Sergeant Daniel Kanipe of the Seventh Cavalry Regiment was one of the few soldiers to survive the Battle of the Little Bighorn on June 25, 1876. His testimony before the Court of Inquiry and his later memoir provided a crucial firsthand account of the campaign that ended in the destruction of George Armstrong Custer’s command.
Kanipe’s narrative begins on May 17, 1876, when the regiment set out from Fort Abraham Lincoln on what he called “a most regrettable trip.” After marching twelve miles, the column camped at the Big Heart River. They continued to the Powder River around June 10, where they left their wagon train behind.
The regiment carried ten days of provisions, a decision that would later prove costly.
Six of the twelve companies were sent on a reconnaissance mission under Major Marcus Reno. The detachment boarded pack mules and turned back down the Rosebud River. They brewed coffee in the morning and resumed their march until midday, then turned toward the Tongue River.
Rain began to fall, and the men spent the entire night walking the trail. During the two-day journey up the river, they found the Indian trail along the Rosebud.
Kanipe noted that the regiment was running low on supplies when they encountered the remaining six companies under General Custer. Custer had recently been arrested at the confluence of the Rosebud and Yellowstone Rivers. The arrest stemmed from his dispute with post traders under President Grant’s administration, who had set maximum prices for goods.
A glass of whiskey cost twenty-five cents, and soldiers could not buy anything from post concessions without going through those vendors. General Terry, the department commander, was present at the arrest. Despite the charges, Custer was given a command at that location.
In hindsight, Kanipe believed this was a mistake. He later reflected that the Indians would not have stopped running if Custer had taken the two Gatling guns offered from the steamship Far West. Custer declined them, thinking he could move faster without the heavy artillery.
Kanipe was convinced that the outcome would have been different with those guns. “Without a doubt they would still be running, and I wouldn’t have been the only survivor if we had a Gatling gun there,” he said.
On June 22, Custer’s group received fifteen days of rations from the Far West. General Gibbon transported them across the river. They broke camp and marched all day.
After marching until almost dusk, they set up camp and resumed the next morning. On June 24, they arrived at a location where the Indians had performed a sun dance. The ground was firm and smooth, and the Indians had built brush huts out of cottonwood trees.
Six Crow Indian scouts found a white man’s calf that had come from a soldier under Gibbon’s command. The scouts gave the calf to General Custer, who looked it over before giving it to the men.
That evening, the Indian scouts who had been deployed earlier returned around ten o’clock. It was still light enough to read at nine in the summer. Custer ordered the men to pack their gear and saddle up.
The regiment marched to a gully that seemed a suitable place to spend the night, approaching the point where the Little Bighorn and Rosebud Rivers converge. The remainder of the command was hidden as long as they wanted.
During the march, Quartermaster Sergeant Hurst dropped some hard bread from the pack train. General Custer ordered him to return and collect it after learning that two Indians were helping themselves to the bread. The column stopped after marching up the divide.
Custer split his group into three detachments. He kept Troops C, I, and F for himself. Captain Benteen was given Troops H, K, and D.
Major Reno commanded the remaining units.
When the Indians noticed the approaching army, they fled. Custer was told about the incident and wanted to act immediately to surprise the Indians the following morning. But because they were aware of his presence, he chose to return to camp and gave the order to move out.
The command ran down what is now Benteen Creek until they reached a crossing. There, they found an abandoned Indian camp with smoking fires. One of the surviving tepees contained a deceased Indian.
Custer ordered Major Reno to burn the tepee. Reno followed orders and crossed Benteen Creek and the Little Bighorn.
Kanipe recalled that when they were within a quarter of a mile of the Indians, he saw them on top of the bluffs overlooking the river. General Custer looked down at that point. Troops C, I, and F made their way to the bluffs where the Indians had been spotted.
Tom Custer, the General’s brother, commanded Kanipe’s troop. The Crow scout Curley and chief scout Mitch Bouyer stayed on the bluffs with them.
The men galloped to the far end of the bluffs so they could attack the Indian camp. The Crow scouts intended to sneak down and seize a few horses, but they were shot for it. By the time the soldiers reached the summit, the Indians had vanished, but the tepees were visible for a couple of miles in all directions.
The four companies began yelling and hollering when they spotted the camp down in the valley.
Sergeant Finley was riding near Kanipe when he cried that he was reaching his breaking point. Kanipe repeated the call: “If you can come on, Finn.” Kanipe initially thought it was a bad pack train.
He was then ordered to transmit orders that General Custer had just given. Captain Tom Custer told him to turn around, locate Captain McDougall, and tell him to move the pack train directly to the high ground.
“A large Indian camp is present,” he said. “Tell him not to stop to fix the packs if they come loose. Slice them off.
