The pack train lay about a mile to the east when Captain Frederick Benteen and his three companies were last seen, having completed their reconnaissance and rejoined the main road along the Reno River. Roughly a quarter to a half mile downstream, Benteen halted to rest his men and water the horses in an area known as the marsh. That stop would later become the first great source of controversy, with critics claiming Benteen had wasted precious time, dismissing the delay with the phrase he dawdled in the swamp. By reasonable estimates, the halt lasted between fifteen and twenty minutes.
Captain Thomas Weir, commanding Company D at the head of the advance, grew furious at the prolonged delay. He ordered Lieutenant Godfrey of Company K to ride to Benteen and implore him to move on. Godfrey refused, unwilling to confront the commander, so Weir began walking down the road alone. When Benteen saw this, he took his place at the front of the column and ordered the rest of the force to follow.
He stopped again a mile to the west, glanced briefly at a burning tepee in the distance, and then continued on. As the force moved downstream, they heard gunfire. A rider named Daniel Knipe passed by with a message that amounted to, they want you there as fast as you can. Whether or not Tom Custer had sent an official dispatch, Private John Martin galloped ahead and delivered Custer’s final message to Benteen.
The note was shown to the company commanders, who remained silent. Benteen asked Martin where General Custer was. The answer came that Major Reno was attacking the camp and was about three miles ahead at the time. Benteen weighed his options.
He believed that carrying the pack train and moving quickly could not both be done, and that he could only achieve one or the other. Having made up his mind, he said he thought it best not to wait for the supplies if he was to serve Custer. He ordered Martin back to the pack train with instructions for Captain McDougall to bring it forward with speed. Riding ahead, Benteen stopped at the point where Reno and Custer had earlier divided their forces, remarking that they were facing a dilemma.
A brief discussion followed among Benteen and his company commanders, and they agreed that Weir should move left toward the river while the rest of the command moved right. As they advanced, they saw figures on the bluffs ahead, fighting in the valley below. But who was it? Custer?
Reno? The Indians? Based on these observations, Benteen ordered the advance, and it was at that point he met Major Marcus Reno, who was on the edge of losing his composure. Reno shouted, for God’s sake, Benteen, halt your command and help me.
Half my men are gone. We are whipped. Reno did not know where Custer was, but Benteen showed him Custer’s message. It fell to Benteen to advise Reno at that moment, and the recommendation was to join Custer as soon as possible.
Yet Reno asked to wait for the pack train because his men needed additional ammunition. And so, any attempt to rapidly support Custer was halted by Reno, the senior officer on that part of the field. Benteen, now under Reno’s command, ordered Weir and Godfrey to establish skirmish lines as expected of an officer in a defensive scenario. The men observed that most of the warriors were moving downstream while the few survivors of Reno’s valley fight reached the bluffs, leaving others to kill and mutilate those who could not escape during the retreat.
Shortly afterward, the sound of what might have been a volley of gunfire came from downstream. Lieutenant Varnum said to Lieutenant Wallace, my god, do you hear that, and then added, what about it? Even Lieutenant Godfrey, who would soon be close to death himself, later noted he heard heavy firing. Then came an inexcusable mistake.
Instead of maintaining control of the situation, Reno and about a dozen soldiers rode back to the hills to find his adjutant, Lieutenant Hodgson, dead. Reno found the body, recovered some personal effects, and returned to his command post, which had remained idle the entire time. The trip took about thirty minutes. After his return, Reno appointed Lieutenant Hare as his adjutant and gave instructions to ride back and bring up the equipment quickly.
Captain Weir on the skirmish line was growing restless. He asked his subordinates, Lieutenant Edgerly and First Sergeant Michael Martin, a native of Dublin, Ireland, whether they were ready to advance even if the other companies were not, given the heavy and continuous firing coming from downstream. The situation was becoming clearer. Both subordinates agreed, and Weir approached Reno, who had just returned, to speak with him.
After a brief argument with Reno, who disliked both men, Weir rode off alone northward along the bluffs. Edgerly mounted Company D and followed, believing Weir had permission. When Weir reached the top of the hill that now bears his name, he placed Company D in a skirmish line. Looking out across the plain, he said, there is Custer.
One of his sergeants, James Flanagan, a Civil War veteran of Irish descent, replied, captain, you better look through the glass. Those look like Indians to me. After Company D left, Benteen concluded that an order to advance had been given. He ordered Companies H, K, and M to rise and move north.
