Little Bighorn: The Desperate Defense of Reno Hill (w/Jocko Willink) | History Traveler Episode 343

[Music] in the past few episodes of History traveler we have been exploring the area connected with the battle of the Little Big Horn in the first episode we started off where kuster had his last encampment and moved to the area where he made some questionable decisions to divide his forces in the second episode we were able to gain some special access to private ground to look at where Reno had his disastrous charge in this episode we'll be following the retreat of Reno across the Little Big Horn and up to The High Ground to an area that is now known as Reno bentin Hill we'll be linking up with Joo willink and Leif Babin and the other members of echelon front to explore this area where elements of the seventh Cavalry under Reno and bentine put up a desperate defense against multiple attacks by Native Americans under the leadership of setting bull [Music] [Laughter] [Music] again we are overlooking Reno Creek to the south of where the Battle of Little Big Horn took place and uh this is where bentin is is going to be following uh you know kuster and Reno and and again he gets this message that says bentin come on big Village be quick PS bring packs and this message kind of confuses benen a little bit and he he doesn't know what he should do should he be quick and you know move along and maybe help with whatever's going on uh or does he need to wait for the pack train which is dragging way behind um and you know get supplies up to these beleaguered men uh so he he ends up uh sending a guy named Martin back to the pack train to try and hurry them up and as they move forward uh down Reno Creek here well they start to hear and and see uh you know people running around they hear gunfire and uh benen is going to end up following kuster's route and uh take The High Ground above the Little Big Horn River [Music] so I've now made my way up to what is called Reno Hill or Reno bentin Hill and as the you know men from Reno's three companies are are making their way across the river they come up this draw right here behind me and and find their way right up here on this high point where they can kind of Escape some of the fury that they've experienced down [Music] below we have shifted up to the top of the Ridge and from up here you can really see things clear and and kind of get an idea of of what happened with Reno's charge and Retreat so so just to give you an idea of of where we are we are facing kind of to the the West right now and if I zoom in if you see that red building in the distance well that's where we were showing where Reno's charge had taken place uh just as the road kind of dips out of view to the right is where he had dismounted uh and then the the troops are going to be overrun again they're going to be hit in the Left Flank and they're going to make their way all the way around here and right here in this pocket that you see in front of us uh just on the other side of the Little Big Horn this is where the men from Reno's Detachment are going to be trying to cross the river and it is going to be an absolute blood bath down there uh the the river was literally turning red so you have Crazy Horse uh leading these warriors uh in their attack on Reno's men and the ones who are able to make it across start trying to get their way up these little draws and Ravines ultimately making their way to what we now know as Reno Hill or Reno bentin hill by the time Reno and what was left of his command made it up here to the top of the hill was about 4:00 in the afternoon uh on June 25th and he he had suffered about 40 killed uh there there were more who were were wounded uh there are several men who were still down in the valley uh hiding and this whole time people are wondering where's kuster uh but that's not a question that would be answered for a little while uh and in the meantime there was still some pretty intense fighting that was going to be taking place uh right up here on the heights at Reno bentin Hill so off in this direction right here this is where Reno's men would have been coming up at around 4:00 on the afternoon of June 25th and uh here where he ends up converging with Ben teen's element now they they have a monument says this area was occupied by troops a b d g h k and M uh 7th us Cavalry and the pack train when they were besieged by the Sue Indians June 25th and 26th of 1876 so when we think of you know kuster and the Last Stand uh we think of where you know kuster himself and the men that he was with were wiped out to the north of here uh but there was a a bit of a stand that took place here on the south end of the Battlefield 2 that we're going to take a look at here at the Reno bentine fence here on top of the hill they they have this nice little map that helps us kind of uh Orient ourselves as to where we are so uh obviously we are here and you can see that the defense perimeter is not like a perfect circle or oval it looks more like a frying pan uh so you would have had company B over here uh company m is also going to be up here on the second day and then you get over here uh this is going to be kind of like company H area right right around the handle of of The Frying Pan we're going to go take a look at all of these spots uh and then there's a barricade that's set up here the horses and mules are in the middle there's going to be a field hospital but anyway this gives you a a general idea of what the defense perimeter looks like uh right over here on the south end of the battlefield I'm standing at the top of the draw that leads down to the Little Big Horn and we we looked at this in the last episode uh but I thought would be a good opportunity to talk about setting priorities so for the the Native Americans they you know you have Crazy Horse and again uh about 600 of the 2,000 Warriors who are going up against the seventh Cavalry and and once they drive Reno's men out of this area and Reno's men are going to come up this draw