The Road to the Little Bighorn Battlefield 🇺🇸

the outside of the hotel Bismarck North Dakota yeah we're about to set off we're gonna go down the river sidewalk have a couple of riverboat taking on support link [Music] [Applause] sitting at the top of the hill sweat pouring office [Applause] waiting and the 2:30 sailing river Steve faith listen to Fort Abraham Lincoln the top of the hill [Music] Oh [Music] the four is alive and well and in good hands rising atop the western Bluffs to the Missouri this is one of the three reconstructed block houses of the infantry Coast in 1907 Congress designated Fort Lincoln as a historic site intended over to the state [Music] archeological digs were conducted which marked locations of most military buildings with brick and concrete cornerstones now from this excellent vantage point you can survey the outlying land it astray beyond the stockade in those times was to invite a bloody end at the hands of hostile so looking north is the twin city Bismarck Mandan much of the aura surrounding the history of Fort Lincoln can be attributed to General George Armstrong Custer who rode into the pages of history at the Battle of the Little Bighorn when the 7th cavalry brought camp on may 17 1876 the Hart River Valley was covered by an early morning mist as the Sun wrote through a mirage appeared forming the illusion that Custer's command was marching both across the land and into the sky the regiment would never see for Abraham Lincoln again there is his cavalry Squire to the right the Costa House Sly's enemies that we can happen to be a fur traders rendezvous at the post the lady standing next to me is our excellent host breezy curls at the Fort Abraham Lincoln Foundation and it is proper to have the cap be on at all times when you're on duty even when you go inside the doors your to wear the kepi now if you're on a social call when you walk into the house to remove the kepi and it's held in your left hand with your fingers over the brim of it the sabers here there'll be a seventh on top and the company F underneath that tell us whoever is looking that I'm part of 7th Calvary Company F this is the blouse that I'm wearing it's a hundred percent wool and I believe the temperature got up to right around 90 degrees today so I am extremely warm you'll see the red face I'm sure it's supposed to do that the blouse being made of wool is a breathable material the undershirt which I'm not supposed to expose but in this case and we'll complete is completely saturated with my body perspiration and is wet it holds the water now the breeze picks up here in North Dakota we always have a breeze blows through the wool uniform it is breathable hits the undershirt and cools me down I am actually cooler than I look or at least I choose to believe that till I can take it off the trousers are 100% wool and when marching this little finger is to be kept on the seam of my trousers at all times it's an uncomfortable way of marching but that's the way they've done it back then nowadays they've advanced to the hand the boots are left over from the Civil War or the war the great rebellion the reason we can have them out here in the post in 1875 is they would have extra supply left over they shipped out to the frontier polish such a sporty Ram Lincoln you'll notice the other foots that a gentlemen are wearing out here are the privates will have the smooth leather on the outside and it'll be polished to a black that's what they're changing over to at this time it was a little more neat there was no right and left to the boot you would put your feet into him chances are they'd be three or four sizes too big for you it'd fill them with water and March with them for a couple years until they shrunk down around your foot and you broke them in currently I have three blisters on this foot and I think two on this last time I counted but I guess I'm stubborn enough to wear him because I broke them in one day I stay with it as long as I can the belt is to be polished at all time and wore just above the last button now I was on skirmish about three minutes north of here and and I was crawling on my belly unfortunately not gonna happen to lose the last button but they'll have the laundress over at the fullest I sold it on for me and I'll be right back in the uniform and the belt is to be worn at all times the side pistol that was standard issue for the cavalry was a 45 caliber he kept at this point I would have cartridges in the back of the belt for the 4570 or the 4550 which was the 4570 cut down to cut the barrel down a little bit so you pull it all the saddle that much quicker 50 rolls of 2025 and then I have now they also had a belt with cartridges to be able to carry more I'd also have another pouch here for the pistol so I'd be whole I've be holding almost 75 rounds of ammunition when custard left to the battle a little bighorn he left with over 200 thousand rounds of ammunition well over 150 wagons full of supplies so he left well-prepared full of supplies so he left well prepared when the seventh left for the summer expedition in 1876 they must along this road to the tune of the girl I left behind me the general then split the cavalry off to the left through that gap whilst the wagon train went off to the right so you come along in the next good sleep and only have three