George Custer and Elizabeth Custer. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division,

Dustin White
Editor

George Armstrong Custer is often depicted as a doting husband. Elizabeth “LIbbie” Custer was the love of his life, and their marriage seemed as if it was a fairy tale, Custer the big strong hero, Libbie the princess by his side.

As often is the case, the story isn’t quite as it would seem. Largely romanticized, by Libbie herself, Custer was known to be a womanizer. Having a charming personality, and long flowing golden locks, it was said that women would often swoon around him.



The attention flattered Custer, and more often than not, he would at least respond by sending the young woman away with a clipping of his hair, and possibly even a personal meeting later on.

Custer wasn’t alone though. Libbie was also said to have thrived on the attention she got from the young, handsome and intelligent officers she surrounded herself. With most of them searching for even the slightest hint of feminine recognition, it was said that those young men would fall over themselves while in her company.



One particular fellow who seemed to have gotten into the good graces of Libbie was Lieutenant Thomas Weir. While Custer was away, the two would spend a great deal of time together. Partly it was because Custer had asked Weir to be Libbie’s escort when he was away, but a large part of their closeness was because they enjoyed each other’s company.

That closeness would lead some to talk, and Captain Frederick Benteen would go on to assert that Libbie had had an affair with Weir. Whether or not the testimony of Benteen is historical has been questioned as he was a bitter enemy of Custer.

While Libbie’s possible affair is a bit speculative, the same can’t be said for at least one affair Custer is said to have had.

Within American Indian oral history, a number of sources report that Custer had taken a Cheyenne woman, named Meotzi, as his mistress in the late 1860s, and from that relationship, he would father a son, Yellow Swallow.

Whatever Custer may have felt about the relationship, Meotzi considered Custer to be her husband, and would remain devoted to him.

The two met in 1868, during one of Custer’s early military encounters with the Plain’s Indians, at what would become known as the Wahita River Massacre. Meotzi was among the women and children who were taken as prisoners of war. Her captivity lasted four months.

It wouldn’t be until the spring of 1869 though that Meotzi would first see Custer. As part of a peace pipe ceremony, Custer would make the promise, to the Cheyenne Chiefs, that he would never again attack them.



The two would share Custer’s bedroll, and tradition says that she would go on to bear a son, Yellow Swallow. Custer would eventually have to leave, and return home, but he didn’t do so until after he made a promise to Meotzi, that he would return for her.

For the next seven years, she waited for his return. However, Custer would never return to Meotzi. Killed at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, he would leave behind two women who considered him to be their husband, both who deeply mourned his passing.

Meotzi mourning was increased by the fact that it was her own tribe, and their allies, who had been forced to take his life, and after Custer had broken the peace pipe promise to never attack them again.

Likely, it was Custer’s relationship with Meotzi that ended up sparing his body from being mutilated after his death. It was said that some Cheyenne women recognized Custer as the father of Yellow Swallow, and out of kinship, spared his body.