bleeding led to speedy and inevitable death.

In his final moments, Washington appeared calm and had stopped struggling, leading some to believe he had suffered profound hypotension that lead to shock and ultimately his death.

Adam is just a hubcap trying to hold on in the fast lane.

Americans tend to treat George Washington like a god. That might seem like a strong word, but his first biographer called him “a hero and a demigod,” the Capitol Building has a mural of Washington ascending to Heaven, and a statue in the Capitol Rotunda literally depicts him as the Greek god Zeus.

Washington, though, was a mortal man, and he had faults and weaknesses just like everyone else. The stories we hear about him are full of hero worship and legend. There are, however, a few little details usually get cut out.

10 His Mother Made His Life Hell

You’d expect the mother of the first US president to do nothing but beam with pride, but George Washington’s mother mostly just complained. Mary Ball Washington was strict, criticizing far more than she praised. One of Washington’s childhood friends once said, “Of the mother, I was ten times more afraid than I ever was of my own parents.”

When George moved out, she constantly wrote him begging for money, even when he was fighting the British. She even wrote the state of Virginia demanding a pension, which humiliated her son. He wrote to them, urging them not to give his mother money: “All of us, I am certain, would feel much hurt, at having our mother a pensioner, while we had the means of supporting her.”

As she got older and sicker, George urged her move in with one of her children for an easier life—just not with him. Even when she died, he slipped a little sour note into his plans for her estate, sneaking in the line, “She has had a great deal of money from me at times.”

9 He Bought His First Elected Position With Alcohol

In Washington’s time, they served alcohol on election days. As odd as it seems today, polling booths would be full of liquor. It was practically mandatory. If you didn’t give your voters alcohol, as Washington learned, they didn’t vote for you.

When Washington ran for the House of Burgesses in Virginia in 1755, he tried to take the higher road. He refused to liquor up his constituents, so he lost horribly, 271 votes to 40.

When he ran again three years later, he’d learned from his mistakes. He served voters 545 liters (144 gal) of alcohol, offering everything from beer to straight rum. That was almost 2 liters (0.5 gal) of liquor for every person voting, and he still worried it wouldn’t be enough. It worked, however; Washington was voted in by a landslide.

8 His False Teeth Were Pulled From Slaves

You know you’ve made an impact on history when people make up stories about your teeth. Legend says that Washington’s were made of wood, but that’s not true. The real story behind Washington’s teeth is much, much more screwed up.

Thanks to a combination of terrible diet and genetics, Washington had a disgusting mouth. He struggled with tooth pain most of his life and eventually just lost them all. Being rich, though, Washington had the means to get false ones. His dentist fashioned him a set of false teeth carved from hippopotamus ivory and affixed with gold wire springs and brass screws, all set up to hold a set of real human teeth—that were ripped from the mouths of slaves.

Records show that in 1784, Washington paid his slaves 122 shillings to buy nine of their teeth. This was actually only one-third the going rate for human teeth. Washington then had his dentist shove the teeth he’d pulled from his slaves right into his mouth, which is probably why we just tell children his teeth were made of wood.

7 He Made A Fortune Off Whiskey And Slaves

Other than the current president-elect, George Washington was the richest president in US history, mostly through inheritance and marriage. His wife, Martha, inherited a massive property when her first husband died. This was a huge, 8,000-acre plantation dotted with five separate farms, run, at its peak, by over 300 slaves.

He made another fortune, though, when his presidency ended. In 1797, as he was leaving office, he opened a whiskey distillery. It didn’t take long before it was the biggest one in the country. By the time Washington died in 1799, he was shipping 42,000 liters (11,000 gal) of whiskey across the country each year.

6 He Grew Marijuana

Washington owned a lot of land and grew a lot of crops—including marijuana. We know for a fact that the first US president farmed hemp, and he wasn’t using it to make rope.

