Custer, George A. (1839-1876). ALS, 4pp, 8vo, with envelope, Barracks, West Point, NY. February 3, 1859. Addressed to “Miss Minnie St. John / Monroe / Michigan.”A personal and affectionate letter from a 19 year old Custer to Minnie St. John, a young woman from Monroe, Michigan where Custer lived with his half-sister and her husband prior to entering the United States Military Academy. Writing as a cadet part way through his five year education at West Point, where he would notoriously finish at the bottom of his class. Custer writes mostly of their mutual acquaintances, Minnie’s health, and harshly questions Minnie’s apparent assertion that she shall remain single, “I cannot tell whether you are really in earnest when you say that you never intend to get married or whether you are just 'talking' but I believe you are talking. I do not think you have any idea of leading a 'single life.' I know you would not want to be called an 'old maid,' would you? I know if I was a young lady sooner than be an 'old maid' I would enter a convent and I would prefer suicide before the convent.”