Custer's Last Stand: Native Tribes Crush U.S. Army

Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors annihilated five companies of the 7th Cavalry in the most complete military defeat the United States Army suffered during the Indian Wars. On June 25, 1876, Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer led approximately 210 men in a direct attack on a massive encampment along the Little Bighorn River in Montana Territory, where an estimated 7,000 to 8,000 Native Americans, including 1,500 to 2,000 warriors, had gathered for the summer buffalo hunt. Custer had divided his regiment of roughly 600 men into three battalions, sending Captain Frederick Benteen on a scouting mission to the south and Major Marcus Reno to attack the village from the south while Custer approached from the north. The plan depended on surprise and coordination, but Custer had no accurate intelligence about the size of the encampment. Reno’s attack was quickly repulsed, and his battalion was pinned down on a hilltop four miles from Custer’s position. Warriors led by Crazy Horse, Gall, and other leaders surrounded Custer’s battalion on a ridge above the river. The fighting lasted perhaps an hour, though no soldier in Custer’s command survived to provide a timeline. Every man in the five companies was killed, their bodies found stripped and mutilated on the hillside when relief forces arrived two days later. Reno and Benteen’s combined force survived a two-day siege before the Native encampment broke up and dispersed. The national shock was amplified by timing: news of the disaster reached the East during the country’s centennial celebrations. Public demand for retribution was overwhelming, and the Army launched a massive campaign that over the following year forced most of the Lakota and Cheyenne onto reservations. Sitting Bull fled to Canada; Crazy Horse surrendered in 1877 and was killed while in custody. The victory at Little Bighorn, the greatest military triumph of the Plains nations, accelerated the destruction of their way of life.