hours night to sleep this be a walk-up mistakenly over here is where you put your you stole your gear hang up your probably your best loss these four they post a house tour it starting in a few minutes starts on the front porch these photos of the original crystal house were taken in 1875 our house guide begins by explaining how the Custer's first home at Fort Lincoln was destroyed promotion and that's what costs their home for yeah blew off part of the ceiling and part of the wall so really got their home starting a fire pretty good it burns so fast that they had to just get out of the house with their own safety and not worry about what was inside being destroyed missus General Custer lost two things that she especially held dear to her heart one was a collection of newspaper articles that she had been saving these articles have been written about the general ever since he was in the Civil War so it was almost a ten-year collection and then the other thing was a wig that she had made from his hair and she would wear this week to fancy dress balls so she lost both of those things but then a few months later they were given orders to build the second house up and since they had a chance to start over and build the house up again they decided to make a few changes alter the houses appearance a little bit to make it look more like what they wanted their home to look like they added about three feet to the front porch and there's the large veranda that goes around the north side that was also an addition and there are some other things too that I'll be pointing out to you as we go through one thing when we step into the parlor we're going to go back into the year 1875 and that is of course when the journal and his wife were still living here and they were alive well I'm doing fine and I'll be amazed that they had at that time so when we step into the parlor and go through on the tour you can feel free to ask me any questions at all but you have to phrase them in the 1875 time period because I won't know anything about what's happened after the year 1875 and once I step into the parlors so if you have 1993 questions you'll have to hold those until we are out on the back of the porch at the and then there are a couple other things I want to let you know we have some items from Port Lincoln that are original items also items that the Custer's on themselves I'll tell all of you to take special note of those things and that's how you'll know that those are the original items we have everything else is furnished in the right time period and also says everything is furnished in the right time period many things are very old and fragile I would like to let everyone know please resist the temptation to touch anything in this house also we have white chains set up throughout stay inside those and don't cross beyond them and we can start by stepping into the parlor and this is General Custer and visit for a while this evening but because they don't get a lot of time to spend together they are horseback riding and so they won't be able to visit with you just right now so I've been asked to show you through their home instead now there are two drinkers right up here on the wall of the maroon green and gold nuts later the partner rate in people so they're always having visitors coming from the east and any officer who lives on officers row has an invitation to come into the generals home anytime day or night so it's very busy here the main window that you see in the wall that was another addition for the second house now the reason that was added is because mrs. journal Custer feels that military homes look very plain and boring and she didn't want her house to look like that so she had them add this window to buried the outside lines of the house and make her home stand out from all the rest here on the fort now in the officers quarters directly next door to this house the general sister lives in that home with her husband tennis games Calvin's and also then in the officers quarters three down is where the generals brother captain Tom Custer lives over here you'll see that the retaining you'll be asked to sit down and help entertain everyone but missus General Custer usually is the one who plays the piano and the generals sister mrs. lieutenant Calhoun plays the harp but we have guests coming out from the east the second they walk in the door we sit them down and give them a hearty meal out of here on the Prairie and that's because transportation out here takes so long that it takes a lot of energy out of our guests and we also just want to welcome them to the home so I always have to make sure that the table is ready anytime day or night because the travel is saw unpredictable guests might be anywhere from two weeks early to two weeks late you just really can never tell and now some of you Easter nervous I have heard you talk when you get up here and you eat a few meals that you're surprised that we eat so well up here plus if you have this notion that we don't eat break up on any type of military post the only thing we don't get to have though are fresh fruits and vegetables now set shipping takes so long anything that shipped out to us usually rocks by the time we get it and our parties have never had much luck against the grasshoppers so we just need canned fruits and