I've read everything I can find about G. A. Custer. Some people love him, some hate him. My most favorite book about custer is Son of the Morning Star : Custer and the Little Bighorn by Evan S. Connell the movie by the same name "Son of Morning Star" sucks. Stephen E. Ambrose also wrote a great book called "Crazy Horse and Custer" which shows and I quote "the Parallel Lives of Two American Warriors". It's a great read and I highly recommend it to any history buff. Have you visited the Custer web page?
http://www.garryowen.com/ Some writers don't give Custer much credit as a strategist. Ambrose said his most used and most suscessful tactic was the charge and the odds didn't much matter to Custer. His commands suffered much higher casualities than other cavalry units but the troopers where beating at the tent flaps to get into his command. Go figure. His brother Tom, won two, that's 2 medal of honor awards. How can that happen with being wounded or killed?
Lt. Col. Custer really only fought in two indian engagements in his career. 'The first was the battle of Washita which wasn't much of a battle by civil war starndards but never the less with the desperate western military chasing a very elusive enemy it was highly touted by the press with a little help from George's own pen. The second with the Little Big Horn. The fact is that when the army was chasing the hostiles as they were called, the hostiles would scatter in a dozen different directions and evade the troops. This indian tactic was directly responsible for Custer's tactic of dividing his command at the Little Big Horn. He wanted to corral as many as possible. He especially wanted to capture the women and children as he believed that the warriors wouldn't fight if they knew he had their families. That was undoubtably true. Many more books are available at the web page listed above. Personnally I find Custer an enigma that all of us must sort out for ourselves.