list of soldiers killed at little bighorn list of soldiers killed at little bighorn

", Lawson, 2007, p. 50: "[Custer] turned down General Terry's offer to bring the three Gatling guns, because they would slow down his movement. Many of these men threw down their weapons while Cheyenne and Sioux warriors rode them down, "counting coup" with lances, coup sticks, and quirts. Some Indian accounts claim that besides wounding one of the leaders of this advance, a soldier carrying a company guidon was also hit. The casings would have to be removed manually with a pocketknife before [reloading and] firing again. The 7th Cavalry was accompanied by a number of scouts and interpreters: Three of Custer's scouts accompanying Edward Curtis on his investigative tour of the battlefield, circa 1907. He had died a couple of days after the Rosebud battle, and it was the custom of the Indians to move camp when a warrior died and leave the body with its possessions. The historian James Donovan believed that Custer's dividing his force into four smaller detachments (including the pack train) can be attributed to his inadequate reconnaissance; he also ignored the warnings of his Crow scouts and Charley Reynolds. [174], Sitting Bull's forces had no assured means to supply themselves with firearms and ammunition. That was the condition all over the field and in the [gorge]. The companies remained pinned down on the bluff, fending off the Indians for three hours until night fell. This formation reduced Reno's firepower by 25 percent. We've now converted these documents to Adobe pdf, which means anyone can Map of Battle of Little Bighorn, Part VII. Paxson", "Prisoners in the Indian Camp: Kill Eagle's Band at the Little Bighorn", "Context Delicti: Archaeological Context in Forensic Work", Account of Custer's fight on Little Bighorn, MSS SC 860, Custer Battlefield Museum, Garryowen, Montana. He also visited the Lakota country and interviewed Red Hawk, "whose recollection of the fight seemed to be particularly clear". If they dida thing I firmly believethey were tortured and killed the night of the 25th. Members of the Seventh Cavalry Killed as a Result of the Battle of the Little Big Horn Name Rank Company/Position Co. Total W.W. Cooke 1 st Lieutenant Regimental adjutant, Hdqtrs. Click the card to flip . Adobe installed on your computer, you can download it for free directly from Red Horse pictographic account of Lakota casualties in the Battle of the Little Bighorn, 1881, Red Horse pictographic account of dead U.S. cavalrymen in the Battle of the Little Bighorn, 1881, Role of Indian noncombatants in Custer's strategy, Other views of Custer's actions at Minneconjou Ford, Civilians killed (armed and embedded within the Army), Lever-action repeaters vs. single-shot breechloaders, Model 1873 / 1884 Springfield carbine and the U.S. Army, Malfunction of the Springfield carbine extractor mechanism. It was where the Indian encampment had been a week earlier, during the Battle of the Rosebud on June 17, 1876. As the purpose of the tribes' gathering was to take counsel, they did not constitute an army or warrior class. Trooper Billy Jackson reported that by then, the Indians had begun massing in the open area shielded by a small hill to the left of Reno's line and to the right of the Indian village. Widely known as an expert on military archaeology, he is the author or co-author of numerous publications, including They Died with Custer: Soldiers' Bones from the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Uncovering History: Archaeological Investigations at the Little Bighorn, and Custer, Cody . [151][152][153][154] Custer insisted that the artillery was superfluous to his success, in that the 7th Cavalry alone was sufficient to cope with any force they should encounter, informing Terry: "The 7th can handle anything it meets". According to Lakota accounts, far more of their casualties occurred in the attack on Last Stand Hill than anywhere else. "[28] At the same time US military officials were conducting a summer campaign to force the Lakota and the Cheyenne back to their reservations, using infantry and cavalry in a so-called "three-pronged approach". Getty Images. When the army examined the Custer battle site, soldiers could not determine fully what had transpired. According to Scott, it is likely that in the 108 years between the battle and Scott's excavation efforts in the ravine, geological processes