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Source:  Carroll, Andrew, ed. War Letters. New York: Washington Square Press, 2001.

Twenty-Two-Year-Old 2nd Lt. George A. Custer Tells His Sister Ann of a Memorable Scouting Mission Near Rebel Troops

"If it is to be my lot to fall in the service of my country and my country's rights," George Armstrong Custer wrote to his sister Ann before he left West Point at the age of twenty­one, "I will have no regrets." Within a year the ambitious and spirited Custer, who graduated at the bottom of his class, would be cited for bravery in his first battle (Man­assas) and appointed as an aide to Gen. George McClellan. On March 11, 1862, Custer wrote again to Ann to describe a reconnaissance mission near the Warwick Courthouse in Virginia that proved more eventful than planned. (Near the end of the letter, which appears to concern the well-being offriends and family, the text is diffi­cult to read due to comments Custer wrote directly over these lines) though from a different angle. Many correspondents did this to save paper.)

My dear Sister,

I hope you will forgive me for writing to you before you have answered my last letter. I have a few minutes of leisure just now and presumed you would like to hear from me. We are here facing the rebels               our army numbers about one hundred thousand more or less, the number of the rebels is unknown but it is supposed to be about equal to ours. we have been camped in sight of them for four days

The only reason why we have had no general battle is that the roads have been so muddy as to prevent our heavy siege guns from coming up as fast as we wish, but they have commenced arriving and the weather has become good so that a great battle will certainly come off in a day or two. They have been firing at us and we at them ever since we came here but few are killed on either side, perhaps about fifteen a day on our side.

I was sent out two days ago with a larger party to find where the enemy had their batteries we rode as far as safety would permit us to take our horses and then left them concealed in the woods. we then had to crawl on our hands & knees to keep the rebels from seeing us. The party then was halted while another officer and myself went forward (on our hands & knees) with our spyglasses to examine a rebel battery which ournegro guide had told us was just over the brow of the hill, up which we were then crawling.on top of the hill stood two chimneys of a house which the rebels had burnt down that morning. we crawled up behind these two chimneys which concealed us very well and from behind which we examined the rebel battery which was only about five hundred yards from us. after we had acquired all the information possible we started to return to our party but just as we did so the rebels discovered us and fired a shell at us we saw the discharge and fell flat on our faces in order to avoid it the 11 passed over us and exploded shall pass over our party beyond. one of the fragments struck one of our men tearing off his arm.  we allowed no grass to grow under our feet after that.

Yesterday one of our Generals was sitting down to his dinner when the is fired a cannon ball which struck so close to him as to spatter the dirt all over him and his dinner There is scarcely an interval of ten minutes during the day that our men and the rebels do not fire at each other. both parties keep hidden as well as possible but as soon as either party shows themselves they are fired at, and at night when it is too dark for either party to see the other so as to shoot or be shot at they will both come out from their hiding places and holler at each other calling all sorts of names and bragging what they intend to do and then as soon as daylight begins to appear the party which sees the other first fires at him and that puts a stop to the conversation until night comes again when the same thing occurs again but we will soon decide the question with them. The great battle will probably come off before this reaches you. Gen McClellan is here to lead us so we are certain of victory...

Te11 all my friends my address and write soon. Give my love to Riley,

Emma and Aut.

 

Your affectionate Brother,

Armstrong

 

Custer would go on to serve with distinction in numerous battles, including at Gettysburg and Appomattax, and he finished the war at the age of twenty-five as a brevet majorgeneral. Custer's fame soared from the mere heroic to the legendary after the war when, as an "Indian fighter" leading the Seventh Cavalry, he and over 200 of his men confronted Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne warriors on June 25, 1876, at the Battle of Little Bighorn. Custer, as has been frequently noted, lost.