General George Armstrong Custer may have been born in New Rumley, Ohio, but he spent a good number of his young years in Monroe, Michigan, and Monroe has become known as Custer’s hometown. Before he began getting bad press, years after his death, he was loved and revered in Monroe and Detroit.
Custer had many friends in the surrounding Detroit area, both military and civilians. He organized a veterans’ association in Detroit and frequently visited wounded soldiers in the hospitals. When he was killed at Little Big Horn, an article in the Detroit Free Press stated “Custer is dead. How like a death knell the words fall upon our hearts. Custer the brave soldier, the chivalrous gentleman, the kind and sympathizing friend, is no more.”
Since that time, public opinion of Custer has been split; some see him as a heartless Indian killer and ruthless general, while others call him ‘hero’. Whatever your opinion of Custer may be, one thing is certain: he died in 1876.
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But not how history has been telling it all these years.…