The Last Days of George Armstrong Custer (20 page)

At about this time, the Sioux held a Sun Dance on the Rosebud. The highlight of this gathering was the revelation that revered medicine man Sitting Bull had experienced a sacred vision that would change history for the Lakota Sioux tribe and their allies.

Sitting Bull (Tatanka Yotanka, “a Large Bull Buffalo at Rest”) was born about 1830 at a supply site called Many Caches along the Grand River, near present-day Bullhead, South Dakota. He was the son of a chief named either Four Horn or Sitting Bull, and his boyhood name was “Slow” or “Jumping Badger.” At age ten he killed his first buffalo, and four years later he counted coup on an enemy Crow, an act that prompted his father to change the boy's name to Sitting Bull. Also at about that time, he went on a Vision Quest and was accepted into the Strong Hearts warrior society. Sitting Bull proved himself a fierce warrior, gaining the utmost respect of his peers for his daring exploits, especially after he sustained a wound in battle with the Crow that forced him to limp for the rest of his life. He assumed leadership of the Strong Hearts at age twenty-two.

Sitting Bull subsequently led raiding parties of his warriors against traditional Sioux enemies, such as the Crow, Blackfeet, Shoshoni, and Arapaho. He eventually became known as someone special, a warrior whose medicine was good, and became a
Wichasha Wakan
—a man of mystery, or medicine man. He also became legendary for practicing the Sash Dance, where in the face of the enemy he pinned himself to the ground to indicate that he would never retreat.

Sitting Bull, who did not “touch the pen” to the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851, avoided any confrontation with the United States Army until the early 1860s when General Alfred Sully encroached on Hunkpapa territory in the Dakotas while pursuing Santee Sioux fugitives. He carried out hit-and-run raids on small army detachments and led his Strong Hearts at the July 28, 1864, Battle of Killdeer Mountain.

During Red Cloud's War, Sitting Bull's band roamed farther north, where he led attacks in northern Montana and Dakota Territory, particularly in the vicinity of newly constructed Fort Buford at the confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers. Many Sioux gave up their freedom and moved onto the reservation when Red Cloud negotiated the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868.

Sitting Bull refused to submit and continued to follow the traditional nomadic lifestyle of his people. He and his band, however, would occasionally visit the reservation to obtain supplies and spread discontent among their brethren. His warriors were said to have been the Sioux who aggressively protested the presence of the army during Custer's Yellowstone Expedition of 1873.

When Custer marched through the Black Hills the following year, Sitting Bull considered this intrusion and that of the prospectors who later came to dig for gold to be tantamount to a declaration of war. He assumed the position as head of the war council and gathered around him allies from the Northern Cheyenne and a few other tribes.

In his mind, war had been declared by the United States government when an edict was issued requiring all Indians in the Yellowstone Valley to report to the reservation by January 31, 1876, or face the consequences. This defiant spiritual leader had no intention of obeying the order.

It was during early June 1876 while camped in the Rosebud River Valley that Sitting Bull's people held a Sun Dance. Sitting Bull did not personally participate in this ritual where warriors would have strips of rawhide attached to a stick and inserted into their chests, then dangle in the air from a center pole. Instead, he directed his adopted brother to slice strips of flesh from his arms and then commenced dancing until he passed out. When Sitting Bull was revived, he told of a vision that he had experienced: dead soldiers falling from the sky into their camp. This vision was interpreted to mean that they would be victorious in battle against their enemy.

The first opportunity to verify this vision came in mid-June when General George Crook's troops were observed approaching on a route that would take them directly into a Sioux village.

Unknown to Crook, his presence was being closely monitored by Cheyenne scouts led by Wooden Leg. When Crook broke camp on June 16, those scouts determined that the army was following a trail that would lead them directly to Sitting Bull's village, located a few miles north of present-day Busby, Montana. The Indians, concerned about the well-being of their families, held a council and decided that they would not wait for the army—Crazy Horse with as many as one thousand Sioux and Cheyenne warriors would attack Crook's column.

