Custer, George Armstrong, Equestrian Monument

About this property

The George Armstrong Custer Equestrian Monument, also known as Sighting the Enemy, is a 1910 equestrian statue of General George Armstrong Custer located in Monroe, Michigan. The statue, sculpted by Edward Clark Potter, was designated as a Michigan Historic Site on June 15, 1992 and soon after listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 9, 1994. While Custer was not born in Monroe, he lived much of his early childhood there with relatives and attended the schools in Monroe. During his youth, he met his future wife Elizabeth Bacon, whom he returned to marry in 1864. Custer left Monroe to attend the United States Military Academy and fight in the Civil War. Because of his hard work and success during the war—as well as the Union's need for officers—he was promoted to the rank of major general and became a very well-known military figure. After the Civil War, he fought in the Indian Wars in the West. His previous accomplishments in the Civil War, however, were overshadowed by his catastrophic defeat and death at the Battle of the Little Big Horn on June 25, 1876. To honor him, a $24,000, 14-foot (4.27 m) bronze equestrian statue, sculpted by Edward Clark Potter, was unveiled in Monroe in June 1910 by President William Howard Taft and the widowed Elizabeth Bacon Custer. The statue commemorates his successful actions during the Civil War and not his more well-known defeat in 1876. In the century since the statue was installed, it has been placed at three different sites. It was originally located in the middle of the brick-paved intersection of First and Washington streets in front of the courthouse; this area is part of the present-day Old Village Historic District. His widow Elizabeth Custer, who spent much of her later life improving Custer's reputation and public image, argued that the statue deserved a better location. Some residents complained that it was a traffic hazard in the middle of an intersection. When the statue was first erected, traffic was sparse in Monroe, but automobile traffic was markedly increasing. On June 20, 1923, the statue was moved to a new location in Soldiers and Sailors Park along the River Raisin. There, the statue stood in relative isolation and was eventually obscured by unkempt scrubs and trees. Because of public protests, the city moved the statue to a better location in August 1955. When movers arrived to take the statue to a new location, they originally could not find it within the overgrown vegetation. The statue was moved to its current location on the southwest corner of Elm Avenue and North Monroe Street along the River Raisin. This is one of the most prominent intersections in the city, and the statue is well-lit at night. The statue is now one of the most recognizable objects in Monroe. The George Armstrong Custer Equestrian Monument is located across Elm Street from the St. Mary's Church Complex Historic District and adjacent to the East Elm-North Macomb Street Historic District.

Location

Categories

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

More in Monroe County

Historic places, battles, and census history across Monroe County.

More historic places in Michigan

Browse all historic places in Michigan.

Conflict records

Explore 19,000+ military engagements across American history.

Michigan history

Colonial settlement, territorial period, and statehood narrative.