Little Bighorn

I decided to spend this spring reading up on historical stuff I really never learned before. One of those things is the Battle of Little Bighorn, or, as it used to be more popularly known as, Custer’s Last Stand. I burned through two vastly different books on the subject these past two weeks. Continuing this “filling in the gaps” reading, I’m currently about a hundred pages into a book on the Vietnam War, but that’s a subject for another post.

So partly to fill in the gaps for you, and partly to record my takeaway for a future re-reading, I’m going to post a summation of the battle here. A very rough, non-expert synopsis of two very different books I just read (and I’ll review later). You can read through this and be confident that you will soon know more about the Battle of Little Bighorn than ninety-nine-point-nine percent of the general public.

1. The Battle of Little Bighorn takes place June 25-26, 1876, a little over a week before the nation’s Centennial birthday bash. Custer’s annihilation at the hands of the Sioux will shake the nation to its core. A scandal-plagued President Grant is in his final year of his two-term presidency, and when news of the defeat reaches the east, it dims the unbridled optimism of the months-long celebration.

2. Little Bighorn is a river in southeastern Montana not far north of the Wyoming border. It is a smaller tributary of the Bighorn River. It lies to the west of the Black Hills of South Dakota. Two years prior an expedition discovered gold in the Black Hills, prompting a rush of white miners into the region, which belongs to the Sioux by treaty. The expedition was led by General George Armstrong Custer.

3. Custer is 36 years old at the time of the Battle of Little Bighorn. Thirteen years earlier he was named a General at the tail end of the Civil War, the youngest man to be awarded such a rank at the time. His cavalry played a key role in preventing Lee’s escape from Petersburg, climaxing at the surrender at Appomattox. After the Civil War he participates in major Indian battles (such as at Washita) and several skirmishes. He has written a best-selling autobiography and is America’s best known “Indian fighter.” He is also contemplating serious money on a speaking tour and possibly running for President.

4. Custer is passionately in love with his wife, Libbie. They are, however, childless. Libbie has troubling, foreboding dreams right before Custer leaves with his men in the late spring of 1876, including a vision of his unit, the Seventh Cavalry, marching off into the sky. She will live as a widow for over half-a-century, writing books defending her late husband’s reputation and actions during the Battle of Little Bighorn.

5. Two brothers, a brother-in-law, and a nephew accompany Custer to the battle. They all perish with him.

6. Big-picture background: Tensions quickly grow between the Sioux Indians and the rapidly increasing numbers of white miners and settlers rushing in to the Black Hills. After the Sioux reject a government offer to purchase the Black Hills, Grant chooses the lesser of two evils, and decides to pressure the Indians rather than the white “invaders.” At the time there are various reservations in operation, where Indians are encouraged to relocate. There they are provided food, shelter, clothing, and are taught farming skills. Some tribes willingly go, some prevaricate, staying only during the harsh winters, other tribes flat out refuse. A great “Sun Dance” convenes in late spring of 1876, and a large band of Indian tribes gather, possibly larger than anything seen before. Thus the government decrees that any Indian who refuses to relocate to a reservation be declared a “hostile.”

7. “Sioux” is a derogatory French term for the Lakota Indians, “Lakota” being an umbrella term for a half-dozen tribes speaking a common tongue. Present at the Sun Dance, and later at the Little Bighorn, are Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse. Well past the age of warriorhood at 45, Sitting Bull is an Unkpapa Lakota and the spiritual leader of the Sioux. Crazy Horse is an Oglala Indian, a short quiet man renowned for his fighting skills and, truth be known, more than a tad eccentric.

8. Picture an upside down triangle, with the Little Bighorn River somewhere near the center. The army decides on a three-pronged search-and-destroy mission from each corner of the triangle. From Fort Fetterman in the south, marching north, are 1,500 men under the leadership of General Crook. From Fort Ellis in the west, heading southeast, ride troops under General Gibbon. And from Fort Lincoln in the east, heading southwest, are forces under the command of General Terry.

9. Terry is technically Custer’s superior, but he’s a desk man, ordered into the field for this mission. Thus he’s probably grateful when Custer breaks off with his force of 700 men to scout ahead. Custer has a well-deserved reputation as an aggressive tracker of Indians, known on more than one occasion to ride straight into an Indian camp with guns blazing. As he’s looking for this to be his last field mission before greater things (book tour, speaking engagements, bid for the Presidency), he’s looking to retire in glory.

10. He is also subordinate to Terry because he’s in Grant’s dog house, so to speak, having recently testified to corruption in the military and in the Indian Department specifically. He almost does not receive permission to go into the field, and has to lobby the President and the cabinet pretty hard to do so.

11. A day after breaking off from Terry’s column, Custer’s scouts, primarily Crow and Arikara Indians, foes of the Sioux, spot a large gathering of Indians in the Little Bighorn valley. Rather than await Terry’s forces or rendezvous with the other prongs led by Crook and Gibbon, Custer decides to attack. The great fear is that the Indians will scatter upon detecting his approaching regiment.

12. Picture the Little Bighorn as a squiggle running roughly south-north (the direction of water flow). Custer and the Seventh Cavalry approach from the south-southeast. The Indians are located off the northwest bank in an open plain. Just south of the Indian camp a forest hugs the river’s west bank. The eastern bank consists of a range of hills and valleys, most hills about a hundred feet above the river below. This will be the battlefield.