Washington’s diaries make it clear that he was farming marijuana to harvest THC from the female plants. The diaries repeatedly talk about his struggles to properly separate the male and female plants. On May 12, 1765, Washington wrote, “Sowed hemp at muddy hole by swamp.” Later, on August 7, he complained that he “began to separate the male from female plants—rather too late.” The next year, he wrote that he was “pulling up the male hemp.”

It’s highly likely that he smoked his harvest, too. For one, there was no law against doing so in his time. There are also unconfirmed reports that he had a habit of stuffing pipes full of marijuana. According to one story, Washington and Thomas Jefferson liked to swap their homegrown crops of marijuana as personal gifts.

5 He Was Paid More Than Any Other President

When George Washington was appointed general of the revolutionary army, he asked for no salary. All he asked was that they reimburse his expenses. It seemed incredibly noble . . . until he came back with the bill.

Washington racked up every expense he could. He hired actors and theaters to put on plays. He spent $6,000 on booze. While the army nearly starved, he ate so luxuriously that he actually gained 14 kilograms (30 lb). In the end, his bill came to $449,261.51. Congress, having already signed the deal, had to pay him every penny.

When they made him president, Washington tried to get the same deal—but Congress had learned their lesson. They made him accept a salary. Still, Washington managed to negotiate the highest salary any US president has ever received—one that made up two percent of the national budget.

4 He Thought Chinese People Were White

When the founding fathers set up all those laws and freedoms that only applied to “free white men,” Washington may have thought he was being a bit more generous than he really was. After all, he thought China was full of white people.

The US opened trade channels with China in 1785, and the country was flushed with all kinds of Chinese novelties. Tea, silk, and Chinese porcelain came in, often decorated with images of people.

Washington began collecting Chinese goods as a hobby. Reportedly, he saw, on the side of a pot, a picture of a Chinese person for the first time, and he was shocked. He had known that the Chinese were “droll in appearance,” but he’d never realized until that moment that Chinese people weren’t white.

3 He Illegally Transported Slaves

When Washington became president, he was forced to live in Pennsylvania, which was a problem. Pennsylvania was the first state to ban slavery, and Washington had a lot of slaves. Pennsylvania had introduced the Gradual Abolition Act, which stated that any citizen living in Pennsylvania could hold slaves for no longer than six months. After that, they had to be freed.

The slave owners found a bunch of loopholes to get out of it, so the law had to amended with new rules. By 1788, transporting slaves in and out of Pennsylvania to get around the law was explicitly illegal.

This is exactly what Washington did. The law was already in effect when he became president, but he rotated his slaves every six months anyway. By all accounts, the government seems to have been fully aware of what he was doing. Afraid to be the ones to arrest the first president, though, they just pretended they didn’t notice.

2 He Set The World Record For Library Fines

In 1789, Washington borrowed two books from the New York Society Library: Law of Nations and Volume 12 of Common Debates. An apparently excited librarian marked his name down as “The President” in the ledger, told him to return the books on November 2, and let him go.

Washington never came back, though, and his late fees kept building up. It wasn’t until 1934 that the library found the ledger and realized that Washington had stiffed them.

Finally, in 2010, Washington’s Mount Vernon estate ordered copies of the books online and sent them to the library. By then, Washington had technically accrued a record-setting late fee of more than $300,000.

1 His Friend Wanted To Reanimate His Corpse

Washington held a lifelong fear of being buried alive. He made his secretary promise not to let anyone bury him until he’d been allowed to decompose for three days. When he died in 1799, they put his body on ice, just in case he woke up.

His friend and physician, William Thornton, was pretty sure he could make it happen. He believed that the blood of lambs had almost magical properties, and he was confident he could use it to bring people back to life. He wanted to try it on George Washington.

He told Martha that he wanted to thaw Washington’s body by the fire and rub it with blankets. He would then inject Washington with lamb’s blood. Next, he would perform a tracheotomy, insert a bellows into Washington’s throat, and pump his lungs full of air. This, Thornton was sure, would bring the dead president back to life.

For some reason, Martha declined.

