Was he a martyr or damned? A hero or a fool? This pictorial biography of George Armstrong Custer explores all facets of the legendary general from his boyhood to West Point, through the Civil War and his earlier battles, to his last stand. It shows Custer's family, friends, and associates, military and civilian, white and Indian, at work and at play. More pictures of Custer-related people, places, and artifacts are assembled here than in any other book or museum collection.

"Custer found himself in the one dilemma all soldiers most dread--he was outnumbered and completely surrounded. With disaster looming in every quarter and no chance of escape. . . ." So Gregory J. W Urwin pulls the reader into a scene describing not the Battle of the Little Big Horn but a Civil War engagement that George Armstrong Custer and his troop survived, thanks to strategy as much as naked courage.

Many books have focused on Custer's Last Stand in 1876, making legend of total defeat. "Custer Victorious" is the first to examine at length, with attention to primary sources, his brilliant Civil War career.

Urwin writes: "None of Custer's exploits against the Plains Indians could compare with those he performed while with the Army of the Potomac." The leader of a brigade called "the Wolverines," Custer was promoted to major general and the helm of the Third Cavalry Division when he was only twenty-four. Urwin describes the Boy General's vital contributions to Union victories from Gettysburg to Appomattox.

George Armstrong Custer rode at the head of his cavalry command where he made instantaneous decisions, most of which resulted in victory during the Civil War. The older officers over whom he had jumped in rank soon displayed their animosity. From them, and many others, a series of charges against him were circulated; from these grew the innumerable Custer legends. This volume includes many interesting and unusual Custer legends, which include the alleged fathering of Monahseetah's Indian son; the Annie Jones story buried in the National Archives; Custer's capture of Lee's supply trains at Appomattox Court House that caused Lee to surrender-and much more.