On June 25, 1876, five companies of the U. S. 7th Cavalry under George Armstrong Custer were destroyed at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Among the warriors present was White Wolf, who later recalled how the young men scavenged the bodies of the fallen soldiers.
They found square green paper money in the pockets of the dead, a currency foreign to the people. The children later used the bills as saddle blankets for their toy mud horses. Silver coins were also uncovered, and the Cheyenne fashioned them into buckles. Wooden Leg, Little Hawk, and Bobtail Horse, other warriors who had been there, reported discovering bottles of whiskey on the dead troopers.
Two days after the battle, on June 27th, the cavalry arrived to bury the dead. The scene that greeted them was one of desolation. The bodies lay scattered across the pale earth, a haunting image of death that weighed heavily on the heart of one observer, who remarked that the scene was one he would never forget. Captain Tom Custer was found near the top of the hill just north of the general, lying face down.
His face had been distorted beyond recognition. His body bore multiple arrow wounds, including in his back and head, where an arrowhead was bent and deeply embedded. His skull had been shattered, and nearly all his hair was scalped, except for a small patch at the nape of his neck. In contrast, General Custer’s body had not been mutilated.
He was found lying on his back with his hands folded across his abdomen, a familiar position to those who had marched with him, as they had often seen him nap in this manner. He bore two fatal wounds, one in the front of his left temple and another near his heart. Boston Custer, the youngest of the Custer brothers, was found roughly two hundred yards from Custer Hill. His body had been stripped bare, save for his white cotton socks, which had their labels cut off.
Several bodies scattered around the field had remnants of bloody undershirts, trousers, or socks, but in every case, their names had been cut out. The gruesome sight of the naked mutilated bodies marred by fatal wounds presented a scene of gut-wrenching horror. Among the few tools available were half a dozen spades and shovels, a handful of axes, and a couple of picks. The soldiers did their best to bury their fallen comrades.
Using knives and tin cups, they hastily covered the bodies with a thin layer of earth, leaving them behind in the vast wilderness, hundreds of miles from civilization and far from the comforting presence of their loved ones. Trumpeter Jeppe Martini recalled seeing a pile of dead soldiers in a deep ravine between Custer’s position and the river. Among them was a first sergeant whose body was covered with torn pieces of about five hundred dollars in paper money, which had been entrusted to him for safekeeping by the men under his command. Martini also reported that part of Adjutant Cook’s sideburns had been scalped off with the skin attached.
Seventh Cavalry Scout George Harrington added that four soldiers’ heads were found in the Sioux camp severed from their bodies, which could not be located on the battlefield or in the village. Lieutenant Charles Rowe of the Second Cavalry shared that they discovered a white man’s head in the Indian village tied to a lariat, which had been dragged through the village until it separated from the body. Survivor Jacob Adams recalled that troopers were lassoed from their horses and dragged into the heart of the village, where they were tied to trees and burned alive. These horrific acts were witnessed by their comrades from Benteen’s division, who were helpless to save them.
John Ryan later stated that bones and remnants of blue uniforms were found at the sites where men had been tied to trees and stakes. Of the five guidons carried by Custer’s troops during their last stand, only one was recovered immediately after the battle. It had been hidden beneath the body of a fallen soldier, Corporal John Foley, who had attempted to escape on horseback. Pursued by warriors, Foley shot himself in the head before being overtaken.
This recovered flag later became known as the Culbertson Guidon, named after Sergeant Ferdinand Culbertson, who was part of the burial party that found it. In 2010, this guidon was auctioned by Sotheby’s to a private collector for a remarkable 2. 2 million dollars. The Battle of the Little Bighorn was a devastating defeat for the 7th Cavalry.
Custer and every man under his immediate command had been killed. The aftermath revealed the brutality of the fighting and the grim task of burying the dead in a remote wilderness. The recovery of the Culbertson Guidon preserved a tangible piece of the battle, and more than a century later, it became a symbol of the conflict’s enduring hold on the American imagination. The battle itself marked a turning point in the Plains Wars, and although the Sioux and Cheyenne had won a victory, the defeat galvanized the U.
S. government’s campaign against the tribes, leading to their eventual subjugation. The dead were left behind on Custer Hill, their story carried forward by the survivors, the burial parties, and the warriors who had been there.