vegetables instead but now the generals favorite food out of any bet he can choose from our onions and he likes to eat them rotten whole like you and I and Apple and now I have to share a little rumor that's going around that the enlisted men have started I think they've done this just to get back at him every now and then they say that the reason the general and his wife don't have children yet is because he gets a lot more viscosity coming to home for the day so other than that the job catches her in here he'll scold her and make her leave right away since she's the daughter of a judge he doesn't want her to worry about it either cooking or cleaning and she is just supposed to focus on entertaining everyone now if you're going to be walking around on the court though this evening and you'll perhaps need to say something about a chamber pot for some strange reason you'll have to call it a Thunder bug because that's what we've nicknamed these and you can figure out what you've called them that for your own good on the wall each room gets its own wood-burning stove and that shoots is connected to that vent and that's how the rest of the entire upstairs is kept heated there are three pieces of marl tapped furniture in this room the watch stands this small little table and also this dresser that I want you to take special enough of all three of those now if this room isn't your closet and that doesn't happen very often though because they're guests who come out here save to six months at a time and that's just because it takes them a long time oh we are quite a ways from the east and from fashion the ladies who are here with their husbands feel that's very necessary to keep in fashion with all their lady friends back east so they are wearing corsets just like everyone else's now the reason they wear these corsets is because it's fashionable to have a 16 to 18 inch waist length so they tie these corsets up so tight that if they eat too large of a meal or even if they walk up a case of stairs too fast they'll faint and when they do think we bring them up to the nearest fainting couch the sides of it reclining down and we put the lady across we have to loosen her corset fan her to make her feel a little more comfortable and if if we have to we will break out the smelling salts to this because they go through it about three times each day that's how much they'll faint because of the way this chimney area now since that first has burnt down we decided that in there in this house they want a large room like this for entertaining they use it a lot more the pocket million tea that you see is our loan from the fourth settler and billiards and carts are some of the most important and most popular pastimes up here we have also military band will come up here and light up against the table and play further couples we clear this area out so we do actually fit about 20 couples in here picture on the left have the same two people with some military but it's one of his favorite things to do another hobby of his though is to do his own taxidermy before he puts the trophies on the wall now there are quite a few pictures up around the rim and I'll point those out to you now it's on every battle in expedition that he goes on and the pack trains carry it around from place to place and the last thing for you to take special note of is this rocking chair in the corner now lots of people shorter than theirs back home which they really shouldn't be if you're doing what you should be at night and that is sleeping sitting up now by now all of you should now the general says is to get out to the outhouses quicker and they are just right up on the back porch were brought back to 1993 and I want to thank everybody for coming through the custer's house and [Music] the next day we were on the move traveling on highway 94 which virtually parallels Custer's route in 1876 [Music] on the way passing through Theodore Roosevelt National Park [Music] [Music] all right we got a good look at Pompey's pillar which is well known due to having cut some William Clarke signature carved in the rock the only remaining physical evidence in Montana at the Lewis and Clark expedition what else would you expect to find in a room at the Lariat motel but a lariat of course [Music] my dear the 13th of August 1993 we were at the scene of that momentous conflict that happened 117 years ago to begin our visit we took a bun tour of the Little Bighorn Valley the site of the Indian encampment the driver was explaining Krista's planning dividing the regiment first look at last and hill to the right down by the cottonwood trees is the route at the Little Bighorn River and in the valley for three and a half miles very Indian encampment this is the marker of the generals brother and also his nephew Artie Reed take them in there every year on earth I see a trend 400 on the campus when we left alone on that wait no in the hands of a train trooper underline that and boldface a number of times because that is a very key word train so if we're expected to fire this weapon 12 times per minute and combat it can be done by hitting a target with a bad as part of other rich through harrowing fires it's not hitting an individual target at those Rangers is hitting an enemy formation we are not operating under 20th century military tactics here's