Aftermath: Moving the Wounded
Three days after Custer’s devastating defeat, most of June 28th was spent in hasty burials of his 212 dead. Later expeditions, as early as 1877, would exhume remains of Custer and other officers. They...
Category: The Little Bighorn
Little Bighorn Burial Details
On June 27th 1876, the Montana Column, with General Terry, reached the main field where Custer had fought his final battle. Before mid-morning Lt. Bradley, after scouting forward on the east side of the...
Lt. Bradley’s Little Bighorn Body Count
On the morning of June 27th General Terry and Colonel Gibbon’s command set forth with little delay. They had been informed by the Crow scouts of Custer’s annihilation. They had also been informed that...
How (and Why) Things Happened At The Little Bighorn June 25, 1876
Volumes have been written, and they continue to be, about the Little Bighorn battle. Little more is warranted here aside from a brief summary of what occurred. It might even serve to answer how...
Pre-fight Premonitions: Prelude to the Little Bighorn
Pre-Fight Premonitions Among the many coincidences that surround the Little Bighorn battle are instances of premonition before the fight. Some can simply be attributed to the fact that 7th Cavalry scouts understood the overwhelming...
Should Custer Have Taken Gatling Guns? (And/Or More Cavalry?)
Based on paintings and Hollywood depictions, most of us likely envision the Little Bighorn battle ending with a “last stand” on what is now known as Last Stand Hill. It’s easy to picture a...
The Metzger/Myles Keogh Connection and the Little Bighorn’s Bravest Soldier
History often connects through intriguing coincidence. Several such occurrences connect the 1866 Fetterman Fight with the Little Bighorn. The annihilation of an entire force is one. An impetuous cavalry commander could be another. A...
Benteen: A Brave But Bitter Battalion Leader
One can hardly mention Marcus Reno without also discussing Captain Frederick W. Benteen. Both served under Custer, and both detested him in similar ways. Not that they necessarily like each other, either. Benteen once...
Captain Ball’s Scout: A Portentous Taunt — Pictographic Trash Talk on the Greasy Grass
On April 24th, 1876 Captain Edward Ball was sent out on a circuitous scouting mission. It would take him to the Little Bighorn River where, not two months later, Custer would meet his destiny....
Fetterman’s Fight: A Foreshadowing
Lead-up to the Little Bighorn Through 1866-67 Red Cloud’s War focused largely on the building of Fort Phil Kearney near what is now Banner, Wyoming. Some raids took place elsewhere along the Bozeman Trail,...
