One of the most enigmatic and vainglorious figures in the history of the west, George Armstrong Custer, rose to the rank of Brevet Major General during the America civil war at the age of twenty-five. Known in the popular media as ‘The Boy General,’ his reputation as an Indian fighter did not emerge until his attack on the Cheyenne village of Black Kettle on the banks of the Washita river on November 1868. It is from this battle, though it was mostly women and children, that the Cheyenne gave him the nickname ‘Son of the Morning Star’ since he attacked the sleeping village at dawn. Though he never commanded more than a single regiment of Cavalry, and the myths surrounding his death at the Little Bighorn have been debated for over a century, his audacious vanity and reckless courage have enshrined Custer’s story with all the trappings of a classic Greek tragedy, and all of its subsequent warnings of the pitfalls of pride and arrogance.

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