as you make the argument for george custer but as a western celebrity he had a resume built up by gunfire but the monthly magazine sent to interview him and thousands and thousands of people back east read about it in a distinguished him as the iconic original loan gunman on the american west frontier. a lot of the stories were made up but some were true so everybody has an image of this archetype with the individual gunman of the entire wild west a lot of that was true and then they found out about it. what did he do quick. >> really he was the winner of the first reported gunfight they were called a dual and in 1865 to square off and then you can see which one is still standing. now this happened in the town square he had stolen his watch and that he walked around to parade and he said don't do that so he actually called him out so they forgot what they were doing and watching this display and it would spread like a prairie fire. so then the others came along to rival him the undisputed heavyweight champion. >> as a gambler he enjoyed gambling but for the individual he got around a lot

. >> a couple of names come in your book, george custer. >> jess james, they had a couple of encounters with wild bill. what's remarkable to me about hicock he kept encountering these people, you think that how much are you going to cross with people, he did, he was always on the move and so he would keep encounter the people again and again. >> how much on harper, the harper es -- harper's article and how we thought of the west or think of the west? >> it did, about the same time the harper article came out, the new york tribune, i think it was the harold transcribe ion published article and sent report to find hicock, he tracked him down, so right after the harper's article was established, new york tribune article was published and that also created a lot of tension. the editor said, i've got send you to africa, i want you to look -- but it contributed a lot to view of the west, we started to see a place of frontier. there were marshals, deputies, there were sheriffs, try and make the -- hicock was a gunfighter and also law man. you started to see that there was american west that wa

george also had the good fortune in 1758 to marry martha da dandridge custer who reportedly was the wealthiest woman in georgia and by marrying her he mauried the widow of a gentleman. by marrying her, george became a gentleman, and with her wealth and with his drive and determination to secure wealth the washingtons would become one of the wealthiest couples in america. he was a plantation owner, farmer, initially growing tobacco, but coming to the realization that tobacco was a crop that was declining in bayou, but by the time of the revolution what was he trying to cultivate? wheat. remember you guys read the tobacco culture and how the tobacco culture was playing out. well, this is the george washington who by the time of his death would own 11,000 acres. he had this ambition for wealth that made him inquisitive and made him sometimes contentious and even after he'd established himself he would insist upon exact payment of every debt owed to him in his youth, young george wanted to be a british military officer and the beginning of this course remember we made reference to how young george