At this point, a new skirmish line formed as Captain McDougall arrived with Lieutenant Mathey and the pack train. It was Reno’s responsibility to notice the problem and deal with it. Finally, when the pack train arrived, Reno moved. He first sent Lieutenant Hare to Weir with a message.
Second, Benteen ignored a bugler’s signal to halt and moved to Weir’s position, where he arranged his troops. When Benteen gave no response, Reno issued orders to scatter the wounded, the supplies, and the remaining soldiers. A group of six soldiers carried the two wounded men in a blanket so they could move. The defensive force saw hundreds of warriors approaching from Weir’s point.
Benteen returned to Reno and persuaded him to fall back to the position they had just left, as he did not like the defensive situation. Companies under French and Edgerly were left exposed and without orders while Benteen moved south quickly, and Weir returned to join Reno and Benteen. Soon, the nervous troopers of Companies D and M began fighting the warriors. When McDougall realized things were getting out of control, he went to Benteen and said, my man, if we don’t have a commander here very soon, what will the outcome be?
We want you to take charge of things because you are the senior officer. Benteen gave a slight smile, but from that moment he took charge of the final defense. Despite some mistakes, it can be argued that Benteen prevented the destruction of the rest of the Seventh Cavalry later that day and the next. When French and Edgerly realized they had been left alone, they mounted their horses and rode south, pursued by warriors.
A Swiss-born soldier named Vincent Charley was shot from his horse, abandoned by his comrades, and killed when a wooden stick or broken guide was thrust into his throat. Now Lieutenant Godfrey, commander of Company K, had his chance for a brave rear-guard action. Although many considered him lazy and unmilitary, he had led his men well during the Yellowstone campaign and had done so at the Battle of the Washita. Godfrey dismounted, seized Lieutenant Hare, and brought the four cavalrymen with their horses back to the rest of the force after watching the two companies run in chaos before him.
With only about thirty men, the unit was split into two platoons that took turns firing and counterattacking. Only the threats of Lieutenants Hare and Godfrey kept the men calm as they began to gather under heavy pressure and intense fire from the warriors. In the end, the unit ran the final hundred yards to the relative safety of the Seventh Cavalry’s defensive perimeter without suffering any losses. Because of their courage and leadership, the rest of the unit managed to regain its balance.
Lieutenant Hare, who had earlier in the day described himself as a coward from Texas and a fighter, proved his worth. The Reno-Benteen defensive position was far from ideal. With no natural cover, soldiers and civilians used saddles, dead animals, grain sacks, and anything else they could find for protection. The entire group had only three shovels.
By nightfall, twelve soldiers had been killed and twenty-one wounded. On June 25, all companies except Benteen’s Company H took steps to strengthen their positions, some even digging trenches for their rifles during the night. Meanwhile, the Sioux and Cheyenne celebrated their victory in the valley below until fighting resumed at dawn. As the battle wound down late in the afternoon of June 26, the villagers burned the grass along the river, a customary tactic to conceal their movements.
The soldiers watched in awe as the communities moved upstream along the Little Bighorn River through the afternoon hours. The command reconnected with some of their comrades, including Lieutenant DeRudio, who had been hiding in the timber since Reno’s disastrous attack, and watered their animals that evening. On the afternoon of June 24, General Gibbon and General Terry crossed the Yellowstone River. The force included a Gatling gun detachment, a few Crow scouts who had survived, four companies of cavalry, and five companies of infantry, roughly four hundred men in all.
They halted near Tullock Creek, where a cavalry unit was scouting the area for any signs of George Herendeen or the Indians. The column moved slowly south the next day because its guide was unfamiliar with the country. For some reason, the force halted about a mile and a half north of the confluence of the Big Horn and Little Bighorn Rivers just before midnight on June 26. That had been their objective for the day.
On the morning of June 27, the commanders met with three of Custer’s Crow scouts, including Hairy Moccasin, White Man Runs Him, and Goes Ahead. They explained how only a small force remained after the majority of Custer’s command had been wiped out. General Terry replied that he found it very hard to believe that such a splendid regiment as the Seventh Cavalry had met with such disaster. As they advanced further, the soldiers discovered two abandoned tepees containing the bodies of dead Indians.
They also found the heads of three white soldiers.