Connor Williams

At West Point, George Custer and Thomas Rosser were close friends. Custer was the class clown from Ohio who racked up demerits. Rosser was a big, tough Texan everyone liked. They pulled pranks together and spent their free time together. In May 1861, just weeks before graduation, Rosser resigned and went south to join the Confederacy. Custer graduated last in his class and went straight into the Union army. Over the next three years both men rose fast. By 1864, at just 24 and 28, both were cavalry generals. And in October 1864, they found themselves facing each other in the Shenandoah Valley. Rosser had been sent to stop Union cavalry from burning the valley. He'd been calling himself the "Savior of the Valley" and was hounding Custer's rear guard every day. On October 9th at Tom's Brook, the two old friends lined up across from each other. Before the fight started, Custer spotted Rosser through his field glasses. He rode out alone in front of his men, swept off his hat, and bowed to his old classmate. Then he charged. Rosser's line collapsed. His men fled so fast and so far that Union troops nicknamed it the "Woodstock Races." The chase went on for roughly 20 miles. Custer's men captured Rosser's headquarters wagon, including his personal baggage and his dress uniform. So Custer put it on. He wore Rosser's Confederate coat around camp, then sent his friend a note across the lines. He thanked him for the gift and asked if Rosser could have his tailor make the coattails a little shorter next time. The war ended six months later, and the friendship survived it. In 1873, Rosser was chief engineer for the Northern Pacific Railroad, surveying a route through the Yellowstone country. The cavalry escort assigned to protect his crews was the 7th Cavalry, led by Custer. The two old friends spent that summer together on the plains, swapping stories around the campfire. Three years later, Custer was killed at the Little Bighorn. As the newspapers started picking apart his decisions, one of the loudest voices defending him was the former Confederate general he'd once humiliated at Tom's Brook. Thomas Rosser stood up for his friend until the end.