Battle of Little Bighorn

Lesson 8: The Battle of the Little Bighorn and Beyond

The Battle Continues

Major Marcus Reno

As Reno advanced on the Indian village he glanced back, expecting to see Custer who had promised to support him. Custer was not there, nor would he be. Reno was on his own. Suddenly, he ordered his men to dismount and fight on foot. Private James Turley’s horse bolted. It carried Turley into the cloud of dust in the direction of the Indian village. It was the last anyone saw of him.

Every fourth soldier grabbed the reins of his horse and three others and led them to the rear, leaving a thin skirmish line facing the hostiles. Mounted Sioux raced forward and curled around behind them. Reno abandoned his position and his men rushed into the trees. Reno then decided this position was no good and ordered his men to mount. Just then, Bloody Knife, astride a horse beside Reno was shot in the back of the head. The scout’s brains and blood splattered in Reno’s face. Reno ordered his men to dismount again, then changed back to mounting again. His column was in total confusion. When Reno’s men retreated out of the woods the Sioux mixed in amongst them.

“The Indians picked off the troops at will,” Gerard said later. By the time the soldiers gathered atop the bluffs, of the 175 soldiers and scouts who had charged down the valley 40 were dead and 13 were wounded. Lonesome Charley Reynolds was dead. Lieutenant Charles DeRudio and 16 men were missing. Benteen managed to reach Reno’s position and direct the action there.

Capt. Frederick Benteen

Custer sent a message for Benteen to hurry and bring up the pack train which contained the extra ammunition, but Benteen did not go. By now the Indians began to pull back and were advancing to where Custer and his column were. Obviously they were drawn by the sound of gun fire some four miles away. But Reno and his men, as well as Benteen must have heard it, too. They made no move to assist. Surely, some of them, in spite of the fight they had just gone through could not begin to imagine Custer needing help.

There is an unwritten law of military operation that “you must march to the sound of the guns.” Both Reno and Benteen, at the court of inquiry some time later, denied to the court of hearing any “significant firing.”

And yet, Lieutenant Varnum wrote his father later that the men on the bluffs had know “from the fearful firing at the other end of the village that someone was getting it hot and heavy up there.”

In twenty minutes, or less, the Battle of the Little Bighorn was over. Custer and his 225 soldiers, including his two brothers, his nephew, and his sister’s husband were dead.

Lt. Col. George Custer

Reno and Benteen, with what was left of their commands, were besieged until the following day when the hostiles saw Gibbon coming, then the hostiles packed up and left the area.

Since that disastrous day of June 25, 1876, there has been no end to the discussion of who was at fault. I leave it to the students to do further reading and to make up their own minds.

Internet link(s) for this section are:

Red Horse—a Minneconjou Warrior http://littlebighorn.bravepages.com/biog... Red Horse drew a series of pictographs in 1881, based on what he remembered from the Little Bighorn battle.

Personal Biographies of the Little Bighorn http://littlebighorn.bravepages.com/biog... The above link will take you to the biography of 1st Lieutenant and Regimental Adjutant of the 7th United States Cavalry William W. Cooke, but there are numerous links here for biographies of many others involved in the battle.

List of the Dead and Wounded at the Battle of the Little Bighorn http://littlebighorn.bravepages.com/casu... Do you have an ancestor that was in the United States Army that may have been in the Battle of the Little Bighorn? Here’s a complete list of the US Army’s dead and wounded—and where on the body they were wounded.

The sources for this section are:

Ambrose, Stephen E. Crazy Horse and Custer: The Parallel Lives of Two American Warriors. Random House, Inc. New York, 1996.

Barnett, Louise. Touched by Fire: The Life, Death, and Mythic Afterlife of George Armstrong Custer. Henry Holt and Company, New York, 1996.

Utley, Robert M. Little Bighorn Battlefield: Official National Park Handbook. Division of Publications, National Park Service, 1994.

Utley, Robert M. The Lance and the Shield: The Life and Times of Sitting Bull. Henry Holt and Company, New York, 1993.

Viola, Herman J., and Jan Shelton Danis. It Is A Good Day To Die: Indian Eyewitnesses Tell the Story of the Battle of the Little Bighorn. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln and London, 1998.

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