Presented is a handwritten envelope from U.S. Army General George Armstrong Custer.  In black ink on a yellow 3 x 5-inch envelope, Custer has written “Mrs. Geo. Custer Fort Leavenworth Kansas.”  The letter has a black “New York” postmark over a George Washington 3-cent stamp. Custer was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the American Indian Wars.  He graduated from West Point in 1861, bottom of his class, but as the Civil War was just starting, trained officers were in immediate demand. He worked closely with General McClellan and the future General Pleasonton, who both recognized his qualities as a cavalry leader, and he was brevetted brigadier general of Volunteers at age 23. At Gettysburg, he commanded the Michigan Cavalry Brigade, and defeated Jeb Stuart’s assault on Cemetery Ridge, while greatly outnumbered.

In 1864, Custer served in the Overland Campaign and in Sheridan’s army in the Shenandoah Valley, defeating Jubal Early at Cedar Creek. His division blocked Lee's final retreat and received the first flag of truce from the Confederates, Custer being present at Lee’s surrender to U.S. Grant at Appomattox. After the war, Custer was appointed a lieutenant colonel in the Regular Army and sent west to fight in the Indian Wars. On June 25, 1876, while leading the 7th Cavalry at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in Montana Territory against a coalition of Native American tribes, he was killed along with over one third of his command during an action later romanticized as "Custer's Last Stand".  This item comes with a LOA from Steve Grad of Beckett Authentication.

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