Custer is Informed of His Acceptance to West Point, and Wished Health, Happiness, & Success in This Life

Background

That a poor farm boy with no connections whatsoever should get into West Point, at the recommendation of a Congressman whose political views were the exact opposite of the boy’s family; that was perhaps, the first example of Custer’s luck.

Here liberal Republican Congressman Bingham writes to Custer – who, even at seventeen, declared himself a proudly conservative Democrat - that he has received Custer’s acceptance of an appointment to West Point; and Custer should, then, go up at the time appointed to sit for the entrance exams. Bingham, sure that Custer will pass, wishes him “health happiness & success this life.”

The irony of Bingham’s prediction, of course, is that as much happiness and success Custer had in the military, it was in the military that he - and his command - met calamitous death and, some say, martyrdom, at the Battle of Little Bighorn. But there is in Bingham’s benediction perhaps an even more ironic twist: shortly before leaving on his final mission, Custer testified in Congress about corrupt federal practices on the frontier, reviling those who profited. Bingham was lucky, then, to have lost his race for that session’s Congress and was therefore not on hand for Custer’s inflammatory testimony – the good Congressman having made a fortune through corrupt practices of his own. Bingham’s luck held – Custer’s, a couple months later, did not.

Physical Description

[GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER] Congressman John A. Bingham. Autograph Letter Signed, as Member of Congress, 1 page, quarto, House of Representatives, February 7, 1857. To G.A. Custer.