An Aide to Custer: The Civil War Letters of Lt. Edward G. Granger - Paperbackby Edward Granger (Author), Sandy Barnard (Author), Thomas Singelyn (Author) In August 1862, nineteen year old Edward G. Granger joined the 5th Michigan Cavalry Regiment as a second lieutenant. On August 20, 1863, the newly promoted Brig. Gen. George Armstrong Custer appointed Granger as one of his aides, a position Granger would hold until his death in August 1864. Many of the forty four letters the young lieutenant wrote home during those two years,