Custer's Last Strand

Custer scholars and buffs find treasures among Glen Swanson’s Battle of the Little Big Horn relics.

- Meghan Saar

"Custer’s Last Strand” made news around the nation after links of the controversial cavalry commander’s curly blond hair sold at the June 9 auction highlighting Glen Swanson’s collection at Heritage Auctions.

A barber cut the 50 or so strands of hair in 1864, a year after 23-year-old George Custer became the youngest general in the Union Army. George had saved the locks to send as a keepsake to his wife, Libbie, but Confederates captured the envelope among his belongings during the Battle of Trevilian Station in June before he could mail it. He recovered his items on October 9, after a battle jokingly known as the “Woodstock Races,” since Custer and his troops had chased and killed scattered enemy Confederates for miles.