July 2017: Epic Road Trip I: Part IV--Day 6: Little Bighorn Battlefield

The markers on Last Stand Hill

Day 6:  Little Bighorn National Battlefield
On June 25th and 26th, 1876 five companies of the United States 7th Cavalry under the command of Lt. Col George Armstrong Custer executed an ill conceived attack on a superior force and were killed.  That was the famous Battle of the Little Bighorn.

I have read at least a thousand pages about this battle, much of which came from two books, Custer's Luck by Edgar I. Stewart and Crazy Horse by Mari Sandoz.  Custer's Luck is a biography of George Armstrong Custer and Crazy Horse is also a biography.  When read together or back to back, the reader can tell that Custer and Crazy Horse were on a collision course through history.  They were destined to meet on the field of battle.  Two nineteenth century titans.

Much has been said about Custer.  Nineteenth and early twentieth century accounts paint him as a reckless, heroic, iconic leader who always led from the front in an era when that was changing.  Later twentieth century accounts show Custer as a reckless imbecile, a nincompoop.  Neither depiction of Custer is accurate.  The real Custer was arrogant but competent.  He had absolute confidence in his ability to lead his men and prevail against any and all odds.  The problem is, until June 25th, 1876 he had been always been successful.  Custer had been instrumental in repulsing Confederate forces after Picketts Charge at the Battle of Gettysburg.  Because of his leadership and bravery and reckless but effective tactics, Custer was the youngest man to ever receive the battlefield commission of Brigadier General.  In the Civil War, Custer's men loved him and would do anything for him.  When the war ended, Custer only knew the military and rather than be mustered out as a Brigadier General, he remained in the army as a Lieutenant Colonel and headed west to fight in the Indian Wars.  In the Indian Wars, Custer did not have the same regard from his men that he had enjoyed previously.

Crazy Horse was a Lakota warrior who had broken away from traditional Lakota ways.  He was one of the few native leaders to recognize that the old ways of fighting, counting coups, stealing horses, raiding villages etc... didn't work against the cavalry.  Crazy Horse knew that if they were to beat the cavalry, they would have to fight by a different rulebook.  According to Sandoz's book, when Crazy Horse separated himself from the main tribe, many of the older people feared him and the young warriors were drawn to him.  Crazy Horse, according to the book, required any of the warriors fighting with him to obey orders completely.  In essence, Crazy Horse was as much a general as he was a war chief.  Crazy Horse's men were more like soldiers than warriors.  In a warrior culture, individuals fight but in an army culture, the men fight as a unit.  This isn't unique to Native American culture.  Anywhere warrior culture exists it has been the same.  Scotland, the Vikings, the Huns etc...  It has always been the same.  Crazy Horse knew that if they were to prevail they had to be flexible enough to fight as an army, not as individual warriors.  Crazy Horse and Custer were similar in that neither one of them had experienced defeat prior to the events on June 25th, 1876.

One of the other main actors in the campaign was Sitting Bull, who was a Lakota holy man.  Twenty days earlier, Sitting Bull had a vision in which he saw soldiers falling into his camp like grasshoppers.  Whomever holds the notion that the Native Americans were "noble savages" needs to think seriously about their misguided notions.  The native peoples of this land were sophisticated, intelligent, fierce and powerful.  Sitting Bull had warriors hold up stagecoaches.  He wanted them to bring him back newspapers because he had taught himself to read English and the papers were notorious for reporting military movements on the plains.  The natives also learned to listen at telegraph poles and taught themselves Morse Code.  They had a sophisticated intelligence network and intelligence gathering strategies back then.  That may be why in WWII the United States Government went to the Navajo Nation and enlisted native speakers to be code talkers.

Originally, Crazy Horse was not going to come to the encampment.  Sitting Bull knew he needed Crazy Horse's influence for the upcoming battle.  Without Crazy Horse's galvanizing influence, Sitting Bull believed that at the first sign of force from the cavalry, the village would pack up and scatter.  That had become the strategy for many of the tribes all over the country.  Sitting Bull wanted to make a stand and a statement.  When Crazy Horse resisted, Sitting Bull told him that Custer was coming and he would instruct his men to pull back and allow Crazy Horse to administer the killing blow.  Crazy Horse had a vendetta against Custer because of his attack and massacre of a village that Crazy Horse had family in.  The deal was struck and Crazy Horse was in.  Deal making and politicking.  You will not convince me that these guys weren't sophisticated.  Two of my heroes right there.