13. Custer decides to split his forces for the attack into three wings. He will command one and the two other wings will be led, unfortunately, by men who hold grudges against him: Major Reno and Major Benteen. Reno is an alcoholic of mediocre military ability and probably has been in a depression since his wife died three years prior. Benteen is an officer who never gets along with his superiors and has been disparaging Custer anonymously in newspaper dispatches back east. Both are career military men who are older than the boy general.

14. The plan for attack is this: Reno will cross the river and advance up the west bank to attack the southern end of the village. Simultaneously, Custer and Benteen will advance north on the east bank over the hills. Benteen will hold back for possible reinforcement and to guard the supply train while Custer will cross the Little Bighorn above the village and attack downward. The village will be caught in a pincer movement (Reno up from the south, Custer down from the north). Custer will also attempt to capture fleeing women and children to hold as hostage, and tactic he’s used successfully in the past.

15. Now everything goes wrong.

16. Reno attacks the southern part of the village but is dismayed upon seeing that the Indians are not fleeing – they are massing and attacking. He lays down a skirmish line (where three out of four men lie down to shoot spaced 15 feet apart, with the fourth holding the reins of all four horses behind the line), but panics at the aggressive response he’s encountering. A scout is killed right beside him and the major sprayed with blood and bone. He calls for retreat, but not an orderly one, into the timber bordering the river. Men see him drinking out of a flask. His force is overwhelmed – many are killed, many hide in the woods, many attempt to flee back across the Little Bighorn, about a hundred feet wide at this point and four feet deep.

17. Because Reno can’t pin the Indian warriors down, they are able to rally and head north to counter Custer’s attack. Also, separately, Reno and Custer realize that there are far more Indians than was assumed. Instead of the 800 or so they expect from estimates from the Indian Bureau, there are possibly 1,800 to 2,500 warriors facing them. And instead of running away, they are running toward the battle. To make matters worse, half the Indians are carrying rifles instead of bows and arrows, and the rifles they carry are often of superior quality than the government-issued ones the cavalrymen use: repeaters versus single shot weapons.

18. Custer mistakenly divides his forces yet again (before realizing the truer size of the opposing force), sending a Captain with some men directly west as he continues north and then cuts across to attack. He encounters fierce immediate resistance and is compelled to retreat, back up the hills on the east bank. The Indians, wielding more than a 10-to-1 advantage, swarm over him and his men. Though it’s hard to pin down a timeframe, all sixty or so survivors of Custer’s wing are killed on “Last Stand Hill” in a battle that lasts either a half-hour or several hours.

19. Custer’s body is later found with two bullet wounds: one in his left chest, the other in his left temple. It’s not suicide as Custer is right-handed. Some speculate that his brother killed the wounded General in mercy, since the wounded were tortured and mutilated by the victorious Indians, but this assertion has never been supported by most historians.

20. Reno’s men regroup with Benteen’s and the two wings spend the night, the next day, and the following night defending their position on a different hill. Scores of troopers are killed. Two of the three company doctors are killed, along with a newspaperman. Reno spends most of the battle hiding in a ditch with his bottle. Benteen shows some spine, walking upright and seemingly unconcerned about whizzing bullets and arrows, encouraging the men to fight back. Most of the horses are killed and are used as protection. Thirst sets in as temperatures reach the high 90s and there is no safe route to the river for water.

21. However, some in Benteen’s company report hearing gunfire to the north, where they believe Custer to be, possibly the agreed-upon volley of firing that would indicate a need for support and reinforcements. Gunfire is heard by various men as late as 4:30 in the afternoon. But Benteen refuses to move off the hill to investigate, pinned down as they are by their own attackers. He’s of half a mind to believe Custer deserted them, in fact.

22. By the third morning the survivors discover the Indians have left. Shocked and in a daze, they also stumble upon the massacre to the north on Last Stand Hill. The only living thing left on the hill is a horse named Comanche, suffering with seven bullet and arrow wounds. The horse is treated and regains its health and becomes a mascot for the Seventh. He lives for another 29 years and, in honor of his service, is never ridden again. In future parades and reviews, Comanche will always march riderless.

23. In retrospect, many things went wrong and were done wrong that might have seemed to be good ideas at the time. In addition to underestimating Sioux numbers, their weaponry, and their response to cavalry attack, the books pointed out a number of points.

24. Custer’s men and horses were exhausted from riding 60 miles in 24 hours after breaking from Terry’s command. He had initially wanted to rest the men a day but felt that he would lose the element of surprise, so he launched the mid-morning attack without adequate recovery.

25. Pride also prevented Custer from accepting Terry’s offer of taking the Second Cavalry with him. “The Seventh Cavalry can whip any Indian war party,” he had boasted at the time.

26. He also refused to take along a pair of Gatling guns. These powerful proto-machine guns could have mowed down line after line of attacking Sioux, but they were cumbersome, being mounted immovable on wagons, drawn by horses of a lesser quality than cavalry mounts, and frequently jammed up in the heat of battle. Custer felt he could move faster without them and fight just as effectively.

27. All told, of the 700 or so men of the Seventh Cavalry, 268 died in the immediate battle and 6 more later perished from their wounds. Five of its twelve companies were completely annihilated. Custer’s mutilated body was later disinterred from the battlefield and sent back east to eventual burial in West Point Cemetery.