Statue of General George A. Custer
Located on the corner of N. Monroe St. and W. Elm Ave.
The George Armstrong Custer Equestrian Monument, also known as Sighting the Enemy, is an equestrian statue of George Armstrong Custer by Edward Clark Potter, located in Monroe, Michigan. The statue was unveiled on June 4, 1910. It was designated a Michigan Historic Site on June 15, 1992 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 9, 1994.
While Custer was not born in Monroe, he lived much of his early childhood living with relatives and going to school in Monroe. During his youth, he met his future wife Elizabeth Bacon, whom he returned to marry in 1864. Custer eventually left Monroe to attend the United States Military Academy and fight in the Civil War. Because of his hard work and success during the war — as well as the Union’s need for officers — he was promoted to the rank of Major General and was a very well known military figure. After the Civil War, he partook in the Indian Wars. His previous accomplishments in the Civil War, however, were overshadowed by his catastrophic defeat and death at the Battle of the Little Big Horn on June 25, 1876.
To honor him, a $24,000, 14-foot (4.27 m) bronze equestrian statue, sculpted by Edward Clark Potter, was unveiled in Monroe in 1910 by then-President William Howard Taft and Elizabeth Bacon Custer. The statue commemorates his successful actions during the Civil War and not his more well known failure during the later Indian Wars.