September 7, 2014, Sunday   Battle of Little Bighorn

We are in Hardin, MT near the site of Custer's Last Stand.  We left early to get to the national memorial.  It was originally named after Custer but in the 1980's we recognized the Indian involvement and the name was changed to Battle of Little Bighorn Memorial.

First, this place is located in southern Montana just to the east of Billings.  The site of the battle was along the Little Bighorn River.  The Bighorn River splits and runs southwest and the smaller Little Bighorn runs almost due south all the way to Wyoming. (We've learned its easy to see the rivers and waters in Montana..they are where the trees grow).  It was along this river that a large contingent of Indians from several tribes, Lakota (Sioux), Arapaho and Cheyenne primarily, gathered as they fled Union soldiers who were trying to get them to go to the reservations or eradicate them.  Sitting Bull was the primary leader and there were between 7,000 and 10,000 Indians.  Of these, 2500 were warriors.  The rest were women, children and the elderly.  The Indians were surprised when they spotted the soldiers miles away.  By the way, Sitting Bull did not fight.  He was in his 40's and the Indians ruled out 40 year olds as warriors.  He was their political leader.  Crazy Horse was their military leader.

Imagine 10,000 Indians in the flat area opposite the tree line (Little Bighorn River)

Custer had three battalions; his own, Major Reno's and Captain Benteen's.  Custer's battalion was about 225 men.  Custer's Crow scouts (the Crow's hated the Sioux and Cheyenne as they had been bitter enemies in the past) spotted the large encampment of Indians from almost 15 miles away from a peak on a nearby mountain known as the Crow's Nest.  They knew it was a large encampment and Custer supposedly wanted to wait overnight, rest and wait on reinforcements.  This last point is disputed. Some say Custer foolishly wanted to attack right away.

The above discrepancy points out what we have learned by the wee bit of Custer-study we have done. There is a controversy on just about everything.  Just like the Kennedy assassination, there are different explanations floating about.  For example, the book I read (and referenced in an earlier post) made an issue of Custer pushing his men 83 miles on the day of the battle.  I asked the Ranger at the Park who gave about a 30 minute talk on Custer and the battle about this.  The Ranger stated that Custer did push his men in getting here but the last day they only traveled about 15 miles and a Calvary Horse can walk at about 6 miles an hour.  So, we've learned that you can find a different explanation for just about everything and there is a book for each explanation!

Another explanation given is that Custer's Crow scouts told him he could not wait to attack. They had been spotted by the Indians and they would either attack or flee.  Custer did not want either so he went ahead with the attack.

So, I will try to summarize briefly what we learned at the National Memorial today.  When Custer arrived at about the location below, he split his three Battalions.  Reno was to take his 150 men and run directly at the Indian encampment.  Benteen was to follow at a slightly different path.

On top of the hill to the left, Custer split the Battalions

While Reno was to charge into the Indian camp, Custer was to take his men and circle around the hill to the rear of encampment where he thought all the women and children would be running.  His plan was to capture the women and children and then, he thought, the warriors would surrender.  This is thought to be his plan since this is what he did in Oklahoma at the only other major Indian battle in which Custer fought.  At Washita, Custer surprised an encampment and raided it at dawn.  He rounded up the women and children and quickly gained the surrender of the warriors.  The difference was that there were very few warriors in the encampment according to the book I read.  In fact, the book said there were only 11 warriors in the camp at Washita.  

Another point was why would Custer send Reno with only 150 men riding into an Indian camp of thousands of Indians?  Custer's experience with Indians was limited and the few skirmishes in which he was involved, the small bands of Indians did break and run almost immediately following an attack.  Custer thought this was true of all Indians.  He believed the Indians would break and run when a Battalion of U. S. Army Calvary rode toward them.  (There is another side issue here.  A battle at Rosebud River had occurred earlier in which the Indians were numerous and were "warlike." They did not run.  But the officer at Rosebud had not sent word of the change in the Indians behavior back to Ft. Abraham Lincoln.  Instead he only sent a message asking for more supplies and reinforcements. Custer and the others were not aware of this event).

Reno, shortly after his charge toward the encampment, learned quickly that the Indians did not run but instead came "out of the ground" in large numbers.  Reno ordered his men into the woods and as more Indians came, he panicked and gave conflicting orders to mount, then dismount, then mount.  (I have read that he was intoxicated and this was one reason he may have withdrawn from continuing his attack).  His men desperately ran up a hill seeking some sort of defensive position.

This is the hill Reno's men climbed to try to escape the Indian Counterattack

Benteen was summoned by Reno to turn back and help him.  Benteen, broke his orders given to him by Custer to attack, and turned his battalion back to try and help Reno.  Meanwhile, Custer and his men appeared around the other side of these hills and the Indians could see he was headed to the women and children in the encampment.  This saved Reno and Benteen as most of the Indians broke off to go to the other side to keep Custer away from the encampment.  Custer's widow always claimed that had Reno not turned back, Custer would have been victorious.  

Custer, now far away from Reno and Benteen and unaware that they were out of the battle for all practical purposes, was met by 20 young Indian boys who had agreed the night before to a suicide pact to protect their families.  Custer had his men form a skirmish line just below what became "Last Stand Hill." But soon, many other warriors from the encampment came up the hill and Custer probably began to realize he had bitten off more than he could chew.  The Indians, also armed with guns including repeating rifles such as Winchesters and Henry's, were overwhelming.

