| The Battle of the Little Bighorn—also
known as Custer's Last Stand, and, in
the parlance of the relevant Native
Americans, the Battle of the Greasy
Grass—was an armed engagement
between a Lakota-Northern Cheyenne combined
force and the 7th Cavalry of the United
States Army. It occurred on June 25
and June 26, 1876, near the Little Bighorn
River in the eastern Montana Territory,
near what is now Crow Agency, MT.
The battle was the most famous action
of the Indian Wars, and was a remarkable
victory for the Lakota and Northern
Cheyenne, led by Sitting Bull. The
U.S. Seventh Cavalry, including a
column of 700 men led by George Armstrong
Custer, was defeated. Five of the
Seventh's companies were annihilated
and Custer himself was killed as were
two of his brothers and a brother-in-law.
This battle did not inflict the highest
number of casualties by Native Americans
against U.S. forces. That record was
set in 1791 at the Battle of the Wabash
with nearly 1000 casualties.
Interpretations of Custer's fight
are conjecture, since none of his
men survived the battle, while the
accounts of surviving Indians are
conflicting and unclear. The gunfire
heard on the bluffs by Reno and Benteen's
men was from Custer's fight. His force
of roughly 210 men was engaged by
the Lakota and Northern Cheyenne about
3.5 miles (6 km) to the north. Having
isolated Reno's force and driven them
away from the encampment, the bulk
of the warriors were free to pursue
Custer. The route taken by Custer
to his "Last Stand" remains
a subject of debate. One possibility
is that after ordering Reno to charge,
Custer continued down Reno Creek to
within about a half mile (800 m) of
the Little Bighorn, but then turned
north, and climbed up the bluffs,
reaching the same spot to which Reno
would soon retreat. From this point
on the other side of the river, he
could see Reno charging the village.
Custer then rode north along the
bluffs, and descended into a drainage
called Medicine Tail Coulee, which
led to the river. Some historians
believe that part of Custer's force
descended the coulee, going west to
the river and attempting unsuccessfully
to cross into the village. According
to some accounts, a small contingent
of Indian sharpshooters opposed this
crossing. White Cow Bull claimed to
have shot a leader wearing a buckskin
jacket off his horse in the river.
While, no other Indian account supports
this claim, if White Bull did actually
shoot a buckskin-clad leader off his
horse, some historians have argued
that Custer himself may have been
seriously wounded by one of these
marksmen. Some Indian accounts claim
that besides wounding one of the leaders
of this advance, a soldier carrying
a company guidon was also hit. Troopers
had to dismount to help the wounded
men back onto their horses. The fact,
however, that both of the non-mutilation
wounds to Custer's body (a bullet
wound below the heart and a shot to
the left temple) would have been instantly
fatal casts doubt on the proposition
that either remounted wounded soldier
was Custer.
The attempted fording of the river at
by way of the Medicine Tail Coulee might
explain Custer's purpose for Reno's
attack, that is, a coordinated "hammer-and-anvil"
maneuver, with Reno holding the Indians
at bay at the southern end of the camp,
while Custer drove them against Reno's
line from the north. Other historians
have noted that if Custer did attempt
to cross the river near Medicine Tail
Coulee, he may have been inspired by
the belief that it was the north end
of the Indian camp, when in fact it
was only the middle. The exact location
of the north end of the village remains
in dispute, however. Custer had tried
a variation of this same sort of tactic
at the 1868 Battle of Washita River
-- a simultaneously converging attack.
Other historians claim that Custer
never approached the river, but rather
continued north across the coulee
and up the other side, where he gradually
came under attack. According to this
theory, by the time Custer realized
he was badly outnumbered, it was too
late to break back to the south where
Reno and Benteen could have provided
assistance. Two men from the 7th Cavalry
later claimed to have seen Custer
engage the Indians, including the
young Crow scout Ashishishe, known
by his translated name Curley, and
the trooper Peter Thompson, who allegedly
fell behind Custer's column. The accuracy
of their recollections remains controversial,
with battle participants and historians
almost universally discrediting Thompson's
claim.
A new interpretation is based on
recent archaeological evidence and
Indian testimony. In the 1920s, battlefield
investigators discovered hundreds
of .45-70 shell cases along the ridge
line, known today as Nye-Cartwright
Ridge, between South Medicine Tail
Coulee and the next drainage at North
Medicine Tail (also known as Deep
Coulee). Historians believe Custer
divided his battalion into two (and
possibly three) companies, retaining
personal command of one while presumably
delegating Captain George W. Yates
to command the second.
