On the afternoon of June 25, 1876, Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer and his Seventh Cavalry looked down from the bluffs across the Little Bighorn River at one of the largest Native American encampments ever assembled on the continent. They had marched nearly 100 miles in pursuit of Sitting Bull, the camp’s leader, under orders to compel him and his allied Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors to return to the Great Sioux Reservation. Sitting Bull had refused to sign any treaty and was determined to defend his people’s nomadic way of life, even at the cost of war. To carry out the mission, Custer divided the Seventh Cavalry into four detachments: three companies under Captain Frederick Benteen, three under Major Marcus Reno, five under his own direct command, and the remaining companies guarding the supply and ammunition pack train.
Years earlier, on April 29, 1868, the United States and portions of the Sioux Nation had signed the Second Treaty of Fort Laramie, which defined the boundaries of the Great Sioux Reservation. The treaty required the Sioux to stop attacking settlers and railroads and to depend on federal aid for their livelihood. The U. S.
government, intent on westward expansion, wanted Native peoples to abandon their traditional lifestyles and live permanently on reservations. Not all Sioux bands agreed to those terms. Some refused to sign, believing they were not bound by the treaty. Sitting Bull led these non-treaty Sioux and rejected the idea of reservation life.
In 1874, the U. S. Army sent Custer on an expedition into the Black Hills to scout potential fort locations and confirm rumors of gold. When traces of gold were found, waves of settlers rushed into the region, violating the Fort Laramie treaty and further escalating tensions.
By 1875, the U. S. government ordered all non-reservation Indians to return to designated lands by January 31, 1876, or face military action. When they refused, war became inevitable.
That spring, the army devised a three-pronged campaign to subdue the resisting Sioux. General George Crook was to advance north from Fort Fetterman in Wyoming Territory with 1,000 troops. Colonel John Gibbon was to move east from Fort Ellis along the Yellowstone River with 450 men. General Alfred Terry was to march west from Fort Lincoln in Dakota Territory with 879 soldiers, mostly from the Seventh Cavalry under Custer’s command.
Military leaders assumed that any one of these columns could defeat Sitting Bull’s estimated 800 to 1,500 warriors. If one force located the camp first, it was expected to attack immediately, since the Native forces were highly mobile and difficult to track. On June 4, during a Sun Dance ceremony near Deer Medicine Rocks, Sitting Bull experienced a vision of U. S.
soldiers falling into his camp—an omen he took as a sign of great victory. On June 10, Major Marcus Reno led six companies on a ten-day reconnaissance between the Powder and Tongue Rivers to locate the camp. A week later, on June 17, General Crook’s forces were attacked by Crazy Horse and his warriors along the Rosebud River. The Battle of the Rosebud ended in a modest Lakota victory and forced Crook to retreat to await reinforcements.
That same day, Reno returned from his scouting mission and reported to General Terry that he had found several recently abandoned Indian villages. On June 22, Custer was ordered to take twelve companies of the Seventh Cavalry and advance up the Rosebud Creek in pursuit of Crazy Horse. The plan called for Custer to engage the Indians and drive them toward Terry’s and Gibbon’s combined forces, trapping and subduing them. By the morning of June 25, Custer’s scouts had located Sitting Bull’s vast encampment.
They estimated a population of roughly 8,000, with between 1,500 and 2,000 warriors ready to fight. Custer initially intended to launch a surprise attack at dawn on June 26, but his scouts warned that the Lakota had already detected his presence. Fearing the enemy would escape, Custer decided to strike immediately. The native camp sat on the open plains beside the Little Bighorn River.
The American forces split into a two-pronged assault. Reno would attack the southern end of the village while Custer advanced along the bluffs to strike from the north. Benteen remained in reserve, ready to reinforce either wing as needed. Around 3 p.
m. , Reno crossed the Little Bighorn River and charged toward the village. His view was blocked by trees along a bend in the river, so he had no clear sense of the village’s vast size or strength. When he finally cleared the bend and saw the immense settlement, Reno realized he might be walking into an ambush.
He advanced briefly before ordering his men to dismount and form a skirmish line, firing into the camp and striking both warriors and non-combatants. After about twenty minutes of gunfire, Reno’s force had suffered only one casualty. But a group of native warriors took cover and began attacking the left flank of Reno’s line. The counterattack forced Reno’s troops to retreat into the woods near the riverbend.
