In 1876, the United States sent one of its most celebrated officers to Montana to end Sitting Bull’s resistance. As George Custer crested a ridge, he saw far more encampments than expected. Undaunted, he lifted his hat and shouted, “Hurrah, lads. We’ve got them.
” He was approaching one of the largest Native American war camps ever assembled, with no reinforcements on the way. Within hours, his entire immediate command was wiped out. His name became linked not to triumph, but to one of the most devastating disasters in American military history. George Custer was born to an Ohio farmer and grew into a fiercely ambitious man, driven by a desire for fame.
He entered West Point in 1857 and piled up 726 demerits for misconduct, one of the highest counts among cadets. Yet even his harshest instructors recognized the troublemaker’s potential as a soldier. The Civil War gave him the stage to prove it. A brilliant officer, Custer won victories by leading from the front, charging into danger where others hesitated.
He never demanded of his men what he would not do himself. Troops revered him, superiors promoted him, and at 23 he became one of the youngest brevet generals in U. S. history.
The press nicknamed him the boy general. Everyone knew Custer for his bold style and long golden hair. On July 3, 1863, his leadership helped secure the Union line at Gettysburg. In full officer’s attire, he charged Confederate forces at a critical moment, helping turn the battle’s tide.
His service continued until the war’s end. The table on which Robert E. Lee signed his surrender at Appomattox was later given to Custer’s wife, Elizabeth, with a note saying no one had done more to bring about the surrender than her husband. After the war, Custer was assigned to lead the Seventh Cavalry against the Plains Indians.
He resented the posting, seeing it as lacking opportunities for glory. It was not until 1868 that he found a chance to reclaim the spotlight. As the U. S.
pushed westward, it set its sights on the Black Hills, which were sacred to the Sioux. In April 1868, the Sioux and the U. S. signed the Fort Laramie Treaty, granting the Sioux rights to the Black Hills if they stopped attacking settlers and stayed on designated reservations.
But the U. S. had little intention of honoring the agreement fully. The Black Hills were too valuable, and officials expected settler influxes to provoke Sioux violations.
Most Sioux accepted the terms unaware of the duplicity. Sitting Bull did not. The Lakota leader rejected the treaty, believing the Americans would inevitably encroach on their lands and that resistance was the only way to preserve their way of life. He was Custer’s opposite.
While Custer was brash and impulsive, Sitting Bull was composed and thoughtful. His name reflected his habit of deliberating before acting. A war leader and spiritual figure, Sitting Bull claimed visions from the Great Spirit guiding his resistance. He united many Lakota, along with Cheyenne and smaller groups.
Working closely with an ally named Gaul, he built a coalition of nomadic warriors to counter American expansion, launching raids on U. S. settlements and rival tribes like the Crow and Arikara. After the treaty, the U.
S. needed a courageous and skilled leader to stop Sitting Bull. They chose George Custer. In November 1868, Custer led the Seventh Cavalry against a Cheyenne camp in Oklahoma.
At dawn on November 27, he charged through the camp along the river, striking without warning. The attack killed 103 Cheyenne, including women and children. Custer saw it as a triumphant success. But his ambition caused critical mistakes.
The village belonged to Black Kettle, a Cheyenne chief seeking peace, making future negotiations nearly impossible. It was also one of several villages along the river, and word spread quickly, forcing Custer’s rapid withdrawal. Worse, his deputy, Major Joel Elliot, took 20 men to chase fleeing Cheyenne and was surrounded and killed. Custer, unaware until later, did not wait for them.
Many in the Seventh Cavalry blamed Custer for Elliot’s death. Captain Frederick Benteen, the most vocal critic, wrote a letter condemning Custer that leaked to the press, enraging him. Although Benteen remained under his command, their mutual hostility never faded. The attack restored Custer’s fame as a hero of the American West.
Over the next years, he led the Seventh Cavalry against other Native groups. In 1873, the regiment was permanently based at Fort Abraham Lincoln in Dakota Territory. Two key figures entered Custer’s story then. Major Marcus Reno became a key officer.
Reno, a volatile man with a serious drinking problem, found Custer arrogant and insufferable, as did Benteen. Custer surrounded himself with loyal allies to counter his critics. His brothers Tom and Boston and his brother-in-law, Lieutenant James Calhoun, joined him. Even his wife Elizabeth moved to Fort Abraham Lincoln to be near him.
Custer’s allies also included non-white soldiers. In 1873, a scout named Bloody Knife, half Sioux and half Arikara, joined his unit and became a close friend. Not all Native Americans backed Sitting Bull. Bloody Knife had personal grievances against him, having been mistreated by Sitting Bull and Gaul.