why the state don't exist yet 19th century military tactics civil war tactics which are outgrowth of the Mexican War which an outgrowth of the Napoleonic Wars we're still operating these large behemoth formations of maybe brigade-size toward 3,000 men marching impact formations shoulder-to-shoulder maybe the frontage of 500 men yeah I could sit here I can nail an enemy formation where that band is sitting by itself I'm not hitting an individual individuals will be hit I'm firing at the formation that can be done these Sioux and Cheyenne warriors however do not play by the queen of marksberry rules massing up conveniently for you and riding into the face of the blazing fire images of the seven powering you'll be very hard-pressed now they hit an individual at those ranges why the government's only a lot of you one around a month target practice didn't target 400 yards away good luck you're not going to do it not at one round a buck on this weapon to state-of-the-art 1870 1873 they came home but it's not that good it's not meant to be fired in that manner it's meant for these masked controlled volley firings that pack enemy formations at four to six hundred yards and you're not generally engaged you're generally engaging the suet far the Rangers and the spine will Horace combat is the least of your worries at this moment if you can add 11:1 catastrophe the time dismounting your animal also highly critical you keep left hand firmly grasped around the stock right hand on the part of the saddle right leg thrust over the rump of the horse if you are attempting to balance this as a lot of young man well as of this morning animal you can almost all seven pounds of the oak but in your groin area incapable of any reaction be here sure a very low powder charters means if I can get something effectively at that pedestrian ahead sign I look pretty good generally I would be the ranges of the men are engaging their enemies at the latter stages the fight you don't want to have to pull these off to defend yourself this legal asking you hold in your hand and you're more delight in time for asleep or shops best suited for the barroom fights with Matthew and in Festus and the hardwood boys at the Ponderosa not anything that the county man will ever utilize of course if I'm in Hollywood I can get things down in the interstate with this remarkable range also I'm only going to fire five or six shots off and roll with this if you're gonna be foolish to load the second six I've it's very unstable weapon we'd be bouncing on the trail resting and bam it goes off your nickname now is lefty your horse and you got a problem 79 primarily to look after protect the graves of those who died here the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876 to Colonel George Armstrong Custer and his two brothers Tom Custer at Boston Custer at fu Audie Reid and about a half a mile off to the right is the marker for Lieutenant James Calhoun George Custer's brother-in-law so altogether there were five members of the Custer family that lost their life here on a Sunday afternoon in 1876 now we can see the mind but not last I yell off to the right and fine if it does contain the names of all who died here for battle including the civilians and the Scouts now in about 50 minutes we'll be coming back through this area for the end of the tour and at that time if there are any of you that would like to get out at the top of the hill and look at this area more closely and then walk back to the Visitor Center please let me know at that time and I'll certainly take it accompany that and of course for those that want to ride back to the Visitor Center will certainly do that also now off to the right of the bath and later off to the left of the vent you can see markers down in those fields well the days following the battle that men that died were given a rather hasty burial but the best under the circumstances and in the name of the trooper was known at that time it was written down on a piece of paper a neighbor was then rolled up a placed inside of an empty rifle cartridge hippies up there this afternoon and at the time of the battle there were somewhere between a thousand maybe 1200 teepees spread out in this valley floor in those eight individual villages now there would not be canvas teepees like we do see out there today they would be made out of buffalo hides perhaps other animal heights but once those Heights did bleach out in the Sun they wouldn't look very similar to the TVs that we do see out there today you'll see a more bright green field very near the interstate and where that bright green field is this where the southernmost village of the hunka village of the sioux was located and that is the village where sitting bolt and his family lived at the time of the battle and also where the great war leader and war chief gall and his family lived at the time of the battle out and then humped up off LH stopped in the valley and formed a thin skirmish line when Indians raced out from the village to oppose him outflanked Reno fell back into the timber on his right pressure from all directions convinced Reno this position was untenable too and he retreated after 30-billion selection Reno's force was subject to attack by mounted warriors from all waters after crossing the river the remnants of Reno's Ithaca