On June 21, George Armstrong Custer and 265 men of the Seventh U.S. Cavalry were annihilated on the Little Big Horn River. After a notable career in the Union Army during the Civil War, he was assigned to duty in Texas as part of Gen. Philip H. Sheridan's effort to prevent Confederate retrenchment in Mexico under the emperor Maximilian. During five months in Hempstead and Austin, he alienated many in his command by strict enforcement of regulations prohibiting foraging and other army predations, while winning the gratitude of many Texans. Custer's headquarters building in Austin, the Blind Asylum, located on the "Little Campus" at the University of Texas, has been restored.