author
Elizabeth Bacon Custer
1842–1933
Remembered for helping shape the public memory of the American West, she turned personal loss into a long career as a writer and speaker. Her books and lectures kept George A. Custer’s name in the public eye for decades after the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
2 Audiobooks
Tenting on the Plains; or, General Custer in Kansas and Texas
by Elizabeth Bacon Custer
"Boots and Saddles"; Or, Life in Dakota with General Custer
by Elizabeth Bacon Custer
About the author
Born in Monroe, Michigan, in 1842, Elizabeth "Libbie" Bacon Custer was the only surviving child of Judge Daniel Stanton Bacon and Eleanor Sophia Page Bacon. She graduated as valedictorian from the Young Ladies' Seminary and Collegiate Institute in Monroe, and in 1864 married George Armstrong Custer during the Civil War.
After her husband's death at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876, she spent the rest of her long life defending and promoting his reputation. She became a successful lecturer and author, writing well-known memoirs including Boots and Saddles, Tenting on the Plains, and Following the Guidon, which drew on her experiences as an army wife on the frontier.
Libbie Custer died in New York City in 1933, just days before her ninety-first birthday. Today she is remembered not only as George Custer's widow, but also as a lively memoirist and a powerful force in shaping how his story was told to later generations.