Elizabeth ("Libbie") Bacon, a Michigan judge's daughter, was bright and well educated. She married George Armstrong Custer (West Point Class of June 1861) in 1864. Although he had graduated at the bottom of his class, Custer immediately distinguished himself in the Civil War as a flamboyant, heedlessly brave cavalry officer. At age 23 he held the temporary rank of major general, the youngest in the Union Army. After the war, Libbie accompanied her husband to his assignment as commander of the 7th Cavalry. For the next decade, the Custers established homes at several frontier army posts where they made use of this wicker laundry hamper.
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