right here uh for the the meantime the native americ Americans have achieved their objective their their One Singular objective is protect the village uh even though you have a lot of Warriors who are acting independently they they all have a common goal so so once the threat has been driven off from the south well really just kind of as one uh they move out and and go back around uh as you know kind of like this I don't I don't even know know how to describe it but just as as a single-minded group uh because there is a new threat to the north that they have to take care of and again their one objective is to protect the village for the seventh Cavalry the these guys are all over the place they all have different priorities uh kuster his priority is his own Glory uh bentin who knows what his priorities are he he seems kind of confused and uh maybe has a little bit of a grudge against kuster Reno makes it up here to the top of the hill and you would think that he would be thinking about you know setting up a perimeter or trying to link up with kuster uh but his priority is to go back down the draw to the river to try and find his Aid hodon who had been killed right there by the river that seems like something that could have been taken care of later on uh but Reno insists on going down really Burns some valuable time and uh really in hindsight we can look at that as a poor decision uh where he he placed the the wrong thing as a priority in a very heated [Music] moment all right so here's what's nice about coming to uh EF Battlefield plentiful supply of Joo ghost now do you see remember where I told you that that saddle of the V now see it's more opened up now because our perspective has changed from this morning being over on two bar hill so if we're going to make a run for it now I've been riding a pony since 09 in the morning I've come all the way from the Crow's Nest that's back there on that Ridge line that was my last known location of where we camped that night I'm going to go all the way I'm going to get into a massive gunfight down here in the cotton woods and then I'm going to run up here on this hill now maybe we should go all the way back what do you think's going to happen by this point in time is if let's say I took everybody down by the cottonwoods we do like a 100 burpees and then we run up to here and then I said say yeah here's a drink of water now we're going to the wolf mountains you guys are not going to be happy with JD man because about halfway out there people are going to be like I'm out I'm done but when you get up to here can Rino and these folks is this defensible it's high ground and it's better than being down there matter of fact anywhere is better than being down there if they're growing out of the ground the problem is when Reno calls for this Retreat he's the first one out and he's going to lose quite a few folks uh as he's moving out of there uh when you look at it uh inside your book on page nine it talks about Gaul of his actions but then you look over on page 10 inside of there when he makes it up here he's going to lose three officers in 29 enlisted and then Reno if you could imagine when he gets up here and the forces are coming up from here who shows up down here in the South who do we leave first this morning benen benen is now he sees benen making his way up here and then later on the log Train's going to come up here but the Native Americans are still chasing them up here because what are they trying to do what are the Native Americans trying to do get the threat as far away from the tribe as possible so that they can now start to pack up and then they have to go Oscar Mike to start getting the women and kids and all of their stuff out and the Warriors are going to push them up onto here and they're no longer a threat right here we are looking at what is really the core of the bentin Reno defense perimeter uh right here on top of the hill uh so they they have a a walkway going around and uh you can really kind of follow the walkway and as you do you're really following the perimeter of the men of the seventh Cavalry who were were up here on June 25th and 26th and right here in the middle well you notice out there there's a little stake with a red cross on it well this is where the only surviving doctor uh assistant surgeon by the name of Henry Porter set up kind of like an aid station to collect the wounded and and treat them the the best that he could right here in this depression now I don't know if you noticed but it's pretty open here uh there aren't really any trees at all so there's no shade and I can tell you right now the the sun is beating down in the back of my neck and it is is really hot uh so in addition to not having any You Know defensible cover here uh you also have these poor wounded men who are are laying out in the sun uh now we're going to to kind of walk through the the perimeter defenses and look at some things up here uh but but there was something pretty important that happened before the fighting that took place on the evening of the 25th and the 26th of June so right here on the afternoon of the 25th you have these different companies that are forming up and establishing a perimeter here and the D company Commander guy by the name of Weir uh can hear gunfire in the distance of course nobody knows where kuster is so he he sees a high point off to the north and he goes to Reno and ask permission to uh take his company out and and do a little bit of scouting and see if he can see what is going on and see where kuster's at of course Reno is all panicked and flustered at this point drunk um and and he refuses permission so uh Weir uh proceeds to just disobey the orders and take out by himself so his company goes with him Ben teen sees it and he's like oh okay well if Weir's going I guess that he got permission so so he follows after and they're going to proceed to the north to a high point here on the The Little Big Horn Battlefield that is now known as Weir Point all right we're