As a child, Gaul had bullied him, and the feud turned tragic when Gaul later killed Bloody Knife’s brothers and son in separate raids. Bloody Knife narrowly missed killing Gaul in a confrontation. Custer was the obvious choice to lead an 1874 expedition into the Black Hills. Officially, the mission was to find a fort site to counter Sitting Bull’s resistance.
In truth, it aimed to confirm gold deposits and spark a settler influx. The expedition was more a publicity stunt than a military operation. Facing no real opposition, Custer spent his time hunting with his brothers and Bloody Knife. Photographers and journalists on the trip published tales of his frontier exploits and the gold discovery.
The expedition triggered a gold rush, with about 15,000 settlers flooding the Black Hills by late 1875. Officially, since these were independent settlers, the U. S. claimed it wasn’t breaching the Fort Laramie Treaty.
Unofficially, President Ulysses S. Grant endorsed the influx and waited for a Sioux reaction to justify seizing the Black Hills outright. In September 1875, Washington made a final attempt to negotiate buying the Black Hills. Sitting Bull’s warnings proved true, and the Sioux rejected the offer.
In response, Grant issued an ultimatum: any Lakota or Cheyenne not on U. S. reservations by January 31, 1876, would be deemed hostile. Issued in November 1875 during a harsh winter, the demand was nearly impossible and designed to provoke.
The expedition to pursue Sitting Bull left Fort Abraham Lincoln on May 17, 1876. General Alfred Terry, a Custer ally, held overall command. Scouts reported Sitting Bull’s followers along the Yellowstone River, near where the Powder, Tongue, Rosebud, and Little Bighorn tributaries converged. Terry and Custer would lead the main force westward along the Yellowstone.
Colonel John Gibbon’s force would approach from Montana in the west, while General George Crook advanced from Wyoming in the south, aiming to trap the Native Americans between the armies. Custer treated the expedition as another adventure, often veering off to hunt or explore and frustrating Terry. His brothers, Reno, and Benteen shared the irritation. Reno was relieved when Terry sent him to scout the Rosebud River, where he found Sitting Bull’s trail.
When Reno returned with the news, Custer criticized him for not pursuing it aggressively. Terry then split his forces again. He would join Gibbon’s Montana troops approaching down the Bighorn River from the north. Custer would head south along the trail across the Rosebud.
If he found Sitting Bull, he was to swing south and wait for Terry and Gibbon. Given Custer’s reputation, expecting him to wait was unrealistic. As he departed, Gibbon reportedly joked, “Custer, don’t be greedy. Leave some for us.
” Custer replied, “No, I will not. ”
The Americans were right about Sitting Bull’s location. After Grant’s ultimatum, he rallied thousands more warriors, knowing the Americans were coming. Numbers were their only hope.
Failure could mean their last summer as free nomads. His call drew about 8,000 people, including 2,000 to 3,000 warriors. Gaul remained his closest adviser, joined by new leaders like Crazy Horse, a young, fearless Oglala Lakota warrior. Like Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse claimed visions granting him great power.
On June 17, 1876, Crazy Horse met Crook’s Wyoming forces along the Rosebud River. With 1,500 Lakota and Cheyenne warriors, he launched a daring attack against Crook’s similarly sized army. Usually Native forces needed numerical superiority for open battles, but Crazy Horse’s multidirectional tactics kept the Americans off balance. Only Crow and Shoshone scouts enabled Crook to withdraw after losing 30 men.
Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull scored a stunning victory. Crook reported the battle to his superiors but failed to inform Custer or Terry. With American forces closing in, Sitting Bull moved his people to a new campsite in the valley of the Greasy Grass along the Little Bighorn River. There they held the Sun Dance, during which Sitting Bull reportedly envisioned American soldiers falling into their camp, a sign of imminent victory.
Meanwhile, Custer’s men tracked Sitting Bull’s trail over the Rosebud and toward the Little Bighorn, unaware of Crook’s defeat. Bloody Knife and other scouts noted the trail indicated a far larger force, possibly thousands. Bloody Knife urged Custer to wait for Terry and Gibbon, warning the numbers might be overwhelming. Just after dawn on June 25, 1876, Custer’s scouts climbed hills east of the Little Bighorn and spotted smoke from Sitting Bull’s camp.
For Custer, this was his moment of glory. He had 647 men in 12 companies. One stayed to guard supplies while the rest prepared for battle. Custer took five companies to attack from the north.
