Elizabeth Bacon Custer
Wife of General Custer (1842–1933)
Elizabeth Clift Custer (née Bacon; April 8, 1842 – April 4, 1933) was the wife of George Armstrong Custer, United States Army. She spent most of their twelve-year marriage in relative proximity to him despite his numerous military campaigns in the American Civil War and subsequent postings on the Great Plains as a commanding officer in the United States Cavalry.
Left nearly destitute in the aftermath of her husband's death, she became an advocate for his legacy through her books and lectures. Her decades of campaigning on his behalf led to the public perception of General Custer as the "gallant fallen hero" and the canonization of Custer's Last Stand in American history for almost a century after his death.
Elizabeth Custer never remarried and died in 1933, four days short of her 91st birthday.
Early years
Elizabeth "Libbie" Bacon was born in 1842 in Monroe, Michigan. She was the daughter of Daniel Bacon (b. 1798), a wealthy and influential judge and state representative. Her father had profitable investments in real estate and other business ventures.
Tragedy marked much of her childhood, including the death of her mother and three siblings before turning 13.
“Elizabeth Bacon Custer” enters the record as wife of General Custer (1842–1933). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Elizabeth, Bacon and Custer can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5362363. VIAF identifies the subject as 57412439. The Library of Congress control number is n50020522. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1842, 1933 and 1798.
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This entry incorporates text from “Elizabeth Bacon Custer” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.