Few of the fabled heroes of American history are more controversial than Custer. He amassed a then record of demerits as a cadet at the United States Military Academy, and finished last in his class in academic standing. Yet within two years of his graduation he held the rank of brevet (temporary) brigadier general of volunteers. He was the youngest general in the American army since Lafayette. Over the course of the Civil War he developed the reputation of possessing superb leadership skills, a sound sense of military tactics, and personal courage, leading his troops from the front.

After the war, assigned to the west to assist in the pacification of the Western tribes, his reputation plummeted. He was elevated to near mythical status as a martyr following his death at the Little Big Horn, largely through the efforts of his widow, Libby Bacon Custer. Films and early television exaggerated his mythos. Then, beginning in the 1970s changes in attitudes towards American history regarding native Americans once again brought his lofty status as a hero to the ground. Here are ten incidents in the life and death of George Armstrong Custer which contributed to his mythos, and which remain controversial.

10. He didn’t exactly distinguish himself at West Point

Later in his military career George Armstrong Custer wrote that those who adopted his behavior should disregard his career at West Point unless they looked at it as, “…an example to be carefully avoided”. He arrived at the Military Academy equipped with a marginal education in mathematics, though he had some experience as a school teacher in other subjects. He also had a lifelong penchant for practical jokes and an established contempt for higher authority. None of those traits were indicative of assured success at a highly disciplined environment, known internationally for the quality of the education it provided its cadets.

He excelled, if that is the word, at the school in one area. During his four-year stay at West Point he accumulated a then record number of demerits, awarded for various infractions. He kept cooking utensils in his barracks room. In Spanish class one afternoon Custer asked the correct way to say “Class is dismissed” in that language. When the instructor uttered the phrase Custer grabbed his books and strode from the classroom. His uniform was incorrect, his hair too long, and his boots insufficiently polished, far from the dandy he later became.

Like many cadets of the time period, Custer frequented a nearby tavern, Benny Havens, officially off-limits but nonetheless popular. He also became notable among cadets and the academy staff for his horsemanship. In June, 1861, the scheduled five-year term for his class was shortened to four, and Custer graduated. His tenure at West Point was well-known to the officers with which he served, both the senior officers who preceded him at the Point, and the cadets who followed, awed by the legendary record of escaping severe punishment he left behind.

9. Northern newspapers lionized him early in the Civil War

Custer graduated with his West Point class in 1861, one year earlier than planned, due to the need for trained officers in the rapidly expanding Union Army. At that stage of the war Union victories in battle were scarce, and Confederate troops were encamped just thirty miles from Washington in Virginia. Custer served with distinction in the First Battle of Bull Run. He then participated in the Peninsula Campaign, the Maryland Campaign, and the Battle of South Mountain. He led numerous cavalry attacks, served as an aide to General George McClellan, and developed a reputation as an audacious commander in the field. In June 1863, with the Confederates under Robert E. Lee marching into Pennsylvania, Custer received the command of the Michigan Cavalry Brigade, with the rank of brigadier general of volunteers. He was 23.

His success in the early campaigns brought him to the attention of northern newspaper reporters and magazine correspondents. As a commanding officer, using his perquisites of rank, Custer adopted flamboyant uniforms, much to the delight of the writers. He justified his appearance as being necessary on the field of battle, making it easier for his officers and men to identify him, as well as for messengers from other units to find him in the chaos of battle. During the three-day Battle of Gettysburg, Custer led his unit, called the “Wolverines” , into a pitched battle with the near-legendary Confederate cavalry under Jeb Stuart, which was attempting to flank the main Union army. Despite being heavily outnumbered Custer led his command to victory, driving the Confederates from the field.

In reports covering the Gettysburg campaign, Custer received lavish praise for his performance. His flamboyant dress in battle drew the attention of his enemies as well as his friends and commanders. The New York Herald called him “The Boy General with the Golden Locks”. His unit took heavy casualties during the campaign, and he had at least one horse shot from under him while in action. The newspapers extolled his leadership, always from the front, and personal courage. Custer found himself an acclaimed hero in the North, a reputation he enhanced with further actions during the Civil War.