caused many of the remains to become unrecoverable. Capt. Miles took command of the effort in October 1876. That was why he ultimately declined the offer of the Gatling guns that had proven such a bother to Reno. [191], After exhaustive testingincluding comparisons to domestic and foreign single-shot and repeating riflesthe Army Ordnance Board (whose members included officers Marcus Reno and Alfred Terry) authorized the Springfield as the official firearm for the United States Army. ", Gallear, 2001: "by the time of the Little Bighorn the U.S. Army was standardizing on the Springfield rifle and carbine [and] saw breech-loading rifles and carbines as the way forward. [130] By the time the battle began, Custer had already divided his forces into three battalions of differing sizes, of which he kept the largest. According to some accounts, a small contingent of Indian sharpshooters effectively opposed this crossing. ", Lawson, 2007, p. 53: "Although each soldier was also issued a sword or saber, Custer ordered these weapons boxed before the strike force departed [up Rosebud Creek] the lack of swords would prove to be a disadvantage during some of the close fighting that lay ahead. It won't take long to install, and believe me, you'll be happy you The 7th Cavalry returned to Fort Abraham Lincoln to reconstitute. [145][146] This deployment had demonstrated that artillery pieces mounted on gun carriages and hauled by horses no longer fit for cavalry mounts (so-called condemned horses) were cumbersome over mixed terrain and vulnerable to breakdowns. Its walls have the names of some Indians who died at the site, as well as native accounts of the battle. P.S. Friends member and a long-time personal friend, Wayne Gutowsky . Indian accounts describe warriors (including women) running up from the village to wave blankets in order to scare off the soldiers' horses. Map of Battle of Little Bighorn, Part III. After the battle, Thomas Rosser, James O'Kelly, and others continued to question the conduct of Reno due to his hastily ordered retreat. [65] Though both men inferred that Custer was engaged in battle, Reno refused to move until the packs arrived so his men could resupply. [27] During a Sun Dance around June 5, 1876, on Rosebud Creek in Montana, Sitting Bull, the spiritual leader of the Hunkpapa Lakota, reportedly had a vision of "soldiers falling into his camp like grasshoppers from the sky. First, he went over the ground covered by the troops with the three Crow scouts White Man Runs Him, Goes Ahead, and Hairy Moccasin, and then again with Two Moons and a party of Cheyenne warriors. Some Indian accounts, however, place the Northern Cheyenne encampment and the north end of the overall village to the left (and south) of the opposite side of the crossing. For . On June 28, 1876, three days after the Battle of the Little Bighorn, survivors of the 7 th U.S. Cavalry under the command of Major Marcus A. Reno began the painful task of burying Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer's command. There were about 50 known deaths among Sitting Bulls followers. Custer Ordered Horses Killed to Build a Defensive Wall. This is where you will learn where soldiers and officers who fought in the Battle of the Little Bighorn are currently buried. Curley, one of Custer's scouts, rode up to the steamboat and tearfully conveyed the information to Grant Marsh, the boat's captain, and army officers. [65] By this time, roughly 5:25pm,[citation needed] Custer's battle may have concluded. [125] Some testimony by non-Army officers suggested that he was drunk and a coward. Atop the bluffs, known today as Reno Hill, Reno's depleted and shaken troops were joined about a half-hour later by Captain Benteen's column[65] (Companies D, H and K), arriving from the south. Crook and Terry finally took the field against the Native forces in August. List transcribed and organized by Joy Fisher, jfisher@ucla. Charles Windolph, Frazier Hunt, Robert Hunt, Neil Mangum. but 'the men' seems to have been an exaggeration. Benteen's apparent reluctance to reach Custer prompted later criticism that he had failed to follow orders. In May 1877, Sitting Bull escaped to Canada. [92]:314 Fighting dismounted, the soldiers' skirmish lines were overwhelmed. On May 7, 1868, the valley of the Little Bighorn became a tract in the eastern part of the new Crow Indian Reservation in the center of the old Crow country. Painted by