On 25-26 June 1876, the Battle of Little Bighorn was fought in North America between the United States under George Armstrong Custer against the Native Americans under Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse during the Plains Indian Wars.
Why did it happen?
Following the end of the American Civil War in 1865, the United States turned its attention to the Native American tribes living between the Mississippi and the Pacific coast of North America. In 1868, a treaty was signed establishing a Sioux reservation in Dakota and Montana to preserve these lands for the Native Americans to roam and hunt. However, reports of gold in 1874 brought illegal fortune hunters and immigrants into the Sioux reservations. Unable to control this unlawful encroachment, the United States Government ordered the removal of all Native Americans from their lands, only for the Sioux and Cheyenne under Sitting Bull to resist. In 1876, a US Army campaign under General Alfred H. Terry was launched against Sitting Bull with columns of US cavalry sweeping the land looking for the Native American camps. On 21 June, scouts alerted Terry that the Sioux and Cheyenne were encamped at the Little Bighorn River in Montana. In response, George Armstrong Custer led the 7th Cavalry Regiment south of the Rosebud River towards the Native American encampment at the Little Bighorn River.
Who was involved?
The United States army at Little Bighorn numbered 600 cavalry. Custer divided his regiment into three battalions: 212 cavalry under Custer himself, 175 cavalry under Marcus Reno, and 120 cavalry under Frederick Benteen. The remaining 93 cavalry served as a pack train escort. While Custer and Reno would advance upon the Native American camp from the west side of the Little Bighorn River, Benteen would advance up the east side. The Native American army at Little Bighorn numbered 1,800 Sioux and Cheyenne warriors. Because of their contact with Europeans, many Native American warriors were equipped with horses and rifles alongside traditional weapons such as bows and axes. The Native Americans planned to overlap the flanks of the advancing US columns with their superior numbers and annihilate them before US reinforcements under Alfred H. Terry arrived.
What happened?
On 25 June, after advancing up the west side of the Little Bighorn River towards the Native American camps, Marcus Reno formed a dismounted skirmish line with his forces, who were attacked by hundreds of mounted Sioux warriors who overlapped the left of Reno’s line. Reno then ordered a withdrawal into the woods along the Little Bighorn River, where they fought more Sioux warriors until Reno panicked and retreated over the river to combine forces with Frederick Benteen. Meanwhile, George Armstrong Custer charged the Native American camps before withdrawing east of the Little Bighorn River. He was surrounded by Sioux and Cheyenne warriors under Crazy Horse and Gall. Custer’s entire force of 212 cavalry was killed, along with Custer himself. In response to the sound of the fighting, Reno moved north before being forced to turn back by a large force of Sioux warriors. For the rest of 25 June and into 26 June, the combined forces of Reno and Benteen held off attacks by the Native Americans before the arrival of General Alfred H. Terry on 27 June forced the Native Americans to retreat. Throughout the two-day battle, the United States lost 263 killed and 52 wounded while Native American casualties numbered 31 dead and 160 wounded.
What changed as a result?
The Battle of Little Bighorn was a Native American victory. However, the arrival of more US soldiers forced the Sioux and Cheyenne to surrender in 1881. By 1890, most Native Americans lived on reservations. Due to the loss of their lands and the indiscriminate hunting of the bison, their primary food source, many Native Americans turned to the “Ghost Dance”, a mystical rite that was hoped would end white rule and restore the former world of the Native Americans. Although the United States Government banned the ceremony, a Ghost Dance was performed by the Lakota of Pine Ridge and Rosebud in October 1890, which forced the US Army to intervene. On 28 December 1890, the Sioux under Sitting Bull surrendered to the United States at Wounded Knee Creek. The following morning, a scuffle broke out between a Sioux and US trooper, leading to the Battle of Wounded Knee and the deaths of 200 Sioux men, women, and children. This ended the Plains Indian Wars and left the United States master of the North American continent.
Bibliography
David, Saul. War: The Definitive Visual History. New York, Dorling Kindersley, 2009.
Grant, R.G. 1001 Battles That Changed the Course of History. London, Cassell Illustrated, 2011.
Lanning, Michael Lee. The Battle 100: The Stories Behind History’s Most Influential Battles. Naperville, Sourcebooks, 2003.