8. Custer stole a horse and refused to return it when ordered

Custer commanded a cavalry division as a major general by early 1865, and maneuvered it to block Lee’s escape at Appomattox. There, he learned of a prized thoroughbred race horse owned by Richard Gaines, near Clarksville, Virginia. Custer dispatched a patrol to seize the horse, as well as its written pedigree. Lee had surrendered over two weeks earlier, and the terms of surrender allowed his defeated army to retain its remaining horses. Custer didn’t care, he had heard much of the fifteen-hand stallion named Don Juan. His decision to obtain the pedigree, which would be essential to a later sale of the animal at its true value, means Custer came to the premeditated decision to steal a horse.

Custer rode Don Juan in the Grand Parade of the Army of the Potomac in Washington, during which the skittish animal bolted from the noise of the crowds. The sudden charge of the horse allowed Custer, famous for his long blond hair, to display his horsemanship before adoring crowds. Grant later ordered Custer to return the animal to his rightful owner. Custer refused, supported by Philip Sheridan, insisting the animal had been contraband of war, and that he had purchased it legally from the Union Army for his personal use.

To Custer the horse represented the spoils of war, and he wrote in several letters he intended to sell the animal, believing it could bring him $10,000 ($176,000 today), a handsome sum at the time. The horse died suddenly in 1866, ending Custer’s hopes for a nest egg. Custer’s behavior in obtaining the horse, and his perceived insolence in refusing to return it despite being ordered to do so widened the rift between him and General Grant. Though the story was not widely known by the public at the time, gossip among officers of Custer’s theft was rife at military posts. Today’s Custer State Park, in the shadow of Mt. Rushmore contains amongst its treasures the ironically named Horse Thief Lake.

7. Custer exploited his fame in post-war New York

After the Grand Parade Custer returned to his hometown of Monroe, Michigan for a rest. Custer then assumed command of Federal cavalry in Louisiana, destined to form the basis of occupation forces in eastern Texas. His command there was difficult. Most of the troops were volunteers who wanted to be discharged from the service, since the war they had volunteered to fight had ended. Custer’s attempts to maintain discipline among the troops drew resentment, desertions, and outright mutiny. He also found he no longer had the support of US Grant, after his insubordination over Don Juan and other issues.

Relieved in early 1866, Custer was ordered to Washington, where he lobbied for assignment. He considered a career outside the army, journeyed to New York to hobnob with high society and captains of industry. He also requested a leave of absence to allow him to go to Mexico and support the forces of Benito Juarez in the Mexican Revolution. Grant endorsed his request, but Secretary of State William Seward opposed it, and Custer remained unemployed in Washington, with the permanent rank of captain.

In the summer, 1866, Custer joined President Andrew Johnson, along with other Civil War heroes such as Grant and Admiral David Farragut, on a campaign tour to build up public support for Johnson’s Reconstruction policies. It was the first time an American President undertook a national speaking campaign along party lines. The tour proved disastrous for the President, Grant refused to speak before the crowds, and Custer spent most of his time lobbying the President for promotion and a command in the west.

6. The 7th Cavalry was a new unit when Custer was assigned to its command

In movies and television productions of the Custer mythos, particularly those made before 1970, Custer’s 7th Cavalry is usually depicted as an established regiment. In fact, the US Army created the 7th Cavalry in July, 1866 as part of a general expansion of the regular army. Custer was not the first commander of the 7th Cavalry. Colonel Andrew Smith took command and organized the new regiment at Fort Riley, Kansas. In February, 1867, Custer arrived at Fort Riley and assumed command of the regiment, with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

Before the year was out Custer was suspended from his command, without pay, after a botched pursuit of hostile Indians which led to the desertion of several men. After he returned to the regiment and its command he was again suspended and arrested in August, 1868, having gone AWOL (away without leave), when he abandoned his post against orders. He remained under suspension until October, 1868, when he rejoined his command at the behest of Philip Sheridan, then in command of all United States Cavalry.

