Major General William Tecumseh Sherman & Major General George Custer

In The Hesperus Prophecy, when Declan enters the Room of the Honored for the first time and sees the walls adorned with swords and rifles, the professor quips “Who’s your interior decorator, General Tecumseh Sherman or George Custer?”

He is referring to a pair of famous US Army generals. For context:

William Tecumseh Sherman served as a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He was a cunning military strategist, best known for Sherman’s March to the Sea. He led Union troops from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia, along the way crippling the Confederacy. Sherman's army of 60,000 men destroyed everything useful to the Southern Rebellion, including railroads, train depots, factories, cotton gins, warehouses, and any food they couldn’t consume or carry. In the process, they also liberated thousands of enslaved African Americans.

George Armstrong Custer served as a cavalry commander in the Civil War and American Indian Wars. As a lieutenant colonel, he fought against the Great Plains Native Americans. On June 25, 1876, in what became known as “Custer’s Last Stand”, he led the US Army's 7th Cavalry Regiment at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in Montana. In the battle against the Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho, Custer was killed, along with every one of the 200 soldiers under his command.

Major General Sherman

Major General Custer