George Armstrong Custer Equestrian Monument 9, 1864, in the Presbyterian Church here, he married Libbie Bacon, only daughter of Judge and Mrs. Daniel S. Bacon. During the Civil War, Custer served with distinction, including at the Battle of Gettysburg. He received six brevets and was made Major-General before he was 26 years old, a rare distinction. From 1866 until his death at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, Custer commanded the famous Seventh Cavalry Regiment, leading them in scouting and Indian fighting throughout Kansas and the Dakota Territory. This statue of General Custer, created by Edward C. Potter, was erected by the State of
Great Sioux War of 1876 To combat the Sioux the U.S. army had a string of forts ringing the Great Sioux Reservation and unceded territory. The largest force arrayed against the Indians at one time was in summer 1876 and consisted of 2,500 soldiers deployed in the unceded territory and accompanied by hundreds of Indian scouts and civilians. Many of the soldiers were recent immigrants and inexperienced on the frontier and in Indian warfare. Cavalry soldiers were armed with .45 caliber, single-action revolvers and the Springfield Model 1873, a single-shot, breech-loading rifle which gave the soldiers a large advantage in range over most Indian weapons.