Lock of Custer's hair is sold at auction for more than $12G

A lock of hair that experts say came from Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer was sold at auction Saturday for $12,500. (Heritage Auctions via AP)

Consider them “strands of history.”

An auction house sold what it deemed a "substantial" portion of Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer’s hair over the weekend.

The blond lock went for $12,500 at auction on Saturday.

Custer was killed at the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876, and his troops were quickly overwhelmed in what became known as Custer’s Last Stand.

Heritage Auctions said online that there are more than fifty hairs in the lot - and that each is two to three inches long.

The lock, it said, came from the collection of Glen Swanson, who spent decades amassing artifacts related to the Battle of Little Bighorn.

Swanson said in a document that he had been given the chance to examine Custer’s uniform and sword, the latter of which he said was placed in a case.

“The sword and uniform were captured by Southern troops at the battle of Trevellian Station in June of 1864,” he wrote.

“He writes to Libbie about his loss,” Swanson added. “Libbie, his wife, requested that he save his hair when he went to the barber and to send it to her as she was making a wig from it. Inside the case was evidence that he did so. A large envelope with his hair was found, ready to send.”

Swanson wrote that he was given permission to take some of the hair.

History.com described Custer's Last Stand as “the most decisive Native American victory and the worst U.S. Army defeat in the long Plains Indian War.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.