going to go and take a look at at Weir point before uh coming back here and looking at the perimeter of the defenses on Reno bentin Hill you know we're out there looking and you're thinking someone said to me like can you imagine being out there like you got no radio or anything no way to communicate what's happening no way to find out where everyone else is and that's awful and as I thought about it the way I always ran operations was we didn't need a radio I want I want you to think about that my last combat deployment was way back in the 1800s well I was actually uh 2006 but believe me we had radios every single guy carried a radio and yet we wanted plan to execute operations no one had to get on the radio no one that right there the reason we're able to do that is just because of decentralized command that's why that's why we able to do it we go out in operations L we go out in operation I'd be in the field as a ground Force Commander Le would be the assault Force Commander Andrew would be the mobility Commander none of us would talk on the radio for a whole operation and that's how we planned it and the reason we able to do that is because we had decentralized command cuz Leif knew what his mission was he knew what the parameters were Andrew knew what he was supposed to do he knew what the parameters were they knew how we're going to Rack we had standard operating procedures we had all these things in place so that should be my goal that's decentralized command where am I going to be I'm going to be wherever I need to be if I hear gunfire and it's coming for their s for is I'm going to get close enough where I know where Leif is Leif kind of knows where I'm going to be I'm going to go to that breach Point there's something going on I'm go to that breach Point Le's going to go I better tell ja what's going on he's like I'm going to jump on my radio and start telling Joo everything no he's going to find his way back to that breach point he's goingon to go hey boss here's what's going on oh there's some problems out in the out in the street somewhere oh guess what I'm going to vehicle thre he already knows I'm going to be there doesn't need to jump on clog up the radio he wants to tell me what's going on and if I need to know what's going on that's where I'm going you can move you have to move you have to give mobile you have to put yourself in a position where you control things that are going on this other question do you trust the people to go out and execute let me ask you this question do they trust you does your team trust you does Leif when Leif is in the field he's got to make a decision does he trust that I have his back when Andrew is going to make a decision to assault the building or kill some people does he have the trust in me to be able to go you know what I I'm pretty sure this what I need to do right now the the Roe is in line the the enemy ttp's in line this is what we got to do does he trust me cuz that's what we're trying to build and if he's out in the field he doesn't trust me to back him up what good is it he's not going to make those decisions does this mean he can go out there and act like an idiot no does this mean he can go out there and think if he does something stupid he's not going to be reprimanded for that no he knows he wants to do a good job like Jason said earlier he knows he doesn't want to let me down he doesn't want Let The Troop down so it's not just about do you trust them it's do they trust you do you have their back we've moved a little bit to the north now and right here is the spot where Captain Thomas Weir is is going to move up right here on this rise behind me and and get a perspective of the battlefield that nobody had to the South it's one of the things that uh Joo and Leif and and the other guys with echon front have kind of been conveying you know with this part of the battlefield is the importance of getting High Ground getting perspective being able to see everything to make informed decisions uh we is going to be the only one who knows what's really uh going on in this battle simply because of where he is positioned so we're going to we're going to walk up there and uh take a look at uh the view of the battlefield as we are saw it [Music] look at the view that you have right up here on Weir point I mean I can heck it feels like I can see into Canada from here uh this really G gives you a different perspective on the battle so so Thomas Weir would have got right up to this point right here and way off in the distance well he can see figures that are riding around on this point and he says there's kuster so so he's ready to to mount up and and ride in and link up with kuster and uh a guy by the name of Flanigan says you know hold up he's like you might want to take a look at that again handing some field glasses and he says those are Indians so Weir takes a look and and sure enough kind of riding in circles around this hill he he sees uh these these Native Americans and they're shooting down uh he may have been witnessing the The Last Stand of uh kuster and the five companies that he was commanding on June 25th uh now on the other end the Native American warriors look back down this way and they see Weir and benen and these other soldiers well again the whole goal that the Native Americans are unified on is protecting the village okay that that is that is the only thing that they are concerned about the village is is down here so they're done with kuster by this point so now their attention turns to to the South and they start making their way down here towards Weir and bentin and uh these guys are looking at where they are and thinking uh maybe it's better if we fall back and uh link back up with Reno at uh at the defense perimeter that had already been established we've just moved South a little bit from Weir point you can see the The High Ground up there ahead of us and as these Native Americans are are converging from the north on on these seventh Cavalry men who have moved up ahead to