Battle of the Little Bighorn

Many of the Indian bands, in their remote and scattered winter camps, likely did not receive these orders and could not have reached the government agencies as whole communities (including women and children) if they had. In the face of white threats, these nonreservation bands came together under the leadership of the charismatic Sioux leader Sitting Bull, who advocated resistance to U.S. expansion and inspired his people with impressive religious visions. When the hunting season arrived in the spring, many more Native Americans left the reservations and headed out to join Sitting Bull, whose growing number of followers eventually made camp on the Little Bighorn River (a branch of the Bighorn River) in southern Montana Territory.

The U.S. government ordered three army columns to converge on Sioux country from the east, west, and south. Custer’s 7th Cavalry made up the largest part of Brig. Gen. Alfred H. Terry’s Dakota Column, which marched west from Fort Abraham Lincoln on May 17, 1876.

On June 22, 1876, Custer and the 7th Cavalry set out to follow Sitting Bull’s trail, which would lead them into the Little Bighorn Valley. Terry expected Custer to find and strike the Sioux and Cheyenne from the south, driving them into a smaller blocking force that he planned to position upstream on the Little Bighorn River. By the morning of June 25, Custer’s scouts had located Sitting Bull’s village, and Custer attempted to position the 7th Cavalry close enough to attack his foes at dawn the following day. When some stray Indian warriors spotted elements of Custer’s command, he feared that they would rush to warn their village, which would then break up and flee beyond his grasp.

Custer opted for an immediate attack by the 7th Cavalry into the Little Bighorn Valley. At noon on June 25, to keep the Sioux and Cheyenne from escaping, Custer divided his regiment into three battalions, sending one to charge the village head on, a second to swing south to intercept any Indians fleeing in that direction, and a third under his personal command to strike the village from the north. This turned out to be a disastrous decision that fragmented Custer’s regiment and placed its three main components too far apart to support each other.

The unfolding battle, which came to be known as the Battle of the Little Bighorn, confronted Custer and the 7th Cavalry with a series of unpleasant surprises. Rather than seek safety in flight, the Sioux and Cheyenne stood their ground, determined to either live or die in freedom. Earlier army intelligence estimates credited the bands loyal to Sitting Bull with a force of 800 fighting men, but Custer actually found himself facing some 2,000 Sioux and Cheyenne warriors, many of them armed with superior repeating rifles and all of them resolved to defend their women, children, and older relatives.

In a desperate battle that may have lasted nearly two hours, the Indians cut off the 210 soldiers who had followed Custer toward the northern reaches of their village and killed them all. Not one cavalry trooper lived to tell the story of “Custer’s Last Stand.” Two days later a scouting party from General Terry’s column discovered Custer’s nude, unscalped body lying amid a ring of dead cavalry horses where he and 40 other men had rallied for a final stand. Custer bore two bullet wounds—one in the left breast near his heart and one in front of his left temple—either of which could have killed him. The victorious Sioux and Cheyenne captured 80 to 90 live horses from Custer’s annihilated battalion. They left one officer’s badly wounded horse, named Comanche, which managed to survive. For many years afterward Comanche appeared in 7th Cavalry parades, saddled but riderless.

Legacy

Custer was given a hero’s burial at West Point. Owing to his status as a Civil War hero, his death shocked the American people. Books and articles presented him as a role model to the country’s youth; statues were erected in his honour; hundreds of artists produced fanciful paintings of his final battle; and eventually Hollywood turned out a series of films that helped keep Custer’s name a household word. As Americans came to regret their government’s mistreatment of Native Americans, however, Custer’s image changed. By the latter half of the 20th century, the gallant Indian fighter had been transformed into a bloodthirsty Indian killer. Though many historians now accept that Custer was neither a spotless hero nor a villain, he and his final battle remain subjects of intense controversy.