Sitting Bull called for all the Lakota and related tribes to gather at the Little Bighorn River in June of 1876.  He was a visionary who understood that traditional rivalries needed to be ended and all of the native peoples needed to band together if they wanted to keep their way of life.  Strength through numbers and unity.  The army was aware of the encampment and three separate army groups were sent to the area to escort the "hostiles" back to the reservations.  Colonel John Gibbon marched east from Fort Ellis, Montana with six infantry companies and four cavalry companies.  Brigadier General George Crook marched north from Fort Fetterman, in the Wyoming Territory with fifteen cavalry companies and five infantry companies.  Brigadier General Alfred Terry marched west from Fort Abraham Lincoln in the Dakota Territory with 12 companies of the 7th Cavalry and five assorted companies of infantry including a Gatling gun detachment.  General Terry has been accused by historians of being a little lazy and turning over command of the 7th Cavalry to Custer.  According to the histories I have read about this battle, all of the commanding officers, including Custer knew the orders and strategy and were supposed to converge on the encampment from three directions in force on the same day to compel the natives to return to their reservations.  According to one history I read, Custer arrived a day early and decided to attack before the other army groups were in place.  It may be factual or it may be apocryphal, but I read that Custer commented that history never remembers the guy that got there second.

Custer pushed ahead and didn't wait for the Gatling gun detachment because he was afraid it would slow him down.  Historians have also suggested that Custer had political aspirations and wanted to serve as president of the United States.  He had burned a few bridges in Washington and had been demoted from command of the 7th Cavalry in favor of General Terry.  He viewed this engagement as his last opportunity to have a stunning military victory which would cause his popularity to rise and then he could win the presidency.  The histories I have read suggest that is the reason he showed up a day early.  He didn't know how large the encampment was, and he overestimated his ability to achieve victory on this particular day.  He was right about one thing, though.  History hasn't really remembered the guy that got there second.

I'll break up the reading now with a few pictures.  Then I'll get back to the narrative.  I won't describe everything that happened in the battle, just a few high points.  There has been so much written about this battle that is better than the nutshell I can provide.

Little Bighorn National Cemetery

Many of the men who lost their lives in the battle are buried here.

There are soldiers buried here from all our wars since the Sioux War of 1876.  WWI, WWII, Vietnam, etc...

I felt a reverence here.

When we arrived at the National Battlefield, there was a ranger who was just getting started telling the story of the battle.  He was sitting at the end of the visitor's center in a mini-amphitheatre which overlooked the battlefield.  As he told the story, he pointed out what happened in sequence and where.  It was an amazing telling of the story of the battle.  As I mentioned, I have read over a thousand pages about this battle, but it never came alive until this ranger told the story.  The National Park Service is fortunate to have this ranger on their staff.  I know his name, but I will not give it until I have his permission to do to.

One of Custer's scouts told him that a large group of natives had come across his tracks and if he were going to attack he should do it quickly so he would have the element of surprise.  The fact of the matter is that the natives who came across his tracks were leaving the encampment and did not return to tell the tale.  Custer couldn't have known that.  The original plan was for the three army groups to converge on the encampment from three different directions and surround the native people.  If Custer had waited for the other army groups there would have been approximately 2500 fighting men as opposed to about 1500 Lakota and Cheyenne warriors.  As it was, Custer had about 700 cavalrymen.  He was outnumbered.

Custer's battle plan was to divide his forces into three groups and send one to the east, one to the west and he would charge right up the middle.  He gave command of three companies to Major Marcus Reno and three companies to Captain Frederick Benteen.  Custer kept command of five companies with one company left behind to supply the others.  Reno and Benteen began their attacks on the village, but Reno almost immediately came under heavy fire.  He was pinned down couldn't complete his assignment.  When Benteen saw his friend's predicament, he broke off the attack and came to Reno's aid.  This left Custer all alone to attack the encampment.

The National Park Service has placed and maintains markers on the battlefield where combatants from both sides died.  The cavalry soldiers' markers are white marble while the natives' markers are red granite.  There are considerably more white marble markers than red granite markers.

White marble marker

A group of men in Reno or Benteen's Battalions lost their lives here

Mato Heton died here

Another group of cavalry graves

Troop movements took place here from both sides

This is at the Reno/Benteen battlefield 

Here is an obelisk commemorating the men who fell at the Reno/Benteen battle

Self evident

The main encampment was right down there by the river

Just before Custer descended into the village, he gave his last recorded order.  W.W. Cooke scribbled an order which was given to Giovanni Martini.  We don't know what Custer's last words really were because everyone who heard them died that day and had no way to record them.  So this message to Benteen are the last known words he spoke.  The message said, "Benteen, Come on.  Big Village. Be quick.  Bring packs.  P.S.  Bring Packs."