try and see what is going on well uh Weir and Ben teen decide that they're going to fall back but they don't tell everybody and uh companies D and M get left right up there on the hill but they don't have any orders so they don't really know what to do uh the company Commander for company M guy by the name of French he's one of the really good leaders in this battle uh he he decides to make a call uh wisely and says that they are going to fall back and as they are falling back right here well Vincent Charles isn't going to make it past this point uh he was a faer and as you can see there on the marker uh was killed here on June 25th of 18 76 uh now there was another company Commander by the name of Godfrey who was commanding company K who really kind of saved a lot of these guys uh he ordered his men to Dismount and organized a a defense uh as they fell back towards Reno uh and benen Hill and uh this spot that we're looking at ahead of us is called Sharpshooter Ridge this is a position that lot of Native Americans are going to uh take and really make life miserable for the guys with Reno and Ben teen who are going to be holding the perimeter for the duration of the [Music] battle so Weir and Ben team and the companies that they were commanding make it back here to the defense perimeter and and you've got these Native American warriors who are converging on them from the north and they're converging on them from the West there's also a contingent that is off to the east so these guys are are getting surrounded here and like their ordeal was was far from over uh so we're going to spend a little bit of time taking a look at some of the things here around the uh Perimeter at the Reno bentin Hill [Music] right now we are looking at the Western slopes and down there in the valley is the Little Big Horn River uh so back here is where Reno's charge had taken place and this part of the perimeter was occupied by B company uh but they were stretched really really thin and if you if you look off in the the distance there well you can see how you know you we've already seen how this ground kind of undulates and there's dips and there's little coolies and Ravines and everything like that makes it very easy to uh slip up on somebody if need be I've turkey hunted country like this before and I can tell you uh like I've seen turkeys like disappear in one spot and like pop up you know 300 yards where I didn't expect them uh so anyway B company is right here but they're stretched thin so uh Ben teen asks for uh M company which was uh under the command of a guy named captain French to help reinforce them so on the the second day uh which would be uh June 26th uh M company would have largely reinforced this part of the line we've moved just a little bit to the southern end of where B and M company uh were positioned during the Battle of Little Big Horn so as we are standing here looking to the north well you can just imagine all of these guys lined up right here and they have I don't know if it's as easy to see on camera but uh there's a a section of preserved entrenchments here on the southern part of Ben teen's line uh so these guys of course it's hot and it's dry the ground is hard so it's going to be difficult enough to dig as it is in the whole command they had about three or four shovels so guys are digging in with hatchets with knives with spoons uh they are dragging in dead horses and dead mules to get up behind they're they're using hard attack boxes literally anything that they can possibly get their hands on uh they are setting up here in desperation to to try and and put themselves uh put something in between them and uh and a bullet but yeah here are some of the preser trenches now I think some of these this one included were were reworked in the 1950s but uh it's it's good for us to uh to have it here uh to get an idea of the defenses that these men set up as I've already mentioned it's hotter than heck right now uh I I imagine that as this video progresses you're going to see my skin get redder and redder and uh I'm pretty dang thirsty right now as it is well conditions were you know very similar uh in on the 25th and 26th of June in 1876 there's no cover up here there's no shade uh there are no clouds in the sky right now and and the sun was just beating down on these guys and they'd been without water for hours uh so on the 26th the the guy who was running the the field Hospital uh the the assistant surgeon told Reno and B these guys have to have water the the men who had been wounded were experiencing blood loss which makes you even more thirsty so they had to call for some volunteers to uh run the gauntlet down to the Little Big Horn to get some water up here again we are looking at the western part of the perimeter up here on the hill and as I mentioned the these guys are just crazy thirsty uh Lieutenant by the name of Edward Godfrey said the excitement and heat made our thirst almost maddening the men were forbidden to use tobacco they put pebbles in their mouths to excite their glands and some ate Grassroots but did not find relief some tried to eat hard bread but after chewing it a while uh would blow it out of their mouths like so much flow so so these men are absolutely parched so several of them were tasked with going down this Ravine right here to go get water uh they they had a I think I think four Sharpshooters that were set up to help protect these men uh and then there were uh 15 uh volunteers to go down and carry water so they were taking cantens and uh kettles and cups anything that they could to get down to the edge of the river and get water and bring it back up okay so so they're going to be under Fire the entire time and the men who performed this action uh ended up being awarded the Medal of Honor uh so this is called Medal of Honor point right here at uh the Little Big Horn Battlefield while we're talking about the Medal of Honor I do want to mention that the standards for the Medal of Honor have changed since the the Civil War