[Custer, George Armstrong]

Manuscript document signed by Assistant Adjutant General William M.H. Henry ("Wm. M. Henry"), 2 pages (9 7/8 x 7 5/8 in.; 250 x 195 mm), West Point, New York, 8 October 1877, on blue-ruled paper headed "Headquarters Department of West Point, | United States Military Academy," being Special Orders No. 123 of John McAllister Schofield, Major General and Commandant of the post, specifying the Battalions assigned to the funeral of General Custer; faint browning to edges.

Manuscript document signed by Assistant Adjutant General William M.H. Henry ("Wm. M. Henry"), 2 pages (9 7/8 x 7 5/8 in.; 250 x 195 mm), on blue-ruled paper headed "Headquarters Department of West Point, | United States Military Academy," being Special Orders No. 123 of John McAllister Schofield, Major General and Commandant of the post, specifying the Battalions assigned to the funeral of General Custer; faint browning to edges.
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A leaf from the West Point logbook of Special Orders assigning duties for the funeral of General Custer. The escort, the pall-bearers, and those to superintend the removal of remains from the vault in Poughkeepsie to "their last resting place in the West Point Cemetery" are all assigned.

Harper's Weekly of 27 October 1877 (p. 841) describes the scene: "The remains of this gallant officer were laid in their last resting place in the West Point Cemetery on the 10^th of October with appropriate and impressive ceremonies. Early in the forenoon the body was taken from the receiving vault at Poughkeepsie, where it had been lying since last August, and conveyed by steamer to West Point. Thousands of people lined the banks on either side of the roadway as the procession approached, and stood in silence till it passed. ... An officer ordered the entrance [of the chapel] made clear, the doors were swung open, and the mourners passed slowly in. First came Major-General Schofield, commandant of the post, with the widow of the dead hero on his arm ... The body was lowered into the ground, earth was sprinkled upon it, ... and the battalion of three hundred cadets fired three volleys over the grave... The funeral services were over, and the body of the brave Custer was left to rest where his comrades had laid him."