THIS DAY IN HISTORY – Battle of Little Bighorn – 1876

June 25

Learn Our History Today: On June 25, 1876, the Battle of the Little Big Horn was fought in southern Montana. By the year 1876, many of the Indians on the Great Plains had given up their old ways and

started living on reservations. However, a sizeable contingent from several major tribes including the Lakota, the Arapaho, and the Cheyenne, under the leadership of Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and others, refused to submit to reservation life. They wished to continue living as they always had, and they were willing to fight and die to keep this way of life. The United States government had issued an ultimatum that all of these Indians had to report to reservations by January 31, 1876, and it was met with almost no response. At this point the military was called upon, and Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer and the 7th Cavalry were key members of the force detailed to bring the Indians in.

By the early morning hours of June 25, Custer and the just over 600 men of the 7th Cavalry were scouting ahead of the main force when they came upon a massive Indian village containing thousands of people. Instead of waiting for reinforcements, Custer decided to rashly attack the village with the few men he had.  Custer was known for his massive ego, but tactics such as this had worked for him previously at the Battle of the Washita in Oklahoma.  He thought that his cavalrymen could take on a force of thousands, considering them to be better soldiers and having the advantage of surprise. Custer actually split his force, hoping to come in from several directions and cause even further confusion. A column of men under Major Marcus Reno hit the village first, but they were quickly overwhelmed and forced back to defensive positions.  As Custer started to attack with his portion of the command, he was met by at least 3,000 Indians under the command of Crazy Horse, who poured bullets and arrows into Custer’s command.

The Lieutenant Colonel quickly and frantically tried to regroup his men, telling them to kill their horses to use the carcasses as makeshift barricades. Unfortunately, these “barricades” provided little protection against the hail of bullets being rained down upon them by Indians. During the battle, in addition to their substantial deficit in numbers, the cavalrymen had another crucial disadvantage; they were armed with single shot carbines, as opposed to the Indians who were armed mostly with Spencer, Henry, and Winchester repeating rifles.  In short, the cavalrymen had to reload after firing one shot, the Indians could fire anywhere from seven to sixteen shots before reloading. After less than an hour, every one of Custer’s troopers was dead along with Custer himself. The contingent of men under Marcus Reno suffered severe casualties as well in their defensive position, but they were not overrun and many survived. The Battle of the Little Big Horn was the greatest Native American victory of the Indian Wars and the U.S. Army’s most devastating defeat, but within five years all of the Plains Indians were defeated and placed in reservations.