The Battle of Little Bighorn
One of America’s most famous events
The Battle of Little Bighorn is a story of arrogance, ill-devised tactical planning, and the fierce resistance of an aboriginal people not yet willing to become the domestic pet of a new and westward-expanding nation. It began on June 25, 1876, a date that still resounds in American military infamy.
In the months preceding the battle, the U.S. Army had forcefully begun pooling Montana’s Natives back into the reservations they had steadily vacated. The primary figure behind the Battle of Little Bighorn was George Armstrong Custer, leader of the powerful 7th Cavalry and acting commander on the morning of June 25.
Having already refused additional equipment and manpower support, Custer proceeded with his goal of engaging and corralling nomadic Native forces in the valleys surrounding the Bighorn, all despite warnings that the Cheyenne held a mass encampment somewhere nearby.
The Battle
Custer’s 7th Cavalry first met Sioux defenders along the south bank of the Little Bighorn River. In an attempt to provoke an engagement with the Natives, Custer ordered Major Marcus Reno and three cavalry companies to pour across the river so that they may fall upon the Sioux. Another group, led by Captain Frederick Benteen, led a similarly sized force to the left of Reno. Custer himself led an even larger force, of five cavalry companies, to the river’s lower ford in order to attack the Sioux camp’s uppermost quarter.
At first, the plan sounds tactically impressive. By dividing his forces into three independent units, Custer’s attack confused the Sioux defenders. As a result, the plan proved successful for the opening barrage, with a number of Native warriors reportedly contemplating a full retreat.
But the resistance of the Sioux defenders was enough to spook the first attacking force under Major Reno. Because he had no contact with Custer amidst the blind, rolling valleys around the river, Reno assumed he would be wiped out if isolated against a superior Sioux force. Thus, he led his forces back over the river, leaving Custer to fend for himself against a larger-than-expected Native party.
Captain Benteen, who had been ordered to attack from the left, may have misjudged his task. Like Reno, he abandoned the idea of standing and fighting, and instead retreated to meet the major a safe distance behind the camp. Benteen’s arrival along the overlooking river bluffs was only in time to save Reno, hotly pursued by an aggressive Native force.
Despite a messenger’s plea to return to the field in support of Custer, Benteen saw to Reno and misjudged the dire situation left upon his commander.
To the north, Custer and just over 200 of his troops faced an incredible number of warriors, now freed from defending against Reno and Benteen. Some historians believe Custer made it to the top of a distant bluff where he could see Reno’s now-retreated force, at a heartbreaking distance and now too far to offer reinforcement. There was no time and no path for Custer to flee, and so the commander fought until his group was annihilated some three hours later by forces outnumbering his three-to-one.
Although the Lakota forces regrouped for an attack on Reno and Benteen’s forces, both were able to escape.
