The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Phibrick - B+

                      "In defeat the hero of the Last Stand achieves the greatest of victories, since he will be remembered for all time."  

                        After finding gold in the Black Hills, the US launched a war against the Sioux in 1876. From Ft. Lincoln in the Dakota Territories on May 17, the 7th Cavalry headed west. The regiment consisted of 1200 men and 1600 horses, divided into twelve companies. Custer was accompanied by his two brothers, a nephew and a brother-in-law. His brother Tom had received two Medals of Honor in 1865. Far to the west, Sitting Bull dreamed of the upcoming attack by the soldiers and envisioned that they would approach from the east.  The Sioux conducted their annual Sun Dance, during which Sitting Bull dreamed of vast amounts of dead soldiers. On June 17th, the Sioux and Cheyenne fought on the banks of the Rosebud River with soldiers heading north from Wyoming under the command of Gen. George Crook. Although the Sioux and Cheyenne retired first, victory was theirs as Crook retreated south to reprovision his command. He would not move again for six weeks, and did not report his battle to anyone in the 7th Cavalry.  It was the first time in history that Indians had sought out and fought the US Army on an open field.

                      Further north, at the confluence of the Yellowstone and Rosebud Rivers, Custer met with Gen. Alfred Terry on the evening of the 21st. Terry ordered Custer to head south then west and to meet Terry and Gibbon's Montana troops in the vicinity of the Little Big Horn. However, Terry also gave Custer enough leeway to attack the Indians if the opportunity arose before the planned meet-up. Many have suggested that Terry, a lawyer before the Civil War, wrote out a plan whereby he would look good regardless of what Custer did. Custer was desperate for a successful engagement. He was in trouble financially, and his career was in tatters. Notwithstanding that many conceded that he had carried July 3rd at Gettysburg by holding off an attack by Jeb Stuart, he had recently offended Grant and was thinking about resigning and either going into business or running for office.

                    Because the last remnants of the northern plains' buffalo herd was congregating south of the Yellowstone, thousands of Indians headed to Sitting Bull's camp. It is believed that as many as 8,000 men, women, and children were at the camp on the western side of the Little Bighorn River.

                   Custer was upset as he headed south. He was annoyed at Terry, whom he felt had belittled him at the meeting. He struggled with the fact that he despised his two highest ranking subordinates, Maj. Marcus Reno and Capt. Frederick Benteen. Indeed, the egotistical and self-absorbed Custer spent a vast amount of time providing the New York Herald with anonymous dispatches demeaning his officers. On the night of the 24th, he ordered a night march to get closer to the camp his scouts had observed on the Little Big Horn. Concerned about Indians escaping to the south, Custer sent Benteen off in that direction with approximately 20% of the 7th. He ordered Reno and 150 men to move ahead of the main column. When the 7th crested the ridge that looked over the Little Bighorn, the officers were awed by the sight of the largest Indian village ever seen. It was two miles long, a quarter of a mile wide and was composed of 1,000 teepees. Reno crossed the river and galloped north intending to scatter the Indians ponies. Reno, however, was drunk, halted the charge, and established a skirmish line a quarter of a mile from the campsite. The Indians attacked Reno's position, while to the northeast, Custer was approaching and could now see the village. Crazy Horse attacked Reno's line, which broke and ran into nearby woods. Soon, Reno's men were hastily retreating in a rout. The Indians were in hot pursuit. Reno had lost almost half his men when he met Benteen and his brigade. Neither knew where Custer was.

               At 4:25 PM, Custer's battalion attacked the Sioux and the Cheyenne. Reno and Benteen considered going north to where Custer was engaged. However they were soon entrenched and engaged in battle. Reno and Benteen's men spent the night dug in and faced the Indians on the morning of the 26th. The assault continued all day. In the evening, the soldiers were shocked to see 8,000 people and an estimated 20,000 horses moving away from the Little Bighorn. With fewer than 400 men, they had held off 2,000 warriors. On the 27th, the relief column from the north headed by Gen. Terry discovered 197 bodies on a ridge overlooking the valley. The later native accounts told that the 7th charged, Custer was one of the first mortally wounded and the leaderless and overwhelmed, the men of the 7th were killed off in twenty minutes. The evidence on Last Stand Hill showed otherwise. It indicated a battle of 2 hours, and that Custer fired his rifle for a considerable period of time. In the end, the truth will never be known. Custer and his brother Tom were buried together.

             The army pursued the Indians and most of them, including Crazy Horse, surrendered that fall. Sitting Bull retreated to Canada and didn't surrender until 1881. News of the Last Stand reached Bismarck on July 5th and soon spread around the country. Libbie Custer was notified the following day. She "spent the rest of her life playing out her grief and widowhood before a national audience." She had a hagiographic biography published almost immediately and in it blamed Reno. It should be noted that Terry's official report blamed Custer for the disaster. Grant concurred. But in the end, Libbie prevailed over a long life that did not end until 1933. She was aided by Buffalo Bill Cody's show, which toured the world and reenacted the Last Stand. America loved the heroics of Long Hair. This is an excellent book and probably has the most expositive series of maps I can remember.