George Custer Had a Pet Pelican

George Custer, holding a rifle at his tent, with his four dogs and, in the far right, his pet pelican. Washita Campaign, near Ft. Dodge, Kansas, 1868.

George Custer (born in 1839) was a U.S. Army officer and cavalry commander who fought in the U.S. Civil War and in the American Indian Wars of the 1870’s in the Central Plains. Dashing and controversial…