hi EEE ya  | 26 Sep 2023 6:39 a.m. PST |
Hello everyone, Do we now know what outfit Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer wore on June 25, 1876? And did he have his hair cut before entering the campaign? Thanks |
| Garryowen | 26 Sep 2023 7:17 a.m. PST |
Hair cut.
Surviving witnesses describe white or light gray hat.
Blue shirt.
Buckskin jacket and pants.
Martin said "troop boots" as I recall. The Arikara scout Soldier saw Custer on the lower end of Reno Creek remove his buckskin jacket and tie it on the saddle behind him. He commonly wore a red cravat. Hope this helps. Tom |
| DisasterWargamer | 26 Sep 2023 7:38 a.m. PST |
According to Peter Thompson
link "Custer was mounted on his sorrel horse and it being a very hot day he was in his shirt sleeves; his buckskin pants tucked into his boots; his buckskin shirt fastened to the rear of his saddle; and a broad brimmed cream colored hat on his head, the brim of which was turned up on the right side and fastened by a small hook and eye to its crown." |
| Legionarius | 26 Sep 2023 5:31 p.m. PST |
He had yellow hair. Very desirable to scalp… |
| hi EEE ya | 26 Sep 2023 11:34 p.m. PST |
His blue shirt had no pattern on it, was it a shirt like those of his riders ? |
| 42flanker | 27 Sep 2023 8:27 a.m. PST |
Col.Custer reputedly had his hair cropped short and one reason offered for his not being scalped was that he was thinning on the crown. His shirt would have been privately made. According to E.S Godfrey, Lieutenant in the 7th that day:
"All of the officers wore the dark blue shirt with rather wide falling collar, which when the blouse was worn, was over the blouse collar; most of them had cross-sabers and 7, like the old cap ornament, worked in white or yellow silk on the points of the collar." |
| hi EEE ya | 28 Sep 2023 3:14 a.m. PST |
I read that he had not been scalped and mutilated, but he was not scalped because his hair was too short… He only suffered "post-mortem" a wound to the left temple from a bullet which was shot from a long distance, a "counting" scar on the thigh and a severed fingertip. So he was not scalped because his hair was too short, or really mutilated only because two women from the southern Cheyennes who had recognized his naked body had tried to kneel near him, then these two women would have protected his body by explaining "that he was one of them" then would have punctured his eardrums with awls or porcupine quills to in his "next life" he heard better the grievances of the Cheyennes, in fact in 1869, Custer had promised the Cheyennes that he would no longer attack them… These Cheyenne women were Mona-se-tah and Mah-wis-sa. For his part, Low Dog testified that Custer's body had been preserved by decision of the "chiefs". |
| Garryowen | 28 Sep 2023 2:36 p.m. PST |
The shirts the officers wore were commonly with a bib front with a double row of white or perhaps yellow piping around the edge of the bib. Buttons would be between the vertical rows of piping on the sides. Mother of pearl buttons were common.
Piping also on the collar edge and cuffs. Tom |
| hi EEE ya | 28 Sep 2023 11:41 p.m. PST |
There should be an illustration showing Custer as he was actually dressed at the time he received his mortal wound, for he is never depicted in the same way. |
| robert piepenbrink | 01 Oct 2023 4:32 p.m. PST |
"Never?" You've seen them all? I remember one titled something like "Waiting for Reno" which was pretty close. But artists are not under oath, and especially with the greats tend to paint the legend rather than the man. |
| hi EEE ya | 03 Oct 2023 4:28 a.m. PST |
Robert,It was a way of speaking and you understood me very well. |
is back from Council of Five Nations.