# Has General Custer's Watch Been Found? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 2, 2006, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-general-custers-watch-been-found/346704 "2006-03-02T01:05:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2006, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-general-custers-watch-been-found/346704/1 "2006-03-02T01:05:52Z")
Years ago, I remember reading in “Son of the Morning Star”, that Custer’s watch was taken off his body by an indian warrior, who years later sold it to a collector. It disappeared sometime in the 1930’s-anyone know if it hasever turned up? ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2006, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-general-custers-watch-been-found/346704/2 "2006-03-02T02:15:08Z")
Since the book was “historical fiction” and was almost devoid of footnotes and reliable sources, it’s always possible that the story is made up. A quick search of newspaper databases don’t show anything. ---
**Author:** ![SkipMagic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skipmagic/32/20706_2.png) [@SkipMagic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkipMagic)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2006, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-general-custers-watch-been-found/346704/3 "2006-03-02T02:30:15Z")
I see that **samclem** already has his fingers in this one, but since it belongs in GQ, anyway, I’m gonna send Custer over there. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2006, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-general-custers-watch-been-found/346704/4 "2006-03-02T02:31:55Z")
I seem to remember it being held by John Cameron Swayze on a 1970s commercial, something about “slaughtered to a man”, “buried in the Montana soil for a century” and “but keeps on ticking” being spoken. Custer’s widow, Elizabeth Bacon “Libby” Custer, who outlived him by 57 years, would almost certainly have filed a claim against anybody who had possession of the watch in her lifetime. She was fanatically devoted to her husband’s legacy (in fact she’s one reason that he was seen as a martyr rather than a genocidal megalomaniac for so long- she filed suit or otherwise brought harassment on those who portrayed him differently). She also would certainly have had public sympathy and support for having it returned to her, as would the other widowed Custer women (her sisters-in-law). My guess: a watch from the timeframe, maybe even from a Little Big Horn survivor, may have been sold in the 1930s (coincidentally that’s when Custer’s widow died [1933]) to a private collector _as_ Custer’s watch, but it probably wasn’t. Though I don’t know this. It would be a really good question to write to[History’s Mysteries](http://www.historychannel.com/global/listings/series_showcase.jsp?EGrpType=Series&Id=215747&NetwCode=THC) about. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2006, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-general-custers-watch-been-found/346704/5 "2006-03-02T02:47:01Z")
[QUOTE=Sampiro] It would be a really good question to write to[History’s Mysteries](http://www.historychannel.com/global/listings/series_showcase.jsp?EGrpType=Series&Id=215747&NetwCode=THC) about. [/QUOTE] Actually, _History’s Lost & Found_ was the show I was thinking of (also from The History Channel), but they are evidently no longer in production. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2006, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-general-custers-watch-been-found/346704/6 "2006-03-02T04:52:09Z")
At the bottom of [this](http://www.livewithjt.com/Custer/links.htm) page, there is a purported view of the watch. It could be or it might not be. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2006, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-general-custers-watch-been-found/346704/7 "2006-03-02T04:58:32Z")
And now you’ll have to process [this](http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:HY4bCogO-b4J:lbha.proboards12.com/index.cgi%3Fboard%3Dgeneral%26action%3Ddisplay%26thread%3D1107107187+%22custer%27s+watch%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=5&ie=UTF-8) ---
**Author:** ![infamousmom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/d6d6ee/32.png) [@infamousmom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/infamousmom)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2006, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-general-custers-watch-been-found/346704/8 "2006-03-02T07:58:17Z")
[QUOTE=Sampiro] Actually, _History’s Lost & Found_ was the show I was thinking of (also from The History Channel), but they are evidently no longer in production. [/QUOTE] Could you perhaps be thinking of PBS’s _History Detectives_? They did a segment on what was supposed to be Doc Holliday’s watch. (turned out to be old enough, but still bogus. Hope that isn’t going to spoil the show for anyone) ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2006, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-general-custers-watch-been-found/346704/9 "2006-03-02T15:03:17Z")
Does anybody know if custer’s watch was given to him for some occasion 9like graduation from West Point), such that a positive link to him could be proven? It would be interesting to know if the watch shown has any engraving, etc., that might prove an actual connection to Custer. the author of “Son of the Morning Star” mentioned that the indians were fond of watches-thet ticking sounds and the motion of the balance wheels convinced them that the watches were somehow alive. Anyway, what would such an artifact be worrth to a collector today? Civil war era pocketwatches are not rare-you can buy them on EBAY for less than $200.00 ---
**Author:** ![Backwater\_Under\_Duck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ba8739/32.png) [@Backwater\_Under\_Duck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Backwater_Under_Duck)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2006, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-general-custers-watch-been-found/346704/10 "2006-03-02T18:40:36Z")
[QUOTE=samclem] Since the book was “historical fiction” and was almost devoid of footnotes and reliable sources, it’s always possible that the story is made up. A quick search of newspaper databases don’t show anything. [/QUOTE] Are you thinking of the right book. True, Evan S. Connell as primarily a novelist, but _Son of The Morning Star_ was a very well researched biography. I see no footnotes, but there is a 13 page bibliography detailing his work. I haven’t read it for a while, but it is no novel. That of course doesn’t mean the story is less than accurate as with many twice told tales. ---
**Author:** ![Rodd\_Hill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3ab097/32.png) [@Rodd\_Hill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodd_Hill)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2006, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-general-custers-watch-been-found/346704/11 "2006-03-02T22:56:58Z")
I always thought that Christopher Walken had it in safekeeping… ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2006, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-general-custers-watch-been-found/346704/12 "2006-03-02T23:35:38Z")
[QUOTE=ralph124c] the author of “Son of the Morning Star” mentioned that the indians were fond of watches-thet ticking sounds and the motion of the balance wheels convinced them that the watches were somehow alive. [/QUOTE] That scrupulous researcher George McDonald Fraser makes mention of this in **Flashman And The Redskins**. Flashman, playing possum as the sole white survivor in the aftermath of the Little Bighorn, is discovered and rescued by Frank Grouard, his illegitimate Sioux-adopted son and sometime US Army scout, who happened in the novel to be fighting _with_ Crazy Horse and the Sioux. This, incidentally, may have been entirely possible: the real-life Grouard was something of an enigma, and seems to have moved comfortably between Sioux and white settler society: while he did scout for the Army in the campaign leading up to the Little Bighorn, there were rumours that he was deliberately leading them into a trap, and he seems to have slipped off sometime before the battle itself. But I digress: “That’s not a pony-soldier!”, snarled another voice. “What’s that shining thing you’ve got?” “Something too good for you, scabby-head!”, cries my boy. “This is a white man’s clicky-thing. See - it has a little splinter that moves round. Oh, you can have it if you like - but I’ll keep his dollars!” “It’s alive, the clicky-thing!” cries the other. “See, it does move!..” And later: And he began to chant in Siouxan, about how he had slain six pony-soldiers that day, including a _Washechuska_ English soldier-chief with a watch from Bond Street which was still going, and the time was ten past five. Which beggared imagination, if you like. Like father, like son: Flashman never got his watch back.