Steve Alexander

A comprehensive look at the events leading up to the Battle of the Little Bighorn as well as the myths and legends it spawned, and its impact on history.

George Armstrong Custer is one of military history's most colourful characters, a flamboyant and dashing commander. It is said that 'cometh the hour, cometh the man', and Custer's appearance on the battlefields of America in the mid-1800s fits this saying perfectly. A failure at West Point, he made his name fighting the Federal Cavalry during the American Civil War where he earned his nickname 'the Boy General'. The dashing and ambitious Custer often flouted military convention, placing his trust instead in his famous 'luck' which, unfortunately for him, ran out during the Battle of the Little Bighorn. This programme features battle reconstructions, period imagery and 'interviews' with the man himself.