He graduated with the highest number of demerits and at the bottom of his class. He was the poster child for graduating by the skin of your teeth. Yet he also became the youngest Major General in American History and the man General Sheridan believed did more than any other to win the Civil War. He was a fighting commander whose standing order in combat was, "Ride to the sound of the guns!" Perhaps it flowed from the fact that while at West Point George Armstrong Custer didn't study very much, that he had only one strategy, and only one tactic. The strategy was victory, and the tactic was charge.