At this point, the only living witnesses to what happened next were from the Lakota.  Historians discredited the native accounts.  For a more than a hundred years Historians recounted the battle based on the nineteenth century orthodoxy.  In September of 1983, a grassfire swept across the battlefield.  The grasses in the monument were traditionally very tall and thick.  The grass was tall enough that warriors could crawl through it without being detected.  When the grass was gone, battlefield forensic archaeologists decided to work to put together the actual account of the battle instead of the romanticized one from the orthodox histories.  They found bullets and shell casings and could trace them to individual guns based on rifling patterns and hammer strikes.  Using this technology, they followed several men across the span of time on the battlefield and pieced together the actual story of the battle.  Turns out, the native accounts had been far more accurate than the regular histories.

The forensic battlefield archaeologists also discovered that not only did the Lakota and the Cheyenne outnumber Custer and his twelve companies, they out gunned them too.  The army had single shot, breech loading rifles to "conserve ammunition."  Many of the warriors were armed with repeating rifles.  The Lakota have been called the greatest individual horse soldiers in history.  Custer was outclassed in every way possible.  I saw a bumper sticker in Eastern Montana one time that said, "Custer had it coming."  The sentiments run strong.

When Custer broke off the attack on the village, he fought a skirmishing retreat to the place that is commonly known as Last Stand Hill.  It was here that, according to the native accounts, Sitting Bull's warriors pulled back and Crazy Horse and his men swarmed the last of the men from Custer's command.

Today, a road passes by the markers on Last Stand Hill.  On the other side of the road is a monument to the Native Americans who fought here, died here and those who continued living.

The markers on Last Stand Hill

This is where George Armstrong Custer fought his last battle

And his brother

Memorial to the cavalrymen who fought and died here

Interesting read

Horse cemetery

Memorial to the Native Americans

Marker for a slain warrior.  Note the offerings on the stone

Another warrior fell here

The native memorial is situated just below ground level and disappears from view from the outside.

Wire sculpture of warriors off to battle

Interpretive panels all around

More panels

The native memorial is circular and there are four openings on the compass points for the four winds, the four cardinal directions and the four colors, red, yellow, white and black.  It is all symbolic through native tradition

More interpretive materials

One of the four entrances

A marker explaining the memorial

I believe this is the feature called Medicine Tail Coulee, a virtual highway during the battle for troop movements on both sides

As we were leaving the battlefield, I saw the ranger who gave such an inspiring talk about the battle, retiring the flag over the national cemetery.  He was doing it by himself, and it was a very large flag.  I ran over and removed my hat so he would know I was being respectful and I caught the flag as it came down.  He smiled and asked, "Hold or fold?"  I laughed a little and said I hadn't folded a flag like that since scouts so I said I would hold.  We folded the flag very respectfully and placed it in the special container box.  He and I talked a little and he posed for a picture with me.  This will be important in a few more blog posts.  I will say that it was a great honor for me to fold the flag that flew over the Little Bighorn National Battlefield.

The Ranger and me

Visiting the battlefield on that particular day was an amazing experience for me.  I have studied this particular battle for years and it finally made sense.  The ranger pictured above told the story in such a remarkable way that I felt I could see the battle happening, could hear the gunshots and the horses whinnying, the men shouting.  I felt I could smell the smoke of the gunpowder.  He was a great storyteller.  If you read this and wish to go to this National Battlefield, I only hope you get to hear him speak.  Great experience.

Last little bit about this battle.  I spoke to a native friend years ago.  Back in the nineteen thirties, a boy on the reservation had a friend who was a white kid from town.  He took the kid into his home and dug out some of the battlefield trophies and souvenirs his family had taken clear back in the 1870's.  When the tribal elders found out, they went house to house and collected all the battlefield relics from everyone and burned them.  Sixty years later they still feared reprisal.  All of that history lost to flames and fear.

I have a friend from high school who is Lakota.  He lives in South Dakota now.  Every now and then he will post a video of a dance by tribal members.  It is a special dance and they pull out the original battle flag of the 7th Cavalry and ceremoniously drag it through the dirt.  The flag is hidden in a very secure place on the reservation.  Only a few people know where it is.  The Smithsonian Institute has asked the tribe to part with it for their collection.  I think they have even offered a lot of money.  The tribe has declined every offer.  As they should.  Some things are more important than money.

For Part I of the Epic Road Trip, click this Link

For Part II of the Epic Road Trip, click this Link

For Part III of the Epic Road Trip, click this Link

For Part V of the Epic Road Trip, click this Link