Cadet George Custer lived in the 8th Division barracks facing the quarters of Lt. Henry Douglass' quarters. Douglass kept a flock of chickens and a rooster whose raucous crowing often caused Custer to lose sleep. One night the mischievous Custer slipped out of the barracks and took the rooster from his perch and later cooked the bird over a gas-burner in his room. The feathers were collected and rolled up in a newspaper and one of the other cadets took the evidence out to a trash bin for disposal. Hurrying across the open field to avoid detection, the cadet left a trail of feathers behind him. Fortunately the feathered trail did not lead to Custer and he was never punished for the act. Had Custer's act been discovered, he would have been given sufficient demerits to have pushed him over the limit for that period. This would have led to Custer's expulsion and the end of his military career.
From "To The Point", By George Pappas, Prager Publishers, 1993.
On 10 October 1877, Custer's remains were buried at West Point. A large number of officials and civilians turned out for the event, as well as the entire cadet brigade. The cadets marched at a slow pace with their rifles carried in reverse. Three volleys were fired over the grave, and the cadets slowly marched away.
Two years later a bronze statue of Custer was erected on a knoll across the road from the Mess hall. More than 3000 visitors attended the dedication. Congress had authorized the use of 20 bronze cannon for making the statue. The statue showed a Custer larger than life in full dress uniform and wearing jackboots and holding with arms stretched outwardly a saber in the right hand and a pistol in the left. General Schoefield learned from Mrs Custer, who was very protective of her husband's image, that she had not been consulted about the sculptor, Wilson MacDonald, whom she thought was not notable enough to be worthy of the task. She felt that the face of the statue was too old looking, the uniform improper, and that the statue displayed her husband as being armed like a desperado. She tried to stop the dedication of the statue, but it was too late. Through her persistent efforts however, she succeeded in having the statue removed in 1884 by order of the then Secretary of War Robert Lincoln. For many years the statue was stored in a shed at West Point. Mrs Custer, still not satisfied, requested that the statue be removed entirely from the premises. The whereabouts of the statue is unknown. Perhaps it was donated as scrap metal during WW II. The stone base of the statue was placed at the head of Custer's grave, and Mrs. Custer had a granite obelisk added in 1905.
From "To The Point", By George Pappas, Prager Publishers, 1993.