At least one of the companies made a
feint attack down the left side of Medicine
Tail Coulee, not actually riding down
the bottom of the coulee, itself, on
the way to Minneconjou Ford (the north
and south forks are shaped like a "V"),
with the intent of relieving the pressure
on Reno's detachment, (according to
Crow scout, Curley possibly viewed by
both Mitch Bouyer and Custer) withdrawing
the skirmish line into the timber on
the edge of the Little Bighorn River.
Coming down from the center of the area
known as Nye-Cartwright Ridge, they
could be seen by many Indians in the
village. Behind them, a second company,
further up on the heights, would have
provided long range cover fire. Warriors
could have been drawn to the feint attack,
forcing the battalion back towards the
heights, up the north fork drainage,
away from the troops providing cover
fire above. The covering company would
have moved towards a reunion, delivering
heavy volley fire and leaving the trail
of expended cartridges discovered 50
years later.
Custer's fight, from this point,
is difficult to follow. Most Indian
accounts tell of a mounted charge
by Crazy Horse and White Bull and
others that drove a wedge between
Company L and C . Seeing these Indians
in their rear, soldiers from Company
L attempted to withdraw north to link
up with Custer. Seeing this opportunity,
Gall and others on the opposite ridge
lines immediately charged the retreating
L Company troopers from the rear.
An attempt at an orderly retreat soon
descended into a what Benteen would
later describe as a "panic rout."
According to the location of the bodies
found on the battlefield, Companies
I and L, under Captain Keogh's command,
were possibly detached and dismounted
to provide a rear guard, and may have
been the last organized defense. The
remaining companies were forced up
the ridge to the top of what is known
today as Custer Hill. The hilltop
itself was probably too small to accommodate
the survivors and wounded. According
to Indian testimony, the command structure
rapidly broke down, although smaller
"last stands" were apparently
made by several groups.
Many Indian accounts speak of small
breakout attempts from C, L and I
Company positions in Keogh's sector
toward the river as well as toward
Custer Hill. These accounts would
explain the troopers' bodies scattered
across the fields southeast of the
ridge line toward the Little Bighorn
River. None of the soldiers made it
to the river from the Southern end
of the battlefield as charts of battlefield
markers demonstrate.
By almost all accounts, within less
than an hour Custer's force was completely
annihilated. ] David Humphries Miller,
who between 1935 and 1955 interviewed
the last Indian survivors of the battle,
wrote that the Custer fight lasted
less than one-half hour. The Lakota
asserted that Crazy Horse personally
led one of the large groups of warriors
that eventually overwhelmed the cavalrymen
in a surprise charge from the northeast,
causing a breakdown in the command
structure and panic among the troops.
Many of these men threw down their
weapons while Cheyenne and Sioux warriors
rode them down, "counting coup"
with lances, coup sticks and quirts.
Some Indian accounts recalled this
segment of the fight as a "buffalo
run." Eyewitness accounts from
Indians, long ignored by traditional
historians, were collected for many
years after the battle and continue
to be analyzed most recently by Michno.
The exact number of Indian warriors
participating in the battle has never
been determined and remains controversial.
It has been estimated that in the
overall battle the warriors outnumbered
the 7th Cavalry by approximately three
to one, or roughly 1800 against 600.
In Custer's fight, this ratio could
have increased to as high as nine
to one (1800 against 200) after his
isolated command became the main focus
of the fighting. Some historians,
however, claim the ratio of the Custer
fight to be as low as three to one.
By almost all accounts, Custer's detachment
was certainly outnumbered and was
caught in the open on unfamiliar terrain.
Scene of Custer's
last stand, looking in the direction
the Indian village and the deep ravine.
Photo by Stanley J. Morrow, spring
1879.
Indian casualties have never been
determined and estimates vary widely,
from as few as 36 dead (from Indian
listings of the dead by name) to as
many as 300. The Sioux Chief Red Horse
told Col. W. H. Wood that the Indians
suffered 136 dead and 160 wounded
during the battle.
The site was first preserved as a
national cemetery in 1879, to protect
graves of the 7th Cavalry troopers
buried there. It was redesignated
Custer Battlefield National Monument
in 1946, and later renamed Little
Bighorn Battlefield National Monument
in 1991.
Memorialization on the battlefield
began in 1879 with a temporary monument
to U.S. dead. This was replaced with
the current marble obelisk in 1881.
In 1890 the marble blocks that dot
the field were added to mark the place
where the U.S. cavalry soldiers fell.
The bill that changed the name of
the national monument also called
for an Indian Memorial to be built
near Last Stand Hill. On Memorial
Day 1999, two red granite markers
were added to the battlefield where
Native American warriors fell. As
of December 2006, there are now a
total of ten warrior markers (three
at the Reno-Benteen Defense Site,
seven on the Custer Battlefield).
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