As the enemy pressed them, Reno’s scout, Bloody Knife, was shot in the head, his blood and brains splattering across Reno’s face. Horrified and disoriented, Reno ordered his men to mount, dismount, and mount again before shouting that anyone who wanted to escape should follow him. What followed was a frantic, disorderly retreat across the river, during which many men were cut down by gunfire. The survivors scrambled up the eight-foot bluffs and finally reached a defensible position.
Soon after, Benteen arrived with his detachment to find Reno’s shaken and disorganized men. Benteen had been on a reconnaissance mission when he received Custer’s urgent message: “Benteen, come on. Big village, be quick. Bring packs.
PS: Bring packs. ”
Unsure exactly what Custer meant, but sensing urgency, Benteen moved toward the fight. However, Reno refused to advance until the supply packs, which were lagging behind, had arrived. As the senior officer, Reno’s decision overruled Benteen’s wish to go to Custer’s aid immediately.
Meanwhile, the native forces that had been engaging Reno shifted downstream toward Custer’s position. From Reno Hill, soldiers soon heard heavy gunfire in that direction, realizing Custer was under attack, but they could not tell precisely where. Rather than focus on organizing the defense, Reno descended the bluff to recover the body of a fallen officer. In his absence, Benteen took charge of the defense on the hill.
Frustrated by the inaction of his superiors, Captain Thomas Weir defied orders and led his D Company northward to try to assist Custer. His move inspired others to follow, and Benteen eventually rode out after him. When Weir reached the northernmost point of the bluffs, he could see smoke and movement about four miles away—warriors firing at motionless shapes on the ground. Believing Custer’s force had been driven off, Weir and his men soon came under attack themselves as native fighters returned from the north and began skirmishing with them.
Benteen quickly pulled the troops back to Reno Hill, losing only one man in the withdrawal. That evening, Reno and Benteen’s combined force held their position under intermittent fire until nightfall. The next morning, the warriors renewed their assault from the south, but the Americans’ elevated position and numbers—roughly 300 men—allowed them to repel the attack with minimal losses. Eventually, the native camp packed up and moved further down the valley, ending the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
What became of Custer’s detachment remains largely uncertain, as most of what is known comes from secondhand accounts and continues to be debated. During Reno’s engagement, Custer advanced along the bluffs on the northern side of the Little Bighorn River. Observing Reno’s apparent success in holding back the warriors, Custer pressed northward, aiming to capture non-combatants as potential hostages to use as leverage. Custer dispatched three companies under Captain Myles Keogh to take a position on a rise later known as Luce Ridge, where they could serve as a reference point for Benteen’s incoming forces.
Meanwhile, Custer and Captain George Yates led their men down Medicine Tail Coulee toward the river. Upon arrival, they found the nearby section of the village seemingly abandoned except for a small number of defending warriors. Company L under Lieutenant James Calhoun opened fire on these warriors near the river. In response, Custer abandoned his plan to cross and regrouped with Keogh’s men, intending to move further north to intercept the fleeing non-combatants.
Custer left Keogh positioned on Calhoun Hill while he and Yates searched for another suitable crossing point along the river. While Custer maneuvered, the warriors who had previously been engaged with Reno crossed the river and began moving toward Calhoun Hill. From his position, Custer could see thousands of non-combatants escaping the village—far too many for his small command to capture. He withdrew his men to Cemetery Ridge, intending to hold that ground until Benteen arrived with reinforcements.
But as waves of native warriors advanced through Calhoun Coulee, Captain Keogh sent Company C down to protect his right flank. The move inadvertently left Keogh’s line exposed to enemy fire. Native fighters quickly launched a fierce counterattack against Company C’s skirmish line, overwhelming them. Without support from Keogh’s main body, Company C broke and retreated on foot toward Calhoun Ridge, suffering devastating losses.
Over half their men were killed. In an attempt to assist, Calhoun shifted his skirmish line westward to cover the remnants of Company C. The maneuver left his southern flank unprotected. Warriors exploited the gap, attacking from the south while others pressed from the west.
The American line collapsed under the combined assault. Company E, positioned on Cemetery Ridge, came under attack by a group of Cheyenne warriors who split their line in two. Captain Keogh and his remaining soldiers were soon surrounded on three sides. Notable leaders such as Crazy Horse joined in the final assault, driving the Americans into total disarray.
The few surviving soldiers tried to retreat across Battle Ridge but were steadily cut down as they fled. Seeing the chaos and realizing the scale of the disaster, Custer moved his remaining men up to what would later be known as Last Stand Hill to make their final defense.