Background
Boston Custer was born in New Rumley, Ohio, one of five children born to Emanuel Henry Custer and Maria Ward Kirkpatrick Custer.
Boston Custer was born in New Rumley, Ohio, one of five children born to Emanuel Henry Custer and Maria Ward Kirkpatrick Custer.
In 1863, the family left Ohio and moved to Monroe, Michigan. Boston Custer had been unable to officially join the Army due to poor health. A civilian contractor, he served as forage master for his brother"s United States. 7th Cavalry Regiment in the 1874 Black Hills expedition.
He was employed as a guide, forager, packer and scout for the regiment for the 1876 expedition against the Lakota Indians.
Hearing from a messenger that Lieutenant Colonel Custer had requested ammunition for an impending fight, they quickly left the pack train.
The pair passed by Frederick Benteen"s detachment and joined Custer"s main column as it moved into position to attack a sprawling Indian village along the Little Big Horn River. Had he stayed with the pack train where he was assigned, Boston Custer might have survived the battle.
Though originally buried on the battlefield, Autie Reed"s and Boston Custer"s remains were exhumed, the only exceptions to the rule that only commissioned officers would be shipped home for reburial.
They were reinterred January 8, 1878, at Woodland Cemetery in Monroe, Michigan, near today"s Monroe County, Michigan Museum.
