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None Wounded, None Missing, All Dead: The Story of Elizabeth Bacon Custer.
“Oh, Wifey, Wifey! One of those mustached, gift-striped and button critters will get our Libby yet.”
Judge Daniel Bacon to wife, Rhoda about the many young soldiers calling on their daughter Elizabeth
A full moon hovered over South Monroe Street and beams of light from the gigantic orb filtered though a cluster of clouds. Twenty-two year old George Armstrong Custer stumbled through the scene helped along by a friend who steadied his walk and kept him from falling. Both men were dressed in the uniform of the 5th Cavalry and both had been drinking. George was drunk. It was late and apart from the two inebriated soldiers the street was deserted. It was the fall of 1861 and numerous leaves dropped off the massive trees lining the thoroughfare and drifted across the path the men followed.
George was making his way to his sister, Ann Reeds’s home where he had been staying while recovering from a slight illness contracted after the Battle of Bull Run. George had carried dispatches to the Union troops holding their position against the Confederate Army lined up along Bull Run Creek near a railroad center called Manassas Junction in Virginia. The battle ended when the Northern Army was ordered to fall back toward Washington. The retreat was marred by a downpour of rain that left George suffering with chills and fever. In a short time he was sent back to Monroe to recuperate, George’s condition improved and he ventured out to local taverns where his friends gathered.
Arm and arm with his school chum, an intoxicated George and his buddy staggered down the roadway, singing at the top of their lungs. The commotion woke his sister and she raced to the front window of her house, followed closely by her husband and children, to see who was disturbing the quiet, respectable neighborhood. George weaved back and froth over the stone street, laughing at his obvious lack of balance.
Judge Bacon, who had been standing on his porch smoking his pipe, noticed the pair of soldiers making their way toward the Reeds. He recognized George Custer’s tall, lanky frame and watched him wave goodbye to the friend who escorted him safely home. Disgusted by the behavior of a prominent military figure, the Judge marched back into his own house and closed the door hard behind him.
George was unaware that Judge Bacon had witnessed the scene. He also had no idea that Elizabeth was gazing out of her upstairs bedroom window at the same moment. At the time she wasn’t surprised at the sight, having seen other young men who’d had too much to drink, she consider his actions standard fair.
To learn more about Elizabeth Bacon Custer and her marriage to George Armstrong Custer read
None Wounded, None Missing, All Dead: The Story of Elizabeth Bacon Custer.
