Custer's dramatic end was as controversial as the rest of his life and career, and the reaction to his life remains divided, even 150 years later. His mythologized status in American history was partly established through the energetic lobbying of his adoring wife Elizabeth Bacon "Libbie" Custer (1842–1933), throughout her long widowhood which spanned six decades longer into the mid-20th century.Louise Barnett, Touched by Fire: The Life, Death, and Mythic Afterlife of George Armstrong Custer (New York: Henry Holt, 1996), pp. 4–5.
Custer's dramatic end was as controversial as the rest of his life and career, and the reaction to his life remains divided, even 150 years later. His mythologized status in American history was partly established through the energetic lobbying of his adoring wife Elizabeth Bacon "Libbie" Custer (1842–1933), throughout her long widowhood which spanned six decades longer into the mid-20th century.Louise Barnett, Touched by Fire: The Life Death, and Mythic Afterlife of George Armstrong Custer (New York: Henry Holt, 1996), pp. 4–5.