I have read extensively about Custer and the Battle of the Little Big Horn. My research confirms most of what you have written, but at the Battle of the Washita in 1868, Custer and the 7th Cavalry launched a surprise attack on a peaceful Indian encampment, indiscriminately slaughtering many women and children. Today Custer would rightly be considered a war criminal. I believe that Custer had that "easy" victory over Indians in mind when he looked to attack the Sioux and Cheyenne at the Little Big Horn. He was more than willing to sacrifice Native American lives on the alter of his fame and ego. He is not an American I admire, though it is beyond dispute, as you say, that he was a very fine Union officer during the Civil War.