7. Libbie Custer, Custer’s late wife, launched a lifelong campaign dedicated to clearing her deceased husband’s reputation.
As the debate over Custer’s role in the debacle at the Little Big Horn began to cast aspersions upon the former general’s name, a new voice emerged to defend his reputation and honor. That voice belonged to Elizabeth Bacon Custer, known as Libbie to her late husband and to close friends. Libbie had spent most of her marriage to her husband following him from one military post to another, a devoted companion. She shared many character traits with her husband. Both were stubborn, considered those in authority to be mere inconveniences when they disagreed with them, and were irretrievably ambitious. Libbie wore widow’s weeds for the rest of her life following the death of her husband.
Concerned about the speculation over the causes of the loss of Custer’s command, and the consequent damage to her husband’s reputation, Libbie launched what became a lifelong campaign defending Custer. In addition to the reports of the “Last Stand” which appeared in the newspapers, Libbie contributed magazine articles and testimony to Congress regarding her husband’s life on the frontier, his political views, his attitudes towards the Indians and the government’s Indian policy, and any other issues she could think of which would enhance Custer’s heroic reputation and disparage his enemies. She was not above using her status as the widow of a soldier who died in action to persuade his enemies to share her views.