On June 17, Crook called a halt at midmorning for coffee and to graze the horses in a valley of the Rosebud short of Big Bend. This cul-de-sac-shaped valley with steep walls was made up of broken terrain dotted with trees, bushes, ridges, and rock formations. It was sometime between 8:00 and 10:00
A.M.
when Crow scouts raced into this camp from the north to spread the alarm that they had spotted a large body of hostile Indians.

Crook, however, would not be afforded the opportunity to assemble his troops in a battle formation or employ effective military tactics. Crazy Horse had departed from his customary tactic of circling around his prey from a distance and instead immediately followed the Crow scouts over the hills to lead his warriors on a charge into the surprised cavalrymen.

Due to the terrain, the fighting was reduced to small, hastily organized units engaging the determined warriors—at times hand-to-hand—at various locations around the three-mile-long field of battle. The Indians would hit-and-run, riding in and out among the troops, who would attempt to hold their positions against each onslaught.

As the battle ensued, Crook decided that the best defense was an offense. In an effort to divert the warriors, he ordered that a detachment led by Captain Anson Mills ride downstream and attack the Indian village that he incorrectly presumed was just a few miles away. Mills, with the promise that Crook would be following with the main column, rode down the valley, which as he progressed became narrower. He correctly assumed that Crazy Horse, the master of the decoy, had deployed warriors in ambush, and proceeded with caution. Mills eventually turned back from his harrowing ride, either of his own accord or perhaps with recall orders from Crook, and thereby escaped disaster.

The fierce battle had raged for perhaps as long as six hours or until midafternoon when the Indians began massing for one final concentrated attack. Crook, however, recognized the strategy and ordered Mills to maneuver his cavalry behind the Indians. Crook's tactic was successful—his enemy broke contact and left the field to the cavalrymen, effectively ending the battle. The Indians later claimed that the reason they had fled at that point in time was because they were low on ammunition and their horses were worn out.

Crook proclaimed victory because his troops held the field at the end, but he had in truth fought to a stalemate at best. His fate might have been even worse had not the Shoshoni and Crow saved the day on more than one occasion with bold feats of bravery.

The army's casualty figures have become a matter of controversy. Crook's official report stated that he suffered ten killed and twenty-one wounded. Scout Frank Grouard's estimate of twenty-eight killed and fifty-six wounded would probably be closer to the truth. Crazy Horse later acknowledged that he had lost thirty-six killed and sixty-three wounded.

Rather than resume his pursuit of the hostiles, Crook chose to countermarch and return to his camp on Goose Creek to lick his wounds. Without notifying the other columns with whom he was expected to rendezvous in the Valley of the Little Bighorn, Crook had of his own accord taken his command out of action. Had he aggressively followed the fresh Indian trail, Crook would have likely arrived at Sitting Bull's village on the Little Bighorn either before Custer's Seventh Cavalry or in coordination with the other two columns, which had been the intention of General Terry's plan.

Crook's battalion would have the distinction of letting and shedding the first blood of the Little Bighorn Campaign. It would not be the only cavalry blood that would stain the ground in Powder River country.

 

Nine

The March of the Seventh Cavalry

On April 3, Colonel John Gibbon marched from Fort Ellis with six companies of his own regiment and the Second Cavalry under Major James Brisbin—about 450 troops. The Terry-Custer Dakota Column—nearly one thousand men—which had been delayed by poor weather that prevented the receipt of supplies, finally marched on May 17 from Fort Abraham Lincoln.

The various Indian bands in the vicinity—primarily Sioux and Northern Cheyenne—were aware that the army was on their trail and began to assemble under Sitting Bull's command. Perhaps as many as four hundred lodges—some three thousand people—moved steadily toward a gathering point in the Rosebud River Valley.

Scouts under Colonel Gibbon had noticed this activity as early as May 16. But for reasons known only to himself, Gibbon had failed to inform General Terry until his column arrived on June 9 at the mouth of the Powder River where the steamer
Far West
had been docked. This steamship, along with the
Josephine,
both owned by the Coulson Line, was awarded the contract to haul supplies for the Little Bighorn Campaign.