By 1869 Custer’s once vaunted reputation was in tatters. He had antagonized US Grant, several members of Congress, and several of his fellow officers. His flamboyant appearance, and the fact he was frequently followed about by several dogs, was regarded with disdain by many junior officers. He nonetheless retained the support of Sheridan, and certain his star was falling, he longed for a major victory against the Indians which he could exploit to public acclaim.

5. Washita River restored Custer’s reputation in the East

Custer gained what was considered the first major victory over the western Indian tribes when he led the 7th Cavalry to attack a village of Cheyenne under Chief Black Kettle in November, 1868. Custer’s scouts had trailed a raiding party from the settlements they had attacked to the village. Black Kettle had claimed during negotiations with Indian agents and military officers that his people wanted peace. Nonetheless, warriors from several raiding parties had come from his village and returned there during the summer and fall months.

The Washita action has long been controversial. In the 1960s-70s Indian activists claimed the battle had been little more than a massacre, primarily of women, children, and older men. They claimed there had been few, if any, warriors in the village at the time of the attack. Custer initially claimed 103 warriors were killed, later revising the number upwards to 140. He acknowledged a “few” women casualties, and reported 21 dead troopers from the 7th, and an additional 13 wounded.

The Washita River attack restored Custer’s reputation in Eastern newspapers and among the general public as a daring cavalry commander and a staunch Indian fighter. Yet during the battle he withdrew before learning the whereabouts of a small troop, dispatched to pursue fleeing Cheyenne. That group encountered warriors from other nearby encampments, and greatly outnumbered they were overwhelmed and killed. The incident led to deeper suspicions among junior officers that Custer placed his search for glory ahead of the welfare of the men under his command.

4. Custer’s defeat at Little Big Horn shocked the nation

The summer of 1876 saw the United States beginning the long planned celebrations of the nation’s centennial. Passenger rail excursions to Philadelphia, for the Centennial Exposition held there beginning on May 10 were nearly always full. So were the steamboats and ferries bringing visitors to what was the first World’s Fair. Among the items to make their first public appearance at the exhibition were Hires Root Beer, Heinz Ketchup, and a communications device its inventor called the telephone.

Americans celebrated their national unity, emerging technologies, and the vast wealth of the continent. The revelers at the exposition, those traveling to it, and those remaining at home were shocked at the news that Custer and his command at the Little Big Horn had been wiped out by Indians. The exposition displayed numerous examples of modern military weapons, including those from Germany and France, as well as the United States. The public perception of the Indians prevalent at the time rendered their crushing a disciplined unit of American cavalry unthinkable.

The shock led to an immediate decision to crush the Indian tribes which had destroyed Custer’s command. By the spring of 1877 the Cheyenne under Chief Dull Knife were defeated, their villages destroyed, and they were forced onto the reservations. Little evidence exists that Dull Knife had been involved at the Little Big Horn. Also crushed and forced onto reservations were the Sioux, Arapaho, and other of the plains’ tribes. Many of the tribes were forced into the Indian Territory, as it was then known, today’s state of Oklahoma. A significant number of Sioux under Sitting Bull fled across the border into Canada.

3. His widow, Libby Bacon Custer, worked tirelessly to enhance his heroic reputation

In the United States Army, up to and including its Commander in Chief, President US Grant, there was little praise of Custer in the immediate aftermath of the Little Big Horn. Major Marcus Reno and Captain Frederick Benteen, both survivors of the battle because they were not with the five companies personally led by Custer, blamed him for the defeat. Reno had a checkered career following the Little Big Horn, including charges of making advances on another officer’s wife, being drunk on duty, and the worst of all charges on a military officer, cowardice before the enemy.

Benteen, who had been ordered to reinforce Custer’s command during the battle, instead rode to the support of Reno. He too blamed Custer for the debacle at the Little Big Horn. Few in the army command structure defended the dead Custer’s actions. President Grant publicly condemned Custer for his actions and the resultant loss of life. In the absence of support for her late husband, Libby Bacon Custer stepped into the void. Libby had kept detailed diaries of life with her husband on the American frontier, where she had accompanied him to his posts.