Reno took three to strike from the south, with Bloody Knife scouting. Benteen took three to swing south around Reno and join the battle on the camp’s western flank. Custer relied on Reno and Benteen despite distrusting them, but had his loyal brothers Tom and Boston and brother-in-law Calhoun with him. He moved north, hidden behind hills until the last moment.
Around 3 p. m. , he reached a ridgeline overlooking the camp, seeing thousands of tents stretching more than three miles, far more than expected. He quickly wrote orders to Benteen: “Come on, big village, but be quick.
Bring packs. ”
Then, unwilling to wait, he waved his hat and shouted, “Hurrah, lads. We’ve got them,” before charging down. Reno’s 150 men crossed the Little Bighorn and approached the camp first.
Bloody Knife and the scouts met Lakota and Cheyenne warriors on the outskirts, alerting the camp. Sitting Bull and Gaul, positioned in the southern part, faced Reno’s assault first. Reno ordered his men to dismount and form a skirmish line. Bullets hit the camp, striking warriors, women, and children.
Sitting Bull initially sought to protect his people, sending his nephew and another warrior to negotiate. Both were killed. When a bullet killed Sitting Bull’s horse, he declared, “They have shot my favorite horse. It is like they have shot me.
Attack them. ”
Gaul and Crazy Horse led a counterattack that overwhelmed Reno’s unprepared forces. Survivors later claimed Reno’s drinking impaired his judgment. As Reno and Bloody Knife planned, a bullet killed Bloody Knife instantly, splattering Reno with blood.
Shaken, Reno ordered a retreat: “Any of you who wish to escape, follow me. ” Discipline collapsed. His men fled across the river, abandoning horses and weapons as they scrambled up steep banks while Native warriors cut many down. To the southeast, Benteen heard the chaos and returned.
On a hilltop, Reno and survivors scrambled up, pleading, “For God’s sake, Benteen, hold your command and help me. I’ve lost half my men. ” Benteen asked, “Where is Custer? ” Reno had no answer.
Recalling past grievances, Benteen muttered, “It’s another Custer affair,” believing Custer had abandoned them for glory as with Elliot. Gunfire from Custer’s direction suggested otherwise. The precise details of Custer’s final stand are unclear, but the best reconstruction holds that Custer gathered his men on a hill later called Calhoun Hill to assess and await Benteen. He likely planned to take hostages to force surrender, as he had before, by crossing into the camp.
Meeting them from the front, Custer’s advance initially terrified the camp. Sitting Bull later admitted, “We thought we were whipped. ” However, hidden Cheyenne and Lakota warriors fired from across the river. Crazy Horse and others broke off from fighting Reno to confront Custer.
Underestimating their numbers, Custer’s forces retreated up the hill. Lieutenant Calhoun’s company secured Calhoun Hill while Custer, his brothers, and most men fell back to Last Stand Hill. Half of Calhoun’s men died before reaching their position. Crazy Horse’s mounted force encircled the Americans while the main Native force pursued up the slopes.
Calhoun’s position was overrun, all killed. Realizing Benteen wasn’t coming, Custer faced thousands of warriors overwhelming his 200 men. A storm of arrows and bullets engulfed them, with some Native warriors accidentally killing each other in the chaos. Sitting Bull later said his warriors described Custer standing “like a sheaf of corn with all the ears falling around it.
” That was likely his final moment. As Custer’s gunfire ceased, Benteen and Reno, with about 400 men, were surrounded on Reno Hill. They held off attacks through the night of June 25. On June 26, when scouts spotted Terry and Gibbon approaching, Sitting Bull withdrew his people.
Terry arrived and asked, “Where’s Custer? ” The bodies of 210 men from five companies were found, some scalped or mutilated. Benteen, inspecting a body with two bullet wounds, one in the chest and one in the head, said, “My God, it’s him,” confirming Custer’s death. On July 6, 1876, news of Custer’s defeat reached Fort Abraham Lincoln.
Days later, the Little Bighorn disaster was national news. Just days earlier, on July 4, America had celebrated its centennial with pride and heroes like Custer, seen as subduing savage Indians. His death shocked many Americans who saw themselves as an unstoppable force of progress. Some blamed his recklessness, saying his quest for glory undid him.
Others criticized Benteen and Reno for ignoring Custer’s orders. Few acknowledged the skill and resolve of Sitting Bull, Gaul, and Crazy Horse, who defeated one of America’s finest commanders in open battle. Sitting Bull’s coalition had proven its strength, but the U. S.
was already preparing its next move.