8/3/2008:
When Margaret Custer Calhoun buried her husband in his final resting place at Fort Leavenworth on this day in 1877, she perhaps felt the magnitude of the 7th Cavalry’s loss at the Battle of the Bighorn more keenly than anyone else.
Known as “Maggie” to her family, she was the sister of Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer. While visiting her brother and Libbie Custer at their Kansas post, she met and later married James Calhoun, an officer in the 7th Cavalry. Like many officers wives, Maggie followed her husband to each of his duty stations, including Fort Abraham Lincoln.
When news of the Battle of the Little Bighorn reached the Dakota Territory fort in July of 1876, Maggie learned that she had lost five members of her family: her husband, three brothers, George, Tom and Boston, and a nephew, Autie Reed.
Sources:
Hatch, Thom. The Custer Companion: A Comprehensive Guide to the Life of George Armstrong Custer and the Plains Indian Wars. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2002.
"Reburial of Seventh Cavalry Men." The New York Times, 9 August 1877.