Battle of the Little Bighorn - Custer's Last Stand | History |

[Music] the years leading up to the battle of the little bighorn were turbulent for native americans confusing u.s government policies misled the plains indians and led to a series of conflicts between both parties seeking to put an end to these turbulent times the u.s government guaranteed exclusive possession of the sacred black hills and the dakota territory west of the missouri river to the lakota and dakota sioux with the signing of the second fort laramie treaty in 1868. in 1874 prospectors illegally entered the great sioux reservation and began mining in the black hills for gold soon after their arrival they found what they came for when they discovered a large gold deposit at deadwood gulch in november 1875. though their presence did not go unnoticed by the lakota who were furious that the terms of the second fort laramie treaty had been broken realizing the potential conflict that would ensue should matters continue to escalate the u.s government promptly stepped in and offered to buy the black hills off the lakota but unwilling to give up their sacred grounds they refused now unable to persuade the lakota to leave and unwilling to leave the gold deposits alone the u.s government saw to remove the lakota from their lands by issuing an ultimatum on december 6 1875 to the indian agencies which read all indians are to return to their designated reservations by january 31st 1876 or be deemed hostile the short time frame set out by the ultimatum made it almost impossible for the indian hunting parties that were scattered over hundreds of kilometers to return in time and with many of the planes indians rejecting the conditions confrontation become inevitable in direct defiance of the us government the leaders of the sioux people sitting bull and crazy horse gathered hundreds of lakota and northern cheyenne and made camp along the banks of the little bighorn river in southern montana at a place they called the greasy grass it was here during the annual sundance ceremony in early spring of 1876 that sitting bull had a vision in it he saw soldiers toppling upside down into his camp and took it as a sign of a looming great victory for his people as spring flowed into the early days of summer more and more indians left the reservations and joined the camp and by june of that year thousands of lakota northern cheyenne and arapaho indians swarmed in the deep ravines of the little bighorn valley in the spring of 1876 the u.s government saw to put an end to sitting bull and his followers thus they instructed lieutenant general sheridan to gather a force and round up those they considered to be hostile and so under sheridan's orders three army columns were assembled and were to sweep lakota country in an attempt to corral the indians the first column under command of colonel john gibbons consisted of six companies of the seventh infantry and four companies of the second cavalry their orders were to march east out to fort ellis on march 30th 1876 and track along the yellowstone river towards the mouth of the bighorn valley the second column under the command of brigadier general george crook consisted of ten companies of the third cavalry five companies of the second cavalry two companies of the fourth infantry and three companies of the ninth infantry from fort fettermann they would move north towards the powder river on may 29th and sweep the lakota country from the south finally the third column under the command of brigadier general alfred terry would march west out to fort abraham lincoln on may 17th and link up with the other two columns and in the process effectively corrals sitting bull and his followers terry's column would become synonymous with the little bighorn as in addition to the gatling gun detachment of the 20th infantry and two companies of the 17th infantry 12 companies of the infamous seventh cavalry under the command of lieutenant general george armstrong custer were also attached by this time custer seventh cavalry were renowned for their participation in the campaigns of the american indian wars with the most notable victory coming at the battle of ushita river in november 1868 however by the spring of 1876 the well-drilled and battle-hardened companies of the seventh cavalry were a shadow of their former selves some 20 percent of the troopers were new recruits with little to no experience of frontier combat to make matters worse despite being the best equipped and supplied regiment in the u.s army at the time many of the troopers were malnourished and in poor health nevertheless they marched with general terry's column in anticipation of winning a decisive victory which would bring about the end of the american indian wars though in reality many of them would ultimately be marching to their early graves by mid-june the army's plans began to unravel as on june 17th crooks column was forced to retreat after being dealt a heavy blow by the indians at the battle of the rosebud to make matters worse a distinct lack of communication left the other two columns unaware of crooks retreat and so they proceeded to march on until they linked up at the mouth of rosebud creek it was here that general terry called for a new plan in which custer would take the seventh cavalry south along the rosebud before striking west to the little bighorn valley from here he was to track north along the little bighorn river and sweep the indians up the valley where the joint terry gibbon column would be waiting in force thus on june 22nd 1876 custer in the 7th cavalry which comprised of 31 officers and 566 men began their reconnaissance along the rosebud with the added prerogative that custer could depart from orders if he saw sufficient reason to wishing to pursue the natives with haste custer declined the offer to take the gatling guns with him and set off in pursuit of