Legend Linked to Custer

Question: My spouse’s grandfather claims his father was in the 7th Cavalry under Gen. George Custer, but that great-grandpa resigned from the Army shortly before the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Is there any way to prove this family legend?

Answer: Many family legends turn out to be true, or partially true. And many turn out to be fabricated.

Custer was originally assigned to the 7th Cavalry as a lieutenant colonel and joined his regiment at Ft. Riley, Kan., in 1867. In 1873, he was reunited with the 7th Cavalry and at that time assigned to Ft. Rice, Dakota Territory. This fort was located just below the present-day town of Ft. Rice in Morton County, N.D. The Battle of the Little Bighorn took place June 25, 1876, so you need to determine if great-grandpa would have been of the right age to have been in the Army during this time period (1867-1876).

If he were a young man at this time, he probably was born about 1845-1850 and possibly lived until 1920. Do you have his death record?

Check all the federal censuses for him, starting with the one nearest to his death date, probably the 1910 or 1900 enumeration, and work backward. Using these you can determine his age, where he was born and where he was living at various times.

Request NATF Form 80 from the National Archives, 8th and Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20408. When you receive the form, called “Order for Copies of Veterans Records,” fill it out as completely as possible. If he was enlisted in the Army during the time period claimed, there probably is information in the military records.

Of course, it is possible great-grandpa did a bit of embellishment on the family legend, but genealogical research will sift facts from fiction.