Custer's Scalp

A US auction house has sold a snip of Custer's famous flowing locks.

On Saturday, a Heritage Auctions spokesperson declared that a lock of hair belonging to Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer has been sold for $12,500. The auctions house refused to disclose the buyer’s name.

The lock of hair has quite an interesting study. According to the spokesperson, the item was bestowed by Glen Swanson, a Texan who spent the last three decades collecting memorabilia from the Battle of Little Bighorn.

The Swanson collection also included a rifle that the auction house said was used during the battle and other weapons.It also featured photographs and American Indian art.

Swanson says that he came across the perfectly preserved lock of hair while examining Custer’s war-time correspondence.

According to Swanson, throughout the American Civil War and, later, during the American-Indian Wars, the lieutenant-colonel frequently wrote to Elizabeth ‘Libbie’ Bacon Custer, his wife about the situation on the front.

Apparently, before the Battle of Little Bighorn, Custer visited the regiment’s barber to get a haircut. Instead of disposing of the hair, Custer took a blonde lock, sealed it inside an envelope and sent it to Libbie. Swanson said that Libbie wanted her husband hair for her wig. The last owner of the lock of hair said there were about 50 pieces of hair in the envelope.