sitting bull's camp on the evening of june 24th indian scouts from custer's command reached the overlook at crowe's nest some 14 miles east of the little bighorn river and at daybreak on the 25th they had discovered sitting bull's camp word was immediately passed back to custer who rode up and joined them but when he arrived neither he nor the officer who was there with him could make sight of the camp hell bent on furthering his reputation custer departed from his orders and decided to attack without the aid of the terry gibbon column drawing on over a decade of frontier combat experience he planned to attack at dawn on the 26th but when a small band of indian warriors sighted some seventh cavalry troopers he feared they'd warn the camp and cause the indians to scatter wishing to avoid this custer went against his own better judgment and hastily decided to attack immediately thus without further delay the men of the seventh cavalry rapidly assembled to the call of the bugle and prepared for battle custer's plan of attack was to divide his 12 companies into three columns major arena would take companies a g and m and attack the camp head on from the south while custer himself would lead five companies c e f i and l and attack the camp from the north meanwhile captain ben teen would take companies d h and k and sweep south cutting off the indian retreat whilst a smaller fourth detachment under the command of captain mcdougall would take bee company and escort the slow-moving pact train on their approach in broad daylight on june 25th 1876 the seventh cavalry came across a lone teepee which contained the body of the sans arc warrior old shebe where he had been mortally wounded at the battle of the rosebud just a few days earlier this landmark would gain huge significance as it was here that custer gave reno his final orders and it would also be the last time many of the men would see some of their comrades alive as the three columns began their approach as the seventh cavalry prepared to attack that day they were operating under the assumptions that sitting bull and crazy horse had no more than 800 warriors at their disposal but these numbers supplied by the us army's own indian agents failed to take into account the large numbers of reservation indians who had unofficially left the reservations to join the camp that spring thus unknowingly custer faced a force comprising of some one thousand five hundred to two and a half thousand warriors and not the 800 he had anticipated the first to realize this blunder was major reno whose command had crossed the little bighorn river at reno creek around 3 p.m upon sight in the southern end of the camp reno ordered an all-out charge but almost immediately he realized the indians were present in force as reno approached the camp he quickly sent his crow indian scouts forward to protect his exposed left flank and as the rest of the battalion swept around the bend in the river the full expanse of the camp came into sight for the first time now for the first time reno realized they had made a grave error and fearing he would be surrounded and trapped if he entered the camp he promptly halted the charge a few hundred yards from the camp entrance and yelled at his troopers to dismount and form skirmish line anchoring the right flank of the line to the river reno's men began pouring volley after volley into the masses of warriors now streaming out of the camp however the skirmish line formation reduced reno's firepower by 25 percent as every fourth trooper in line had to hold the horses for his comrades exploiting this weakness the warriors rode head-on against reno's center and exposed left flank and after some 20 minutes of firing the odds began to stack heavily against reno and his men soon after some 500 warriors who had massed behind the cover of a hill to reno's left launched an all-out assault against his flanks realizing his position was untenable reno ordered a withdrawal to the cover of the brush near the river here with more cover the troopers of the seventh cavalry put up stiffer resistance until the indians attempted to set fire to the dead wood and burn them out in the ensuing chaos reno who was clearly shaken ordered his men to mount dismount and then mount again before finally yelling to anyone in your shot all those who wish to make their escape follow me the retreat descended into utter carnage as the fractured elements of the columns scrambled back across the river those who were lucky enough to still have their horses attempted to aid their wounded comrades but the brutality of close quarters combat hindered their attempts eventually at around 4 20 p.m the ragged remains of reno's command who had made it atop reno hill were reinforced by captain benteen's column arriving from the south bend teen's command had been summoned by bugler giovanni martino who is carrying what would be custer's final written order which simply said benteen come on big valley be quick bring pax ps bring packs it was around this time reno and ben teen could hear heavy gunfire coming from the north and it was likely that at this point caster and his command were already dug in around last stand hill however now grasping the gravity of the situation benteen decided not to ride to custer but instead he chose to remain and reinforce reno's crippled command thus when macdougall's bee company arrived with the pack train benteen ordered the 14 officers and 340 troopers at his disposal to dig rifle pits and set up an all-round defensive perimeter despite this captain thomas weir and d company left the defensive perimeter at around 5 pm and rode north in an attempt to reach custer's command as they reached weir point some one mile north of reno hill they witnessed warriors firing at objects on the ground it was widely believed that they were witnessing the conclusion of custer's battle at last stand hill at about 