ABSTRACT
This chapter examines news coverage of George Armstrong Custer's role in the Gettysburg campaign and its immediate aftermath to determine the reason for Custer's fame and also the way the press functioned during the Civil War. It suggests that Custer was not an overnight star. He did not become instantly famous because he put on a floppy hat and red tie while he led some dramatic charges. The chapter further suggests that Civil War reporters, although they might have been terrible spellers, were not necessarily shills for whichever officer enlivened their copy. Costar and Custar were some of the variations of the way George Armstrong Custer saw his name spelled in newspapers during the Gettysburg campaign, when he was first becoming a newsworthy subject for war correspondents. The New York Herald provided the most dramatic account of Custer's charge, although it appeared in the middle of the story and was not mentioned in the five headline decks.
