Custer’s Adventurous, Adoring Nephew Autie Reed

Born April 27, 1858, Harry Armstrong Reed must have grown up admiring his uncle George Armstrong Custer. His parents, David and Lydia Kirkpatrick Reed, gave him the middle name Armstrong in honor of that uncle. By then Custer was a cadet or plebe at West Point.

His Name and Nickname

It is well known in Custer lore that George, as a boy, took on the nickname “Autie.” His first attempts, as a toddler, in trying to say his middle name had come out that way. The nickname stuck with Custer more or less for life, In turn his nephew Harry Armstrong Reed was known more by that nickname than by his given name.

The Reed Relationship

Emmanuel Custer, George’s father, had lost his first wife to illness. He was left with two surviving children. He then married Maria Ward Kirkpatrick, who was also widowed the same year. She had two children, David and Lydia. George and three more boys would be born to the new marriage. The families would become close-knit and fun-loving.

George left New Rumley, Ohio to live with his half-sister Lydia Ann. She had married David Reed and lived in Monroe, Michigan. She would have a profound influence on George’s life both during and after the completion of his schooling. Harry Armstrong “Autie” Reed was born to the couple, along with four girls.

Lydia’s Life-Long Influence

Custer completed his schooling in Monroe, then taught in the area for a year. He sought and obtained an appointment to the West Point military academy.  

George’s class graduated early and was thrust into America’s new Civil War. He stayed with the Reeds, though, while on sick leave from the Union Army in 1862. He returned there on furlough the next year.

It was there that Lydia Reed chided George after his boisterous and apparent drunken celebration. She elicited from him a vow of temperance, which he appears to have kept thereafter. He refused even wine at formal dinners. Along with Custer’s wife, Libby, she later led Custer to make a public personal commitment to Christianity.

Adulation and Adventure

It can only be assumed that young Harry, or Autie, grew up adoring his uncle George. Then, at the ripe young age of 18 Harry Armstrong Reed traveled with his sister Emma to Fort Abraham Lincoln, arriving in May of 1876. Like other Custer family members (another topic to come), Autie Reed was employed as a civilian beef herder for the Seventh Cavalry.

George Armstrong Custer rode out on June 22, 1876 for what would be his final foray. His adventurous nephew Autie Reed rode along. Reed apparently was freed of his herding duties, and he continued unassigned with Custer’s 12 troops. He then accompanied the five troops that rode with Custer in their attack at the Little Bighorn. None survived.

More will be written about Custer relatives in coming weeks. Not much information is readily available regarding Custer’s young, adventurous and adoring nephew Autie Reed. His presence in the final advance seems to indicate an audacious overconfidence on Custer’s part. His death is one of the many tragedies that transpired at the Little Bighorn.