5 25 pm although other sources now claim that what weir was actually witnessing was the destruction of allen c company around column hill the remaining companies at reno hill eventually followed weir and d-company but growing attacks around weir point forced them back to their original position now entrenched and exhausted the weary troops hung on and fended off ferocious attacks at some point during the defense benteen would earn praise from his men for personally leading a counter-attack to drive off a group of warriors massing in the long grass with the bulk of reno's command pinned down in the brush at around 3 30 p.m the bulk of indian warriors are free to pursue custer whose command was now climbing the bluffs on the opposite banks of the river from a high vantage point custer was able to see reno's command and ordered his men north where they could forward the river and attack the northern end of the camp in a classic hammer and anvil maneuver as custer's men charged north they attempted to ford the river at the medicine tale ford in the belief that this was the doorway to the northern end of the camp but to their absolute horror they quickly realized that they'd underestimated the size of the camp and in reality they were attacking the middle with a hail of arrows and bullets raining down on custer's command he promptly turned tail and headed further north along the bluffs by the time custer and his command made it to colon hill the situation had become dire the indians had all but surrounded the troopers and now their superiority in numbers began to show heavy fire from sharpshooters to the south east made it impossible for custer's men to secure a full defensive position around the hill with casualties rapidly mounting and the indians closing in custer and companies f e and i made a break for last stand hill leaving l and c companies to fight it out on column hill the move proved disastrous as eye company were caught out in the open by a handful of oglala sue who would track northeast along the bluffs and attack them in the rear e company did not fare any better as they attempted to make a desperate dash of last stand hill to the river however in what the indians described as a buffalo run the scattered troops were picked off and slaughtered this left only some 50 to 60 men of f companies still standing with custer at last stand hill and as they witnessed the waves of warriors appearing from all sides they must have realized any hopes of survival were futile those who could attempted to form skirmish line but the sheer panic they experienced meant any army doctrine was thrown out the window in a desperate scramble for survival indian accounts reveal that the last few survivors of f company put up a ferocious resistance and inflicted many casualties however it is believed that when crazy horse himself led a charge against f company's right flank any remnants of the skirmish line was shattered and the company was overwhelmed at some point during this final stand custer himself was fatally shot below the heart which may explain the rapid descent into panic of those left on last stand hill a few hundred yards to the south on column hill l and c company were hanging on by a thread clinging to the glimmer of hope that benteen's column would arrive though as the last troopers of f company were overrun their hopes dwindled and at around 5 25 pm as their ammunition supplies dried up they were finally overwhelmed as the battle of the little bighorn concluded the bodies of all 210 officers and troopers that had followed custer to the northern reaches of the camp littered the landscape among the dead were two of custer's brothers boston and thomas his brother-in-law james colun and his nephew henry reed in addition a further 58 men of the seventh cavalry perished during reno's charge and the subsequent defense of reno hill bringing the total dead to 268 men with a further 55 wounded native losses are harder to determine with many people estimating the losses to be just 31 killed however lakota chief red horse stated in 1877 that he believed native losses could be estimated at around some 136 killed and up to 160 wounded two days after the battle on june 27 1876 general terry's column arrived at the battlefield unaware of what had unfolded terry was quickly briefed that custer's command had been wiped out as news began to filter out about the battle accusations about who was to blame were promptly thrown about many tried to lay blame on captain benteen for deciding not to reinforce custer but in the long years since the battle many historians and military personnel agree that benteen's actions that day probably saved the lives of all remaining companies from total destruction ultimately custer shouldered the blame as his decision to split his force with poor intelligence led to the total destruction of five companies of the seventh cavalry thanks for watching be sure to subscribe leave a like and share and if you'd like to learn more about battles in north america then check out my video on the american revolutionary war

Channel: History Radar

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Keywords: custer, usa, USA, America, america, north america, montana, wyoming, dakota, south dakota, north dakota, little bighorn, buffalo, native american, sioux, crazy horse, sitting bull, oglala sioux, arapaho, northern cheyenne, general custer, 1876, 7th cavalry, cavalry, red cloud, president, battle, war, history, skirmish, indian, indians, great plains, orgeon trail, west, wild west, civil war, major reno, last stand, hill, summer, historia, historias, histoire, miltary, army, warriors, fight, fort laramie, us

Id: fvqN4vGBrJI

Length: 20min 50sec (1250 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 11 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/bikersquid]

Really thought that was ben stiller in the thumbnail