Custer battlefield11/26/2022 ![]() ![]() In this particular print from the late 19th century, Custer stands above a fallen cavalry trooper, firing his revolver. ![]() The standard depiction of Custer usually shows him standing among his men, surrounded by hostile Sioux, bravely fighting to the end. With no definitive account of what happened during Custer's final hours, newspapers and illustrated magazines took license to depict the scene. There was a newspaper correspondent, Mark Kellogg, riding along with Custer, and he was killed in the battle. When US Army reinforcements arrived, they discovered the bodies of Custer and his men on a hill above the Little Bighorn. The other units of the 7th Cavalry also came under intense attack for two days, before the Indians unexpectedly broke off the conflict, packed up their immense village, and began leaving the area. Custer and more than 200 men, approximately one third of the 7th Cavalry, were killed in the battle that afternoon. On June 25, 1876, a brutally hot day on the northern plains, Custer encountered a much larger force of Indians than anticipated. One explanation is that Custer believed the Indians would be confused by separate attacks. Instead of waiting for a full force of the US Army to assemble, Custer divided the 7th Cavalry and chose to attack the Indian camp. And, of course, the expedition turned into a disaster.Ĭuster discovered that Sitting Bull was camped near the Little Bighorn River. The strategy was to trap the Indians who had rallied around the Sioux leader, Sitting Bull. Lieutenant Colonel Custer led 750 men of the 7th Cavalry into the vast wilderness, leaving Fort Abraham Lincoln in the Dakota Territory on May 17, 1876. ![]() In early 1876 the US government decided to drive the Indians out of the Black Hills, although the territory had been granted to them by the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868. The influx of whites created a tense situation with the native Sioux, and ultimately led to Custer attacking the Sioux at the Little Bighorn in 1876.Ĭuster's Last Fight. Custer's party, which included geologists, confirmed the presence of gold, which set off a gold rush in the Dakota Territory. In 1874, Custer was dispatched on more serious business, and led an expedition into the Black Hills. In 1873, Custer took the Grand Duke Alexie of Russia, who was touring the United States on a goodwill visit, buffalo hunting. Custer was fond of the hunting on the plains, and was even called upon at times to escort dignitaries. In this photograph, Custer, along with officers under his command and, apparently, members of their families, pose on a hunting expedition. And while he didn't have many opportunities to be photographed in the West, there are some examples of him posing for the camera. New York Public LibraryĬuster gained a reputation during the Civil War for having many photographs taken of himself. "While the details of that fearful struggle will probably never be known, telling how long and gallantly this ill-fated little band contended for their lives, yet the surrounding circumstances of ground, empty cartridge shells, and distance from where the attack began, satisfied us that Kidder and his men fought as only brave men fight when the watchword is victory or death."Ĭuster on a Hunting Party. "Each body was pierced by from 20 to 50 arrows, and the arrows were found as the savage demons had left them, bristling in the bodies. And then buzzards were seen in the sky.ĭescribing the scene he and his men encountered, Custer wrote: Sets of horse tracks indicated that Indian horses had been chasing cavalry horses. In his book My Life On the Plains, Custer told the story of the search. When Kidder's party did not arrive, Custer and his men set out to search for them. In June 1867, a young officer, Lieutenant Lyman Kidder, with a detachment of ten men, was assigned to carry dispatches to a cavalry unit commanded by Custer near Fort Hays, Kansas. Not long after arriving in the West, he witnessed the results of combat on the plains. Later in the war Custer became a favorite of reporters and illustrators, and the reading public became familiar with the dashing cavalryman. On the final day of the Battle of Gettysburg, Custer performed heroically in an enormous cavalry fight which was overshadowed by Pickett's Charge, which occurred on the same afternoon. George Armstrong Custer had been through years of combat in the Civil War, and became known for leading daring, if not reckless, cavalry charges. ![]()
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