8. Libbie Custer was able to defend her husband’s honor due to her charming ability to gain support from major political leaders.
When Libbie Custer learned of the death of her husband – while she was waiting for news at the quarters she shared with him at Fort Abraham Lincoln in the Dakota Territory – she also learned that she no longer had the right to Army provided quarters. She was widowed, homeless, and entitled to a pension from the government of approximately $30 each month. Her husband had provided a life insurance policy out of his own pocket. In the immediate aftermath of the battle, the Northern Pacific railroad graciously and very publicly provided her with a private railroad car to bear her home. She returned to her childhood home in Monroe, Michigan, where she received hundreds of letters of condolence.
Throughout their marriage, Libbie had protected Custer politically, using her considerable charm to gain the support of Grant, Philip Sheridan, William Sherman, various political leaders including Abraham Lincoln, and newspaper editors. Sheridan was so smitten by her during the Civil War that he suspended his prohibition of officers’ wives in camp for her benefit, allowing her and George to occasionally share quarters when they were in the field during the Overland Campaign in 1864. When Lee surrendered at Appomattox, Sheridan purchased the table on which he had signed the document and presented it to Libbie as a gift. When Libbie was widowed in 1876, she was well-positioned to assume the role as the defender of her late husband’s reputation, from first-hand knowledge of the persons involved and her husband’s behavior in the field.