Edgar Samuel Paxson, 1899. June 25th (dawn): After being informed by his scouts that a large village is within sight, Custer marches forward to the Little Bighorn Valley. [77]:48 They were soon joined by a large force of Sioux who (no longer engaging Reno) rushed down the valley. [201], Whether the reported malfunction of the Model 1873 Springfield carbine issued to the 7th Cavalry contributed to their defeat has been debated for years. Gen. George Crook's column of ten companies (A, B, C, D, E, F, G, I, L, and M) of the 3rd Cavalry, five companies (A, B, D, E, and I) of the 2nd Cavalry, two companies (D and F) of the 4th Infantry, and three companies (C, G, and H) of the 9th Infantry moved north from Fort Fetterman in the Wyoming Territory on May 29, marching toward the Powder River area. Col. George A. Custer and Northern Plains Indians (Lakota [Teton or Western Sioux] and Northern Cheyenne) led by Sitting Bull. 16263: Reno's wing "lefton June 10accompanied by a Gatling gun and its crew", Donovan, 2008, p. 163: "The [Gatling gun] and its ammunitionwas mostly pulled by two 'condemned' cavalry mounts [p. 176: "drawn by four condemned horses"] judged not fit to carry troopers, but it needed the occasional hauling by hand through some of the rougher ravines. "[note 3][40] Custer's overriding concern was that the Native American group would break up and scatter. Most of these missing men were left behind in the timber, although many eventually rejoined the detachment. Inconsequential as it was, the Arapaho presence at the Little Bighorn provides a cautionary tale for historians who try to reconstruct what the Little Bighorn must have been like without considering the various Indian accounts and the motivations behind them. It was not until over half a century later that historians took another look at the battle and Custer's decisions that led to his death and loss of half his command and found much to criticize. At least 28 bodies (the most common number associated with burial witness testimony), including that of scout Mitch Bouyer, were discovered in or near that gulch, their deaths possibly the battle's final actions. They were always trying to crawl out and I was always putting them back in, so I didn't sleep much. Writers of both pro- and anti-Custer material over the years have incorporated the theory into their works". Reported words of Lieutenant Colonel Custer at the battle's outset.[74]. Included among the dead were Custer, all of the personnel in the five-company battalion under his immediate command, and 18 men who fought in the southern part of the battlefield . [183][184][185], Ammunition allotments provided 100 carbine rounds per trooper, carried on a cartridge belt and in saddlebags on their mounts. [142][143][144], One factor concerned Major Marcus Reno's recent 8-day reconnaissance-in-force of the Powder-Tongue-Rosebud Rivers, June 10 to 18. 9193: "[Henryville] was named in the mid-1980s by archaeologists after they discovered a large artifact collection there, which included numerous .44-caliber Henry cartridges. Examining the bones of the Little Bighorn dead reveals the hard lives - and sudden, violent deaths - endured by these U.S. Frontier Army soldiers. Thompson, p. 211. [175] Nonetheless, they could usually procure these through post-traders, licensed or unlicensed, and from gunrunners who operated in the Dakota Territory: "a horse or a mule for a repeater buffalo hides for ammunition. Other historians claim that Custer never approached the river, but rather continued north across the coulee and up the other side, where he gradually came under attack. Gallear, 2001: "There is also evidence that some Indians were short of ammunition and it is unclear how good a shot they were. He escaped from the guard house at Fort A. Lincoln and is reputed to have killed Tom Custer in the massacre on the Little Big Horn. The Sioux Campaign of 1876 under the Command of General John Gibbon. US Soldier killed at the Battle of the Little Big Horn. A significant portion of the regiment had previously served 4 years at Fort Riley, Kansas, during which time it fought one major engagement and numerous skirmishes, experiencing casualties of 36 killed and 27 wounded. [127], Custer believed that the 7th Cavalry could handle any Indian force and that the addition of the four companies of the 2nd would not alter the outcome. "[133] Facing major budget cutbacks, the U.S. Army wanted to