The
Far West,
built in 1870, was 190 feet in length with a beam of 33 feet 6 inches and could accommodate more than two hundred tons of cargo. She had been designed to operate in the shallow and hazard-filled Western rivers and had power to spare—two 15-inch-diameter engines of 5-foot piston stroke and a steam capstan on each side of her bow to pull her through the strongest of rapids.

The captain of the
Far West
was forty-two-year-old Grant Marsh, who began his career at age twelve as a cabin boy on a Pittsburgh steamer. He had begun navigating the Missouri River in 1864 and quickly became known as the premier navigator on that river—so expert that it was said that he could “navigate a steamer on a light dew.” Marsh and his steamship had transported supplies for the Yellowstone Expedition of 1873. On June 7, 1875, Marsh, piloting the
Josephine,
had gained fame by ascending from the mouth of the Yellowstone River to the highest point ever reached by a steamship, near present-day Billings, surpassing the previous best by 250 miles.

The column under General Alfred H. Terry that had marched from Fort Abraham Lincoln had depended on the
Far West
for the two hundred tons of cargo that she carried—including forage, ammunition, medicine, and general supplies. The quartermaster department had established a supply depot on the Yellowstone River near the mouth of Glendive Creek. When Terry had reached that point, Captain Marsh and his
Far West
began shuttling supplies and troops upstream to the mouth of the Powder River. Terry wanted to keep the steamship as close to the troops as possible and directed Marsh to reach the juncture of the Bighorn and Little Bighorn rivers.

Terry, who established his headquarters aboard the steamship, decided that a reconnaissance would be in order to verify Gibbon's assertion of Indians moving toward the Rosebud. Custer was opposed to the scout of an area with no evidence of the enemy. He argued that such a plan was a waste of time and believed that the entire force should move forward to locate and engage the enemy before they could flee. Although voicing his disapproval of the scout, Custer halfheartedly volunteered to lead the operation.

Terry instead chose Major Marcus A. Reno for the command. The general evidently was certain that Reno would not encounter hostile Indians on his scout and simply wanted to make sure that the area was free of Indians; otherwise Terry assuredly would have chosen Custer as the commander.

Marcus Albert Reno had been born on November 15, 1834, in Carrollton, Illinois. He entered the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1851 and was scheduled to graduate with the class of 1855. Due to excessive demerits (he allegedly set the record with 1,031—Custer had accumulated only 726 in his four years), however, Reno finally graduated in 1857 ranked twentieth in a class of thirty-eight. He was commissioned a brevet second lieutenant in the First Dragoons in July 1857, and second lieutenant in June 1858. Reno served with his unit on frontier duty at Forts Dalles, Oregon, and Walla Walla, Washington Territory, until the outbreak of the Civil War.

Reno was appointed first lieutenant, First Dragoons, in April 1861 and captain, First Cavalry, in November. In March 1863, at Kelley's Ford, he was cited for bravery and brevetted major for his actions when he led a charge against the Rebels and his horse fell, pinning him beneath with an injury.

On July 1, 1863, Reno married Mary Hannah Ross, the daughter of a Pennsylvania banker and industrialist, in Harrisburg. The couple would have one son.

At the October 1864 Cedar Creek battle Reno once again distinguished himself and was brevetted lieutenant colonel. He also fought at Gaines' Mill, Beverly Ford, and Upperville and on the Peninsula. Reno was appointed colonel of the Twelfth Pennsylvania Cavalry from January until July 1865, when he was mustered out. On March 13, 1865, he was brevetted colonel, USA, and brigadier general, USV, in recognition of his exemplary record.

After the war, Reno served briefly as an infantry tactics instructor at West Point and then was assigned as provost marshal in New Orleans. He requested frontier duty, which took him to Fort Vancouver, Washington, as acting assistant inspector general of the Department of the Columbia. He was appointed major, Seventh Cavalry, in December 1868 but did not report for duty until late the following year. Reno was stationed at Fort Hays, Kansas, from December 1869 to July 1871, when he was assigned to New York City as a member of the Small Arms Board for two years.

Reno returned to the Seventh Cavalry in 1873 but did not participate in the Yellowstone Expedition that year or the Black Hills Expedition the following year. Instead, he was in command of a two-company detachment that provided an escort for the Northern Boundary Survey.