Make that #727 a very well-deserved one, underlined in red
Two of the six pages of 726 demerits George Armstrong Custer racked up as a Cadet, from the West Point Library Archives. Cadet Custer was the “Goat” of his class at the USMA (1860) and went on to become something of a celebrated “boy general” leading Michigan volunteer cavalry in Northern Virginia during the Civil War. He went from a 2nd Lieutenant commanding a troop of 20 horse soldiers to command of a full brigade in two years.
In 1866, he dropped back down from Maj. General of Volunteers to Captain in the peacetime regulars before working his way back up to Lt. Colonel and making his last bad decision on this day in 1876, age 36.