avoid bad press and found ways to exculpate Custer. Custer's force of roughly 210 men had been engaged by the Lakota and Northern Cheyenne about 3.5 miles (5.6km) to the north of Reno and Benteen's defensive position. The number of cartridges indicated that about 20 warriors at this position were using Henry repeating rifles. The commissioned work by native artist Colleen Cutschall is shown in the photograph at right. and p. 175: "Reno had taken [a Gatling gun] on his [June reconnaissance mission], and it had been nothing but trouble. ", Lawson, 2008, p. 53: "Many of the officers and most of the civilians brought along their own weapons. He was driven back, retreating toward the hill where his body was found. Wood, Raymond W. and Thomas D. Thiessen (1987): White, Richard: The Winning of the West: The Expansion of the Western Sioux in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. The 1991 bill changing the name of the national monument also authorized an Indian Memorial to be built near Last Stand Hill in honor of Lakota and Cheyenne warriors. ", Gallear, 2001: "A study of .45-55 cases found at the battle concludes that extractor failure amounted to less than 0.35% of some 1,751 cases tested the carbine was in fact more reliable than anything that had preceded it in U.S. Army service. Later, the troops would have bunched together in defensive positions and are alleged to have shot their remaining horses as cover. [53]:380, Cheyenne oral tradition credits Buffalo Calf Road Woman with striking the blow that knocked Custer off his horse before he died.[73]. About Us. The regiment, reorganized into eight companies, remained in the field as part of the Terry Expedition, now based on the Yellowstone River at the mouth of the Bighorn and reinforced by Gibbon's column. [180] The regulation Model 1860 saber or "long knives" were not carried by troopers upon Custer's order. The Indian Wars were seen as a minor sideshow in which troops armed to fight on European battlefields would be more than a match for fighting any number of Indians.". [64] Later, Reno reported that three officers and 29 troopers had been killed during the retreat and subsequent fording of the river. On June 22, Terry ordered the 7th Cavalry, composed of 31 officers and 566 enlisted men under Custer, to begin a reconnaissance in force and pursuit along the Rosebud, with the prerogative to "depart" from orders if Custer saw "sufficient reason". Hurrah boys, we've got them! 18761881. Warriors could have been drawn to the feint attack, forcing the battalion back towards the heights, up the north fork drainage, away from the troops providing cover fire above. The June 25-26, 1876, Battle of the Little Bighorn fought in southern Montana was Native Americans' greatest victory . While investigating the battlefield, Lieutenant General Nelson A. Fire from the southeast made it impossible for Custer's men to secure a defensive position all around Last Stand Hill where the soldiers put up their most dogged defense. However, I believe that by the time of the Indian Wars the Army viewed the lever-actions weapons as under-powered novelty weapons and that they were equipping their men to fight wars against European equipped enemies or to re-fight the Civil War. The Case of the Men Who Died With Custer. Hunt, expert in the tactical use of artillery in Civil War, stated that Gatlings "would probably have saved the command", whereas General Nelson A. [64] The shaken Reno ordered his men to dismount and mount again. According to Pretty Shield, the wife of Goes-Ahead (another Crow scout for the 7th Cavalry), Custer was killed while crossing the river: "and he died there, died in the water of the Little Bighorn, with Two-bodies, and the blue soldier carrying his flag". Also, Custer retained the conviction that the Seventh could handle any force of Indians it might encounter, and he may have reasoned that taking the Second Cavalry would leave [Colonel John] Gibbon's column susceptible to attack and defeat". "Reno Court of Inquiry, Gregory Michno, Lakota Noon, Mountain Press, 1997, p. 177, Gregory Michno, Lakota Noon, Mountain Press, 1997, p. 252, Gregory Michno, Lakota Noon, Mountain Press, 1997, p. 179, Gregory Michno, Lakota Noon, Mountain Press, 1997, p. 254, GSklenar, Larry, To Hell with Honor, p. 260, "Last of the Argonauts: The Life and Services of Capt. ", Sklenar, 2000, pp. Many orders might have been given, but few obeyed.