Beschreibung:

CUSTER, GEORGE ARMSTRONG, Lieutenant Colonel, 7th Cavalry . Letter signed ("G.A. Custer") to Brigadier General Chauncey McKeever, Assistant Adjutant General, Leavenworth; Fort Riley, Kansas, 6 January 1867. 1 page, 4to, text in a very attractive clerical hand . Boldly signed. CUSTER WITH THE 7TH CAVALRY, FORT RILEY, KANSAS Finishing the Civil War with the rank of Brevet Major General, Custer left the volunteer force and joined the regular army with a drop in rank. In 1866 Custer was posted to Fort Riley as Lieutenant Colonel in command of the newly formed 7th Calvary, and in short order, imposing strict discipline, he made it a crack unit. A few months after this letter, Custer's regiment made its important scouting expedition to the South Platte in Nebraska Territory, and some 18 months later was responsible for the near total destruction of the Cheyenne village at the Washita River (27 November 1868), the decisive climax of the United States' campaign against the Indian tribes of the middle Plains. Custer requests a quartermaster: "Sir, I respectully request that an Officer of the Quartermaster Department be assigned to this Post as Post Quartermaster, in case an Officer of that Department is not available, I request that a fine Officer may be assigned to perform the above mentioned duty. My reasons for making the above request are as follows. Capt. G.W. Bradley the Depot Quartermaster at this Station refuses to perform the duties of Post Quartermaster. As Post Commander I am certainly entitled to the assistance of a Poster Quartermaster. Under the present arrangement the transaction of Public and necessary business is greatly delayed and interfered with. Very Respectfully, Your Obedient Servant, G.A. Custer, Lieut. Col. 7th. Cavy and Brev. Maj. Genl. USA".