Act quickly.”
Kanipe later reflected that this order saved his life. If General Custer’s last words had come back to Sergeant Finley instead, Finley would have received the orders, and Kanipe would not be telling the story.
The men rode in silence and gave the soldiers a few minutes’ notice before they fell back. Kanipe could see the dust rising from the pack train and made his way toward it. He gave three cheers as his group and the others continued down into the Indian camp.
Some of the men galloped past General Custer, unable to control their horses. “Hold your horses, boys,” Custer yelled at them. “There are plenty down there.”
After giving the orders to Captain McDougall at the pack train, Kanipe went to Captain Benteen because he had been told to present the orders to him as well. As Dr. DeWolf retreated from the base of the bluffs, the Indians shot at him.
McDougall and his men rode up to the top of the hill to support him. Behind them, the Indians were shooting, and men were dropping. DeWolf was killed.
Kanipe noted that he would have been spared if he had advanced only a few paces.
Kanipe saw some Indians hurrying along as he followed Captain Benteen back. He was ready to fire a few shots. After arriving at the Powder River and leaving Major Reno’s command, the men were so terrified that they kept going until they reached Kanipe.
He thought they were hostile, but they were actually friendly.
Kanipe rode back to the top of the ridge with the battalion after giving Captain Benteen the orders. There, they joined the others under Major Reno and McDougall. Kanipe was not permitted to join his company because the Indians stood between them and General Custer.
They had to retreat to the bluffs to confront the Indians.
The Indians shot at them all day. At night, they assembled, and on the morning of the 26th, they came shooting again. Kanipe said they killed a lot of men before they could reach them.
Two officers, Lieutenants Harrington and Sturgis, and fourteen soldiers were never located. Some men were shot when they tried to get water, and their bodies could not be recovered.
Kanipe clearly remembered the opening gunfire during the two-day conflict. There was an injured man who desperately needed water, but they could not provide it. He hit the ground nearby and zipped right under Kanipe’s horse’s belly.
It was heartbreaking to hear the cries of the wounded and see the Indians drag them around. The Indians killed fifty-six of the men in the group on the hill.
On the morning of June 27, there was not a single Indian in sight. The men made coffee, got water, and did their best to help the injured. General Gibbon arrived with General Terry later that afternoon.
The women were busy packing away everything, and the warriors continued to fire. When General Terry arrived, the men cheered enthusiastically.
They soon discovered that General Custer and the four companies had been completely destroyed. Kanipe saw Sergeant Finley with twelve arrows protruding from him. He recognized a few acquaintances as he examined the dead.
The bodies had been lying in the sun for two days, bloodied and mangled. The Indians had removed their injured but never touched the dead.
Kanipe noted that the soldiers had just received their pay at Powder River Camp before starting on the campaign. The Indians must have received roughly $25,000 in cash from the dead men’s clothing. The women and children would constantly beat the men in the face with it.
Everything had been destroyed by tomahawks or shot full of arrows.
General Custer’s body was found lying across a group of men, with only the small of his back touching the ground. Kanipe could see where the stones had dropped, gathered in a little pile. This last group was beside Captain Tom Custer, the General’s brother, and his brother-in-law Lieutenant Calhoun, who commanded H Troop.
Calhoun was surrounded by dead men, and his heart had been shot clear through.
There were roughly 4,000 Indians and 400 soldiers involved in the battle. The horse Comanche was the only living creature to survive the massacre. Kanipe had stayed on the battlefield to recount what had happened after Custer’s defeat.
He noted that Custer and his soldiers had to contend with an overwhelming force. About seventy-five Indians were discovered inside three standing tepees.
Kanipe was shocked to learn of the unsettling attitude of the dead. He immediately dropped his hands because it was such a gory scene. The Indians were dressed in buffalo robes and blankets.
After the battle, the soldiers buried their fallen friends. Kanipe estimated that many more were revered as the Native American camp moved on.
The injured soldiers were taken to the Far West steamboat. The steamer had to retreat to the Yellowstone River after traveling as a violent traumatic reminder of what had transpired. Many of the injured soldiers were transported in the form of Cavalry soldiers.
The horse Comanche was escorted at the front of dress parades and spent the remainder of his days in a box stall.
The Indians were able to leave without more casualties after winning a resounding victory. Kanipe noted that his regiment, which had participated in the battle, was not prepared to go after them. The men were too severely hurt and too high to launch a successful counteroffensive.
The Indians simply dismantled their camp and continued their journey.
Kanipe’s account remains a vital historical source for understanding the Battle of the Little Bighorn. His testimony offers a rare enlisted man’s perspective on the decisions, chaos, and tragedy that defined one of the most famous defeats in American military history.