Custer was still hoping for help from his rear.  Along the way to the encampment, he had broken up his Battalion by leaving Companies of men to help direct Benteen and Reno back to him. (He had sent word during the battle asking for help and the handwritten note still exists).  What he didn't know was that Reno and Benteen were fighting for their lives and most of the Companies of men he left along the way were being killed by more Indians.  Crazy Horse, the famous Sioux warrior, is said to have led the charges on these troops.

It is about these men, companies from Custer's battalion who were left along the top of the hill, that another controversy has emerged.  As these men were surrounded by Indians they were doomed.  It was from here that some of the men probably ran for their lives down into a ravine at the bottom of the hill. It is also likely that some of the men who were with Custer also ran over the top of "Last Stand Hill" and tried to escape down the ravine. They were all killed in short order as Indians were everywhere. Some writers have said this meant there was no "Last Stand" as there is evidence that men ran trying to escape.  As the Ranger said, "a battle is pandomonium." It is likely that several did try to save their lives just by running when nothing else was left to do.  But, it is hard to argue there was no last stand for those who remained on the hill until their deaths.

Back at the hill, for Custer, no help was to arrive and it was soon apparent that the only choice the last 40 to 100 men had was just to get to the top of the hill behind them.  They got to the top of the hill and the Indians now were on both sides of the hill.  One survivor Indian wrote "we circled them like water swirling around a tree."  The last remaining soldiers on the hill shot their horses and used the horse bodies for some protection as they had no cover from the incoming bullets and arrows.

As did Custer and the last survivors, Lib climbed to the top of Last Stand Hill.  The stones mark where soldiers fell.

The black tombstone marks where Custer died.  He is buried at West Point.

Custer was hated by the Indians though they had no idea he was even in the fight until later.  They called him Long Hair but, by this time Custer was going bald and wore his hair short.  But he had smoked the Piece Pipe after the 1868 Treaty agreement. At the Indian Memorial, the Indians made sure everyone was aware that Custer had broken his word.  See the inscription below. 

After the battle, Indian women found Custer's body and passed awls through his eardrums.  This was an Indian custom for those "who did not hear the words they gave at the piece pipe."
The Indians put a memorial on the grounds to their fallen but it was years later that this happened. No one knows how many Indians were killed but the ranger said historians estimate about 100 or less.

Lib at the wall of the Indian Memorial

Custer's battalion was lost; about 210 men; about 53 men from the Reno and Benteen battalions were lost and another 52 wounded.  The men of the Reno and Benteen battalions were rescued when a day later, the columns of Terry and Gibbon arrived.  The Indians, upon learning of the approach of more men, abandoned the encampment and left the area.  

If Custer had just slowed down and arrived at the same time as the Terry and Gibbon Battalions, it may have been a different story.  A better outcome would have been that the Indians would have realized the futility of fighting and Wounded Knee would have been averted where many of the remaining Indians were massacred.  Books have been written on the "what ifs."  

After the battle, soldiers marked the areas where the dead fell and buried them there.  Later on the government sent a group in and they dug up all the dead, put down stones to mark where each had fallen and took the remains to one mass grave site.  It is located at the top of "Last Stand Hill."  A stone marks the mass grave.

One reason we learned that this battle gained such national attention was that word got back to the east two weeks later just as the country was celebrating its 100th anniversary in Philadelphia.  The newspapers were hot with stories about the Indians winning the battle and killing the Civil War hero, George Armstrong Custer.  The public was incensed and the Federal government reacted strongly. The massacre at Wounded Knee ended the Indian Wars.  

One other issue that intrigued us.  Who were the men with Custer?  Most of them were from the east and mid-west. But, a good number of them were from Europe (125 were from Germany).  These were mostly young men, aged from 17 to 56, who were trying to learn English, make a living in the Army and make a life for themselves in the expanding U.S. frontier.  Very few were from the South (two from Georgia and two from Tennessee). I suspect most men from the South, who survived the Civil War, did not want to enlist in the Union Army.  We read that the average age of Indian Warrior was about 22; a guesstimate, I am sure.  

We traveled well out of our way (if we have a way?) to get here but it was well worth it.  We spent several hours at the memorial and now have a better feel for what we read about the battle.  

As we drove home, we observed the homes on the Crow reservation.  What happened to the Indians is a sad piece of history.  They seemed to have had the best of values when they lived off the land. But, as all of us old codgers know, the world keeps changing and it is hard to stop the change. The Indians got run over by that change.  I doubt all the Casinos will be the answer.

Speaking of change, we are off tomorrow to Yellowstone and the land of Grizzly Bears. I hope they are not out of pepper spray as I never bought those guns. We arrive tomorrow and hope to get a feel for the park before Michelle arrives next Friday!  

Now I realize I got far too involved in this post about Custer.   I have become a Custerphile or Custerphobe..just don't know which story to believe!   Also, I realize that I've just spent over an hour recounting all this and anyone reading it could have Googled it with ease in a matter of seconds. Oh well, I enjoyed doing it and Lib has been glued to a movie.