OCT 1: On Medical Leave

General Philip Kearny. (Credit: Library of Congress)

In October 1861, George Armstrong Custer returns to Monroe, Michigan to recuperate from a case of typhoid fever. It was believed he contracted it while serving as an aide-de-camp to Union General Philip Kearny in Washington, D.C., known for its “swamp-like” conditions. Custer remained in Monroe, where he spent much of his boyhood, until February 1862.