Elizabeth Custer in 1914

[George Armstrong Custer]

As might be supposed from my forum nom de guerre, one of my areas of interest besides the Great War is George A. Custer and his career in the American Civil War and on the Westerm Military Frontier. To this end I am currently reading the biography of Custer's wife Elizabeth Bacon Custer and the Making of a Myth, by Shirley A. Leckie (University of Oklahoma, 1993). Elizabeth Custer survived her husband's death at the eponymous 'Last Stand' by 57 years.

A fascinating factoid which emerges from Leckie's book is that when the Great War broke out, Elizabeth Custer was right at the heart of events on a motoring tour of Central Europe with four other American women! While staying at a hotel in Manheim, the group heard of the assassination at Sarajevo of Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne. When the women reached Freiberg on July 28, they read of Austria's ultimatum. Apparently a newspaper account of Serbia's 'very conciliatory' reply convinced Mrs Custer that all danger had passed, but that day Austria declared war.

Elizabeth Custer and her party then travelled to Lucerne, Switzerland, where they discovered the true situation and learned that Russia and Germany had entered the war. Unable to exchange money or buy gasoline since the Swiss government had requisitioned supplies, they waited for word from their government. At last, on August 8, American dollars arrived in Swiss banks as Elizabeth learned that France had entered the conflict. As she read "these appalling bulletins", she wrote in her journal: "The few days seem like months, and really, it is to us as if the end of the world was coming." Several days later, to her great relief, the party was able to book passage home. As we now know with hindsight of course, in many ways the world as Elizabeth Custer and her generation knew it was indeed coming to an end.

Not only that, but Elizabeth Custer lived on to see the seeds of WWII sown - she died, four days short of her 91st birthday, on April 4 1933 - two months after Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany. Her story really brought home to me how close we actually are to events which we routinely consign to distant history in our minds perception. When you consider that this woman was married to one of the pre-eminent cavalry leaders of the American Civil War, and who socialised with contemporary luminaries such as Grant, Sherridan and Sherman; and yet who lived to be on a motor car tour of Germany at the outbreak of the industrialised mass slaughter of August 1914 - and she died a mere 25 years before I myself was born!

Ciao,

GAC

[marina]

I often wondered what beca,e of her - thanks, G

marina