This is an exceedingly rare original circa 1877 Fort Custer Hardin, Montana Territory Cavalry copper signage from the ex-museum collection out of Eastern Montana. This is the original United States Cavalry insignia signage posted at the Cavalry station of Fort Custer in Montana Territory. The piece shows a repousse raised construction with the crossed sabers ontop of of a dombed oval with spoted band with stepped raidiating border. The piece is made from solid copper and is the only known example to exist. Fort Custer was constructed in April and May of 1877 in response to General George Armstrong Custer’s U.S. 7th Cavalry defeat at the Battle of the Little Bighorn during the Indian Wars. It was established in 1877 near present-day Hardin, Montana and named after General George Armstrong Custer. The Second Cavalry Regimental headquarters, band and companies C, D, K, and M were stationed at Fort Custer first in November 1877, along with Companies from the 11th Infantry. The Fort supplied troops for some fo the Plains campaigns, including the Bannock War of 1878. The fort oversaw the police and rebury at Custer Battlefield in April 1879 by Captain George K. Sanderson, the First Cavalry being stationed there in 1884 as well as the some companies from the Fifth and Seventeenth Infantry, military presence in Yellowstone National Park in 1886 under Captain Moses Harris, uprising at the Crow Agency in the fall of 1887 when Colonel Nathan Dudley set out from the fort with the 3rd Infantry and a section of Hotchkiss guns to arrest “Sword Bearer” and other hostiles who fired on the agency buildings, and the fort also the arrival of the Buffalo Soldiers arrive on May 5, 1892 from the Tenth Cavalry under Lieutenant David Perry (the nickname Buffalo Soldier was given to the Black Cavalry by the Native American tribes they fought). The first usage of this pattern of crossed sabers inside an oval and stepped medallion insignia was used by Sheridan’s Cavalry Corps insignia during the American Civil War in 1863 and later in badges in 1864. The condition of this cavalry sign is preserved with a break in the border above the cross sabers and shows a patina adorning the copper but otherwise shows a preserved condition. The measurements of this copper sign is 12 1/4" x 14 1/4" x 1 1/2". The collective weight of this sign is 2lb.