Elizabeth Custer (1842–1933) was born in Monroe, Michigan, the daughter of a wealthy and influential judge. Beautiful and intelligent, she led her class at a girls’ seminary. She met her flamboyant future husband in 1862 in the midst of the Civil War. They had a loving but tumultuous relationship, and despite hardships were utterly devoted to each other. Libbie was one of the only wives to follow their husbands wherever the army took them. She refused to be left behind, and joined “the General,” as she referred to him, at the expense of the comfortable lifestyle to which she'd become accustomed when growing up. After her husband’s death at the Little Big Horn, she worked almost single-handedly—and successfully—to restore his heroic image.