Libby polished and published her diaries in the 1880s; Boots and Saddles (1885), Tenting on the Plains (1887), and Following the Guidon (1890). Her books were aimed at giving Custer a glorious image, and they were for the most part historically correct, other than for details regarding maneuvers in the field. They were widely popular, were soon supported by dime novels and penny papers, and the Custer legend, as well as the legend of the Last Stand, entered the public eye. Artists produced paintings depicting Custer fighting to the death heroically, including one commissioned by Anheuser Busch which hung in saloons all over the nation. The legend of Custer’s Last Stand stood, untarnished, for nearly 100 years.

2. Custer in films and television

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xq68RGtRP3g

Beginning with a silent film in 1912 Custer has appeared in films over 30 times, portrayed by a number of distinguished actors. Ronald Reagan played Custer in an entirely fictional film, Santa Fe Trail (1940). The following year Errol Flynn depicted Custer heroically (how else could Flynn play anyone?) in They Died with Their Boots On. Several films depicted Custer as defending the rights of the Indians against nefarious government agents, illegal traders, and corrupt officials exploiting them. In 1967 Robert Shaw, later to star in Jaws, played Custer as risking his military career to defend the rights of the Indians in Custer of the West. The legend of the Last Stand remained very much alive.

During the Civil Rights movements of the 1950s-60s, historians and filmmakers began to reexamine the Custer legend. An early example is 1970s Little Big Man, starring Dustin Hoffman. The fictional story, told through the eyes of a White man raised by the Cheyenne, was in part intended to ridicule the military establishment at the height of American involvement in the Vietnam War. Richard Mulligan portrayed Custer as a borderline psychotic, driven by a deep hatred of the Indians, and finally acting completely insane during the climactic Battle of the Little Big Horn.

Television largely followed the same pattern, with early programs depicting him as a heroic icon of American history, and later portrayals making him insubordinate, egomaniacal, and determined to eliminate the tribes in order to gain greater glory for himself. Whether sympathetic, critical, fictional, or even as a spoof, Custer remains a popular character in television productions, including on Netflix’s The Ridiculous 6, released in 2015. Custer was played by David Spade. The production earned some of the harshest reviews of film history.

1. The Indigenous of his day held Custer in respect

Although some revisionists dispute it, the troops of General Terry’s command which discovered the bodies of Custer’s men found them to have been horribly mutilated. Except for two, Custer’s and Miles Keough’s. Allegedly, Keough was spared because he wore a religious medallion from the Papal States. Superstition among the indigenous likely led them to respect the medal. Custer reportedly had his eardrums punctured, but his body was spared mutilation. Terry’s men found two wounds, to the head and chest. Either of the two wounds could have been instantly fatal. Some allege an arrow was found in Custer’s genitalia, though official reports do not.

Most of the command’s dead were horribly mutilated. Custer’s brother Tom, a two-time Medal of Honor recipient, was so mutilated he could only be identified by part of a tattoo which remained. Custer’s body had been more or less left as it fell, though his eardrums, according to tribal folklore, had been pierced, making him deaf in the afterlife in their belief. The fact that his body did not undergo the indignities of those of the rest of his command indicates his enemies had a level of respect for Custer not shared by those who continue to rewrite the story of his career and death.

Custer was buried, along with the rest of his men, as they lay on the field. Attempts to identify them at the time were hampered by their mutilations and the pillaging of personal items by their killers after the battle. Custer’s body was later exhumed and reinterred at West Point in October, 1877. By then actions by the US military to crush the western tribes which had prevailed at the Little Big Horn were well underway, For the Native Americans, Little Big Horn (which they called Greasy Grass) proved a pyrrhic victory. By the end of the decade the Indian tribes of the plains were subdued, and the revisions of their history had begun.