and the Indian Wars uh they used to it was kind of like the only award that they had so they awarded it for things like going and uh retrieving ammunition capturing Flags getting water you know things like that uh and and I don't know it's just really funny how they chose to to deal it out uh there was a private who was one of the water carriers by the name of Mike Madden I think he was from K company who went down and he was the only one who was wounded in in these runs got shot in the leg uh they later had to amputate his leg down in the valley uh he was rescued by a crow Scout by the name of half yellowface uh and for some reason neither one of them were awarded the Medal of Honor all the other guys who weren't wounded uh but were still you know did some Brave things things uh did get the award so anyway just kind of a funny thing how they you know dealt out the Medal of Honor during this time from right here we are looking to the East and uh if you see that Ridge line in the distance well that ridg line is where a heavy contingent of Native American warriors were staged up to attack the Eastern side of the perimeter here and in this spot I don't know how well you can make out uh but there's an L-shaped uh little rifle pit right here or or a trench and uh this one was restored in 1958 and uh when they restored it they found skeletal remains and buttons and some pieces of uniform uh down here in the trench and uh it revealed that there were you know two or three soldiers whose bodies had been uh interred here and and then covered up uh so anyway they they later determined that the the bodies here were likely those of privates Julian Jones and Thomas meter uh but they weren't killed right here uh they were killed a little bit further down so if we walk in this direction here well again we're looking back here on our right toward the Little Big Horn River so again looking at the Western area of the defense and here we have a couple of markers that that show where uh in this case Thomas meter fell so you can see his marker there and right over here Julian Jones and we you might ask you know how do you know that Julian Jones fell right here if his remains were found uh in that trench well there was a guy by the name of Charles windolph who was in company H with both of these guys he was the last surviving soldier from the Battle of Little Big Horn and in his later years he came back here and uh and showed where where these two men had fallen uh in regards to uh to Jones he said that he was right next to him um he he had said something to him he's like hey let's get off our coats and said that Jones didn't move and when he reached down and turned him over uh he was dead he'd been shot right through the heart if you'll remember earlier when I was showing the map of the perimeter defense here on the hill uh I mentioned how it was shaped kind of like a frying pan well right now this is the end of the handle of that frying pan on the far south part of the line and if you'll notice we have another marker to the Fallen but it looks a little bit different uh this is a marker for a fallen Native American uh a sansar su Warrior by the name of long road so throughout the night on the the 25th going into the 26th a number of Native Americans started making their way up closer to the line and when firing resumed the next day well they were close enough to where they could actually throw you know rocks or dirt clouds at these guys who are on the line here and uh around 9:00 Ben teen requested some reinforcements from M company and they actually launched a a counter assault right down this Ravine right here and drove a number of these Native American warriors back uh maybe even saved the line here on the the South end and uh here just a moment ago we were we were looking at the two graves of um those soldiers who died right here on the line well the one Thomas meter uh he was actually killed as the the line retired uh back to this position [Applause] [Music] we've moved back around to the center of the defensive perimeter uh so again right up here is where the field hospital was set up and this spot right here was occupied by company a uh so again this is on the east side of the perimeter and uh again they're setting up dead mules and horses and hard tech boxes and Saddles and anything that they can to possibly stop or slow down a bullet and in 1958 they did some Excavating here and found the remains of a soldier from company a presumably uh who was buried right here uh so you can see it says US soldier 7th Cav killed June 25th or 26th 1876 so we don't know what day of the battle this Soldier died um but it's very likely that he died from a bullet that was fired off from this [Music] direction as the afternoon wore on on the 26th the fighting died down uh right here in this area on the hill and the soldiers who had survived started noticing smoke coming up out of the valley what was happening is the the Native Americans had set fire to the grass and the woods and were literally making a smoke screen so that they could withdraw again their number one goal is to protect the village so they could withdraw to the South and and as they are withdrawing and you're kind of counting heads and seeing who's left everybody is wondering the same thing where is kuster well as Gibbon and the Montana column were coming down from the north along the uh the Big Horn River and then hitting the Little Big Horn once they started getting around here they started finding evidence of what had happened to kuster and the five companies of his battalion [Music] [Music]

Channel: The History Underground

Views: 82,607

Keywords: battle of little big horn, little big horn, little bighorn, custer last stand, custer's last stand, custard's last stand, jocko willink, jocko, extreme ownership, echelon front, leif babin, sitting bull, crazy horse, history traveler, history underground, reno

Id: IY3vjpO2ROg

Length: 38min 45sec (2325 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 14 2024