Fort Custer, Michigan

Fort Custer was established as an army training camp in 1917 by the U.S. War Department. The camp’s namesake, General George Armstrong Custer, served in the Michigan Brigade during the Civil War before his famous death at the Battle of Little Bighorn. Camp Custer was where soldiers from Michigan and Wisconsin trained before heading to the front during World War I.¹ Fort Custer was designated as a permanent military base in 1940 and soldiers trained there during World War II.² It was repurposed as a POW Camp from 1944 to 1946, and it was the largest in the state of Michigan. Twenty-six POWs died at Camp Custer, the first in 1944; they were buried in the former military post cemetery, in Section B. After a decades-long effort, Congress designated Fort Custer as a national cemetery for Federal Region V in 1981.³

¹ Stan Kaufman, “Coming Custer ‘Death’ Won’t Kill Memories,” Battle Creek Enquirer, March 31, 1968, Newspapers.com; Art Middleton, “Fort Custer Today: Industrial Complex Geared to Peace, With Potentialities for Instant War,” Battle Creek Enquirer, August 5, 1956, sec. 2, Newspapers.com.

² Gary C. Peters, “S.Res.205 - A Resolution Honoring the 100th Anniversary of Fort Custer in Augusta, Michigan,” Congress.gov, https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-resolution/205/text.

³ “Fort Custer National Cemetery,” National Cemetery Administration, August 28, 2017, https://www.cem.va.gov/cem/cems/nchp/ftcuster.asp. Region V includes the states of Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. See “Custer National Cemetery Asked by City Commission,” Battle Creek Enquirer, February 28, 1968, Newspapers.com.