Central Plains Region: Kansas City, MO
Custer Documents on Display
Boots and Saddles
The display of documents will be on view in the Kansas City main lobby from June 19 - August 31, 2006.
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The Custers in Kansas
In conjunction with this display, Elizabeth Custer will be making a special appearance on July 13, 2006.
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In recognition of the 130th anniversary of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, the Central Plains Region of the National Archives has created a small, temporary lobby display of documents relating to George Armstrong Custer and several members of the Seventh Cavalry who fought in the battle, which took place on June 25, 1876.
The display, entitled Boots and Saddles: George Armstrong Custer and the Seventh Cavalry in the Records of the Central Plains Region, features twenty documents from Record Group 92, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General. They are from the mid-1870s to mid-1880s and detail various transactions that involved the quartermaster depot located at Bismarck, Dakota Territory. (The Seventh Cavalry was stationed at Fort Abraham Lincoln, Dakota Territory.)
"The documents record the every day, routine business associated with frontier army posts," according to archives specialist Lori Cox-Paul. "They detail such things as troops and horses being moved from one post to another and receipts for various articles being shipped." While the content of the documents may be routine, the signatures on them belong to several well-known members of the Seventh Cavalry who were present at the Little Bighorn. Included are Bvt. Maj. Gen. George Armstrong Custer, Lt. James C. Calhoun (Custer's brother-in-law), Capt. Myles W. Keogh, Lt. W.W. Cooke, and Lt. A.E. Smith, all of whom were killed. Survivors of the battle included in the display include Maj. Marcus A. Reno, Col. Frederick W. Benteen, Lt. Francis M. Gibson, Lt. Winfield Scott Edgerly, and Lt. Charles A. Varnum.
The Central Plains Region only recently received the documents from Washington, D.C. They were transferred to Kansas City as part of an on-going effort to make more original documents available to researchers in the regional archives. The documents included in the display are only a small portion of the 16 cubic feet of material received.
"I had no idea when I opened up the first box that I was going to encounter some of the most famous names in frontier military history," said Cox-Paul. "It was pretty exciting. It seemed particularly appropriate to put together a small display since it is the 130th anniversary of the battle. And, of course, the documents will be kept here and preserved forever for future use by historians and researchers."
The Central Plains Region is one of 14 facilities nationwide where the public has access to federal archival records. It is home to more than 43,000 cubic feet of historical records dating from the 1820s to the 1990s created or received by nearly 100 federal agencies. The Central Plains Region houses records from the states of Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. The facility is located at 2312 E. Bannister Rd., Kansas City, MO 64131. It is open to the public Monday-Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. or visit our web site at http://www.archives.gov/central-plains/kansas-city/
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