mucked up of a new position on the bluffs having suffered over 30 men these are the hastily built rifle pits formed by Reno's men on the 25th of June looking out Indians controlled all this ground and kept the cavalry on the siege for two whole days after many years of reading about the last stand I wasn't going to be satisfied with a short Bush drive back to the visitor center I wanted to appreciate the distances and terrain the troopers had to face that Sunday afternoon so leaving the bus behind we set off on a four and a half mile walk on Battlefield Road some rivers last forever knowing anything very their secret summer winter and spring if only could tell me the things I want to know but you just keep travel [Music] [Applause] [Music] no secret [Music] with you his all [Music] [Music] it's only a parcel Sabbath Kathy he was born in an open prairie in 1865 off til the army came about in Turkey far away to the stockyard a st. Louie where he was bound to stay decided to a new master he would gold a big strong man call mass W kill and my [Music] with the seventh cavalry to the big size of my [Music] is there a deliverer big one bad I know the other seven [Music] come and see Comanche great voice of the seventh Cavalry [Music] this is the approach to medicine tail cooling the location is widely believed to be where Custer attempted to cross the river and attack the Indian village he was repulsed from forced back onto battlefield Ridge in the last stand these horses belong to the crow Indians who owned the land between the reno Benteen and Custer battlefields I was to discover later that you can hire them to ride this section at the battlefield that would be an experience to remember not that I need an incentive but there's a good reason to return one day sergeant Butler very nearly got away he is believed to have been a last desperate messenger in an attempt to bring aid just when he was about out of range one last shot brought him down as we now approach battlefield Ridge that leads to the Last Stand Hill white marble markers now appeared more frequently on either side of the road [Music] lieutenant Calhoun Custer's brother-in-law swore to the general that if the time ever came he would never let him down from archaeological digs it seems he kept his word as Calhoun Hill was the scene of intense and organized defense thirty-five years later I'm my number one ambition in life is realized I'm standing on the hill when Custer made his last stand on this Ridge a granite pillar stands over the mass grave of soldiers killed in the Battle of the Little Bighorn June 25th and 26th 1876 at this site hundreds of Sioux and Cheyenne warriors defeated five cavalry companies of about 220 soldiers under the command of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer as you look over the battlefield you can see the white markers showing where the bodies of soldiers were found after the fight no markers show where warriors fell because very little is known of their casualties probably less than 100 were killed and the dead were removed by their families immediately after the battle only the Sioux and Cheyenne words tell us what happened to the 220 soldiers killed in the fight some Indian accounts say that Custer and his men tried to cross the river one and a half mile south of here at Medicine tail Cooley but angered warriors raced across the river and forced the troops back to the ridges having lost the initiative the soldiers found themselves in rough terrain unsuitable for mounted action as gall and other chiefs led their warriors across the river at several places Custer and his men fought desperately on foot the Warriors did not need to expose themselves to the troopers fire dismounted they moved from sagebrush to sagebrush and took advantage of the numerous ravines finally Chief Crazy Horse crossing farther downstream with a large force swept around this Ridge to attack from the north here about 50 soldiers gathered around Custer shot their horses for breastworks and fought to the end the battle lasted two hours at most after the Sioux and Cheyenne had deported general Terry's column arrived and hastily buried the soldiers where they had fallen a year later the remains were reburied in the bodies of eleven officers and two civilians were taken for interment elsewhere Custer was buried at West Point in 1881 the granite memorial was placed atop the ridge and the remains of the soldiers were gathered from the field and placed in the mass grave at the base of the stone what was it like for those beleaguered troopers at the very end what custody is well-known today had a lift we've got thought in mind relieved a little big on battlefield

Channel: Dodger's Trips

Views: 13,356

Keywords: West, Wild West, 7th Cavalry, Montana, North Dakota, Bismark, Mandan, Billings, Hardin, Sioux, Cheyenne, Bismark North Dakota, Northern Cheyenne, Greyhound, Fort Abraham Lincoln, Little Big Horn, Little Bighorn, Little Big Horn Battlefield, Little Bighorn Battlefield, Crow Agency, Last Stand Hill, Custer's Last Stand, Captain Benteen, Major Reno, National Park Service, National Monument, I-94, Pompey's Pillar, old west legends, the old west, frontier, old west documentary, us cavalry

Id: dCLLVstCv3A

Length: 40min 40sec (2440 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 01 2020