Custer’s enrollment at West Point in 1857 was a gamble that initially seemed doomed. He arrived with little formal preparation, struggling academically in almost every subject. His personality—boisterous, prone to elaborate pranks, and frequently insubordinate—kept him in constant conflict with the strict faculty. He accumulated a staggering number of demerits, finishing at the absolute bottom of the class of 1861. However, the timing of his graduation was his salvation; as the Union scrambled for officers at the start of the Civil War, the need for warm bodies in uniform overshadowed his poor academic performance.