Elizabeth Bacon Custer Elizabeth Bacon Custer ( April 8 , 1842 – April 4 , 1933 ) was the wife of General George Armstrong Custer . After his death , she became an outspoken advocate for her husband ' s legacy through her popular books and lectures . Largely as a result of her endless campaigning on his behalf , Custer ' s iconic portrayal as the gallant fallen hero amid the glory of ' Custer ' s Last Stand ' was a canon of American history for almost a century after his death . Early years . Elizabeth " Libbie " Bacon was born in Monroe , Michigan , in 1842 , the daughter of a wealthy and influential judge . Tragedy marked much of her childhood , with her three siblings and mother all dying before Elizabeth ' s thirteenth year . As the only one of the judge ' s children that would live to adulthood , her father doted on her . Elizabeth was both beautiful and intelligent , graduating from a girls ' seminary in June 1862 at the head of her class . Her father hoped she would make a good marriage with a man from her own elevated social status , and she rejected several suitors . She met her future husband in fall 1862 , in the midst of the American Civil War . Custer later wrote that he fell deeply in love as of their first formal meeting . She eventually returned these feelings , but her father refused to allow Custer into the Bacon home or to permit her to meet Custer outside of it , much less get married , as Custer proposed in the final week of 1862 . Custer was from a poor , undistinguished family , and the Judge hoped Libbie would have better than the life of an army wife . After Custer , just prior to the Battle of Gettysburg ( where he played a significant role ) , was promoted to Brevet Brigadier General , Judge Bacon finally relented and they were married on February 9 , 1864 . Married Life as Mrs . Custer . Libbie and George had a loving but tumultuous relationship . Both were stubborn , opinionated , and ambitious . Their private correspondences were filled with sexually charged double entendres . Despite hardships , they were utterly devoted to each other . She followed him to every assignment , even during the latter days of the Civil War . The depth of their relationship has been the subject of considerable interest in books and film . Unlike many , Libbie was one of the only wives to follow their husbands wherever the army took them . She refused to be left behind , and joined Custer at the expense of the comfortable lifestyle to which she ' d become accustomed as the child of a judge . After the war , he reverted from his wartime rank of general to his Regular Army rank of Lieutenant Colonel and was assigned to a series of dreary and unsatisfying assignments in Texas , Kansas , and the Dakota Territory . Life on the frontier outposts was difficult and Custer ' s career was plagued by problems including a court martial ( brought about by his leaving the field to be with Libbie ) . The 1876 campaign against the Sioux seemed like a chance for glory to George Armstrong Custer . The couple ' s final home together was at Fort Abraham Lincoln near what is now Bismark , North Dakota . From there Libbie ' s husband led the Seventh Cavalry in pursuit of Sitting Bull , Crazy Horse and the Sioux and Northern Cheyenne who refused to be confined to the reservation system . Widowed Defender of Custer ' s Legacy . After her husband ' s column was wiped out at the Battle of the Little Big Horn in June 1876 , many in the press , Army , and government criticized Custer for blundering into a massacre . President Ulysses S . Grant publicly blamed Custer for the disaster . Fearing that her husband was to be made a scapegoat by history , Libbie launched a one - woman campaign to rehabilitate her husband ' s image . She began writing articles and making speaking engagements praising the glory of what she presented as her " martyred " husband . Her three books — " Boots and Saddles " ( 1885 ) , " Following the Guidon " ( 1890 ) , and " Tenting on the Plains " — ( 1893 ) aimed at glorifying her dead husband ' s memory . Though generally considered to be largely factually accurate , they were clearly slanted in Custer ' s favor . Her efforts were successful . The image of a steely Custer leading his men against overwhelming odds only to be wiped out while defending their position to the last man became as much a part of American lore as the Alamo . Libbie remained utterly devoted to her husband and never remarried . Despite having spent her life traveling extensively throughout the United States ( including winters in Florida ) and the world , Elizabeth Custer never visited the valley of Little Big Horn . She was said to treasure a letter from President Theodore Roosevelt who stated that her husband was " one of my heroes . " After an initial period of distress dealing with her late husband ' s debts , Mrs . Custer spent her over half - century of widowhood in financial comfort attained as the result of her literary career and lecture tours , leaving an estate of over $ 100 , 000 . She died in New York City , four days before her 91st birthday , on April 4 , 1933 , and was buried next to her husband at West Point . A few years before her death she told a writer that her greatest disappointment was that she never had a son to bear her husband ' s honored name . Portrayals in Movies and Television . Libbie was portrayed by actress Olivia de Havilland in the 1941 film " They Died with their Boots On " , by Mary Ure in the 1967 film " Custer of the West " , by Blythe Danner in the 1977 television movie " The Court Martial of George Armstrong Custer " , and by Rosanna Arquette in the 1991 television mini - series " Son of the Morning Star " .