------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "To the American people, whose liberties he so gallantly defended and especially to the American cavalry, past and present, whose greatest price and brightest ornament he was, I dedicate this memoir." --Frederick Whittaker, Dedication in A Complete Life of General George A. Custer A Complete Life of General George A. Custer--Major-General of Volunteers; Brevet Major-General, US Army; and Lieutenant-Colonel, Seventh US Cavalry , is the first biography of General George A. Custer published in 1876, six months after Custer's defeat at the Battle of the Little Big Horn. It was with assistance of Libbie Custer, General Custer's wife, that author Frederick Whittaker wrote this extensive biography, in which he presents Custer as a brilliant and heroic military leader. This image set the tone for future biographers and continued for decades in the American public mind.