George Armstrong Custer is famous for his fatal defeat at the Little Bighorn in 1876, but Custer's baptism of fire came during the Civil War. After graduating last in the West Point class of 1861, Custer served from the First Battle of Bull Run (only a month after graduation) through Appomattox, where he witnessed the surrender. But Custer's true rise to prominence began at Gettysburg in 1863. On the eve of the Battle of Gettysburg, only twenty-three years old and barely two years removed from being the goat of his West Point class, Custer received promotion to brigadier general and command – his first direct field command – of the Michigan Cavalry Brigade, the "Wolverines." Now that he held general rank, Custer felt comfortable wearing the distinctive, some said gaudy, uniform that helped skyrocket him into fame and legend. However flashy he may have been in style, Custer did not disappoint his superiors, who promoted him in a search for more aggressive cavalry officers. At approximately noon on July 3, Phillip Thomas Tucker is a writer and historian who has edited more than two dozen books and written over sixty scholarly articles. His previous books include Pickett's Charge: A New Look at Gettysburg's Final Attack, which historian William C. Davis praised as "thoughtful and challenging . . . fresh and bold," and Death at the Little Bighorn: A New Look at Custer, His Tactics, and the Tragic Decision Made at the Last Stand. For many years a civilian historian with the Department of Defense, he lives in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, and is a regular participant in book events at Gettysburg.
