The arrangement of markers along the South Skirmish Line at the Little Bighorn Battlefield has long puzzled historians. Roughly 50 markers trace the western slope of Battle Ridge between Last Stand Hill and the Little Bighorn River, yet the steep gully known as Deep Ravine contains no markers at all. Archaeological work and firsthand accounts from both cavalrymen and indigenous warriors confirm that fighting and deaths occurred in this area, raising a persistent question: were troopers killed inside Deep Ravine, and could their remains still lie there? In the frontier army, a soldier’s loyalty was tied primarily to his company rather than his regiment.
Men ate, marched, and lived alongside the same small group of comrades, and each company developed its own identity. The 1876 campaign marked the first time in the Seventh Cavalry’s history that all twelve companies operated together in the field. Earlier, in 1868, Major George Armstrong Custer had reorganized horses within his companies by color. While the change served a tactical purpose by making units recognizable from a distance, it was largely implemented because Custer believed it looked impressive.
This is why indigenous witnesses who later described seeing gray horses during the battle were identifying a specific unit: Company E, known as the Greyhorse Troop. Company E consisted of seasoned soldiers, with only about ten percent having less than a year of service. The unit was commanded by First Lieutenant Algernon Smith and Second Lieutenant James Sturgis. On the morning of June 25, 1876, Custer divided his regiment into five battalions as they advanced toward the Little Bighorn.
Major Marcus Reno took Companies A, G, and M. Captain Frederick Benteen commanded D, H, and K. Captain Myles Keogh led C, I, and L. Captain George Yates received Companies E and F, while Captain Thomas McDougall took Company B plus a sergeant and six men from every other company to guard the pack train.
In later years, indigenous warriors who fought in the battle described what they witnessed in Custer’s sector. They recalled seeing soldiers moving along Battle Ridge toward the site of the present-day monument, including men mounted on gray horses. Numerous accounts describe the Greyhorse Troop becoming entangled with other mounted soldiers at the ridge’s end, the location now called Last Stand Hill. A separate contingent pushed further north, threatening to ford the river above the Cheyenne section of the village, but that group withdrew toward what is now the cemetery and rejoined the main force on the hill.
The soldiers on gray horses then moved down the slope toward the river, dismounted, and began exchanging fire with warriors. The indigenous fighters managed to drive off the horses, separating the troopers from their mounts and seizing many animals near the riverbank. Now on foot, the men met several fates. Some were killed where they stood.
Others fought their way back to Last Stand Hill. A number ran for the nearest cover available: Deep Ravine. Warrior accounts describe at least a few soldiers, possibly as few as four or five, reaching a deep gulch and being killed there. In total, 39 men from Company E perished, including its two officers, three sergeants, four corporals, two trumpeters, and 28 privates.
Only ten could be positively identified. Lieutenant Smith was found dead on Last Stand Hill, separated from his men. First Sergeant Frederick Hohmeyer was identified within the company group by the name sewn into one of his socks. Second Lieutenant Sturgis’s remains were never located, or at least never conclusively recognized.
After the battle, soldiers tasked with securing the area and conducting burials reported observing several bodies inside Deep Ravine. The counts given by witnesses varied, though the most frequently cited figure was 28. These fallen men were reported as belonging to Company E. Three years later, during the Reno Court of Inquiry, Captain Myles Moylan of Company A provided testimony.
He stated that after departing a location, he rode up alongside Major Reno to a ravine marked on a map, where they discovered upwards of 20 bodies from Company E. Moylan described clear evidence of combat during a retreat: the path where the men had descended the edge and tried to climb the opposite side, which was nearly vertical. Marks showed where they had used their hands to ascend, but these traces only reached about halfway up the bank. Captain Thomas McDougall, who commanded Company B, also testified at the same inquiry.
McDougall stated that Reno directed him to assemble his company, proceed to the village, and secure tools for burying the dead. Upon his return, Reno instructed him to bury Company E, the unit McDougall had personally led for five years, and to record identities where feasible. McDougall located the majority of the men within a ravine, roughly half inside the ravine itself and half positioned along a line outside of it. He testified that every man was lying prone and that the nature of their wounds suggested most had been shot from the side, indicating they had put up the strongest resistance possible and were likely assaulted from both flanks.
The contradiction is stark. Approximately 50 markers sit along the South Skirmish Line, with several near the top of Deep Ravine, yet not a single marker exists inside the ravine itself. Two explanations have emerged: either the bodies were never there, or they were later relocated. One hypothesis holds that the cavalrymen never occupied Deep Ravine.
Under this view, the ravine mentioned by eyewitnesses may actually refer to the wider basin area encompassing the South Skirmish Line, broad sloping terrain that could reasonably be described as a ravine. During the 1980s, excavations were conducted inside Deep Ravine proper in an attempt to locate any evidence of soldiers, and no trace was found. Additionally, soldiers who reinterred remains in the years following the battle planted stakes wherever they discovered bodies, and no stakes were ever placed inside Deep Ravine. Stone memorials placed a few years later also suggest troopers did not fall in the ravine.
If soldiers had died there, it is considered improbable that they were retrieved and buried elsewhere, since the remains had been exposed for three days and were in no state to be transported; the men simply covered bodies with earth. The slope of Deep Ravine’s base also makes it unlikely that remains were carried away by water toward the river. Under this interpretation, the absence of markers inside Deep Ravine suggests no soldiers ever lay there. The opposing interpretation relies heavily on the numerous firsthand accounts from both cavalrymen and indigenous warriors describing soldiers dying at a steep geographical depression.
Captain McDougall testified that half the men from Company E were found partly within a ravine and partly outside it. Captain Moylan recounted seeing marks where soldiers had attempted to scramble up the ravine sides. Only one location on the battlefield matches that description: Deep Ravine. Photographs indicate the ravine’s edges have eroded somewhat since the 1870s, leading some to suggest remains may lie buried deeper than initially believed.
Archaeological digs near the markers along the rim of Deep Ravine have uncovered numerous bullets and shell casings, and the volume of firsthand testimony makes it difficult to entirely dismiss the possibility that bodies remain within the ravine. The final conclusion remains uncertain. Historians, archaeologists, and battlefield researchers continue to debate what became of the Greyhorse Troop, with the truth of what lies in Deep Ravine still unresolved.