On June 25, 1876, Private Charles Windhoff of Company L, Seventh Cavalry, crossed the divide between the Rosebud and the Little Bighorn with roughly six hundred other troopers. The regiment, organized in a column of march, rode westward, four abreast, each company separated by fifty to sixty feet. Windhoff, a German immigrant who had enlisted in 1872, was about to take part in one of the most infamous battles of the American frontier. He would be among the few who survived it.
The column came to an abrupt halt. Lieutenant Cook directed Major Marcus Reno to take Companies H, D, and K to scout the hills and confront any hostiles they encountered. General George Armstrong Custer retained Companies F, C, and L under his direct command, while Reno commanded Companies M, A, and G, along with most of the Indian scouts under Lieutenants Varnum and Hare. The Seventh Cavalry was divided into detachments to pursue the Indian forces across difficult terrain.
They knew a considerable force of hostiles lay twelve to fifteen miles to the west, but the exact numbers were unclear. The Indian scouts estimated several thousand warriors. Custer and most of his officers believed they would face between one thousand and fifteen hundred warriors, likely poorly armed. They anticipated a rear-guard action that would allow the Indians to retreat rather than force a full engagement.
Events would prove those expectations tragically wrong. Custer had intended to launch a surprise attack at dawn on June 26. But when hostile scouts detected his column, he chose to engage immediately. Benteen, leading three troops, advanced to scout ahead.
The terrain was rugged and difficult for the horses. From each successive hilltop, Lieutenant Gibson watched the progress. The column proceeded westward along a narrow stream, where lead pack mules became ensnared in a bog, slowing the pack train considerably. As they moved out, distant gunfire echoed ahead.
It was clear to everyone that a battle was imminent. Shortly after leaving the stream, they passed a burning tepee, presumably set by their own Indian scouts. The horses, sensing danger, grew agitated. Sergeant Knipe, from Tom Custer’s troop, arrived with an urgent message for Captain McDougall, urging him to expedite the movement of the pack mules.
Benteen instructed him to return along the trail. Then came Trumpeter Martini, wounded but still able to deliver a message from Custer to Benteen, again urging the swift transport of the packs. Martini, a spirited Italian who had served as a drummer boy under Garibaldi during the Italian struggle for independence, was well known to Windhoff. His horse had suffered a severe bullet wound in its right hip, but Martini seemed unaware of the animal’s condition.
Benteen commanded him to rejoin his unit. There has long been a misconception about the weapons carried by the warriors that day. Not all of them were armed with modern repeating Winchester rifles and ample ammunition. It is estimated that about half of the warriors were equipped only with bows, arrows, and lances.
The rest carried a variety of older muzzle-loaders, single-shot rifles, and miscellaneous firearms. Only about twenty-five to thirty percent possessed modern repeating rifles. Indian boys aged fourteen and older also accompanied the warriors and actively took part in the battle, particularly in its later phases. The troopers carried single-shot Springfield carbines of .
45-70 caliber, a weapon celebrated for its accuracy and lethality at distances up to six hundred yards. But when fired in quick succession, the breech would become fouled, and the greasy cartridges frequently jammed. Extraction by the extractor often proved impossible, and a soldier had to use a hunting knife to pry the spent shell out. On that Sunday, that process cost many troopers their lives.
Each soldier also carried a six-shot, single-action Colt Army revolver, the most advanced model of its kind at the time. They had been instructed to carry one hundred rounds of rifle ammunition and twenty-four rounds of revolver ammunition, either on their persons or in their saddlebags. When the troopers dismounted, every fourth man designated as a horse holder, many of the horses became agitated. Thousands of rounds of essential ammunition were lost in the chaos, particularly affecting Custer’s men.
After crossing the river, Reno’s battalion organized itself into columns of four, with the Indian scouts on their left. Indian horsemen were soon seen galloping back and forth in the valley, and the southern edge of the Indian camps came into view. Reno deployed his three troops and scouts in a skirmish line spanning the width of the narrow valley. Company M was on the right, Company A in the center, and Company G on the left, with the scouts to their left front.
Reno dismounted his men, spacing them seventy-five yards apart in a skirmish line. They advanced half a mile toward the Indian camp before encountering a significant number of mounted Indians who charged them for ten minutes. Reno’s men held their position, firing consistently, but they were soon surrounded by hundreds of mounted warriors, many armed with repeating rifles. Recognizing the peril of encirclement, Reno commanded his men to retreat in an orderly fashion, falling back three hundred yards.
From the northern extremity of the valley, near the location that would later become the Custer National Cemetery, the full magnitude of the Native American forces became clear. The soldiers were vastly outnumbered, facing a force that potentially outnumbered Custer’s six hundred men by a ratio of five to one. Custer’s troops were quickly overwhelmed by the sheer number of warriors. Despite their courageous attempts to defend themselves, they were encircled and fell fighting to the end.
As dusk approached, the men on the hill with Reno and Benteen could hear the distant sounds of the conflict and came to the grim realization of what had likely happened to their fellow soldiers. The night was filled with anxious anticipation, punctuated by sporadic skirmishes as the Native Americans probed the soldiers’ defenses. By dawn, the Native American forces began to retreat, having secured a significant victory. The remnants of Reno’s and Benteen’s battalions were finally rescued by General Terry’s column, which arrived two days later.
The Battle of the Little Bighorn stands as a tragic chapter in American history. Charles Windhoff, one of the few soldiers who lived to tell the tale, provided a detailed firsthand account of the fighting, the confusion, the faulty weapons, and the overwhelming force that destroyed Custer’s command. His narrative offers a vivid and unflinching look at the brutal realities of frontier warfare and the opening major engagement of the Great Sioux War of 1876.