I. The Battle of Little Bighorn
A.
B.
C.
D.
E. Paul Laffin
Block E Honors
March 26, 2003
The Battle Of Little Bighorn
II. The Battle of Little Bighorn could have avoided disaster
if Custer had gone about it differently, although, no matter what the outcome
of the battle, it would be the end of the Indian Resistance.
A. Several things caused the growing hostility between
the Indians and the Whites. Discovery of gold on the Indians lands
caused thousands of whites to invade in search of fortune. Also the
government jeopardized the Indian’s food source by building roads.
1. The whites desecrated sacred Indian grounds in the Black
Hills by digging and mining.
2. The buffalo, the Indian’s main source of food, shelter,
and other supplies, could not survive with its grazing land divided by roads
and railways.
B. The Battle of Little Bighorn, an extremely lopsided
victory for the Sioux and one of the worst U.S. military disasters ever,
marked the beginning of the end of Indian resistance on the Plains to westward
expansion.
1. Custer led 265 men against thousands of Sioux, Cheyenne,
and Lakota warriors on the day of the battle.
2. The cavalry was forced to shoot their horses and use
them as barricades in a last minute effort to fend off the onslaught of Indians
that faced them.
3. News of Custer’s defeat reached the Eastern U.S. on
the Centennial, and the death of such a great Civil War Hero on the nation’s
birthday fueled the country into a feverish campaign to rid itself of the
Indians as a problem.
III. Custer was both a wise and foolish choice as commander
to head the attack on the Sioux that fateful day.
A. Custer was a famed Civil War hero and excellent commander.
1. Custer was the youngest Brigadier General at 23, and
later a Major General.
2. Lincoln himself often praised Custer on his Civil War
victories.
3. He was a fierce and confident fighter, leading many
charges, and was always at the forefront of these charges.
B. Custer was a hotheaded and ill disciplined man.
1. Custer Graduated at the bottom of his class at West
Point and his list of demerits was the highest ever at that point.
2. Custer was known to be arrogant, a glory hunter, a showoff,
a braggart, and a risk taker.
C. Custer was an experienced and brave fighter, but his
choices on both behavioral and combat decisions were geared toward getting
his name to be better known.
IV. The Battle of Little Bighorn was a disaster militarily,
and more simply put, a slaughter.
A. The United States Army lacked the experience, discipline,
and training to win such a battle with such small numbers.
1. In Custer’s 7th Cavalry, ¼ of the soldiers were
recruits that year, 15% were raw recruits, and 1/3 of the regiment had joined
in the last 6 months.
2. The post Civil War army was underpaid, overworked, and
consisted of many immigrants who had no desire to fight for the country.
3. The army had not been raised to fight Indians, most
Indian fighting had been done by local militias, who had generated a severe
hatred for the Indians.
B. Custer was outnumbered and made the foolish decision
of not waiting for re-enforcements.
1. Another troop of 1,049 was on its way to join Custer,
but he did not wait for their arrival, and launched his attack.
2. No one knows the exact number of Indians in the camp,
but estimates from the Chiefs, the army, and the warriors that day range
from 2,500-20,000, versus Custer’s 650.
C. Many things contributed to the disaster the day of Custer’s
Last Stand, but the two greatest were the overwhelming numbers and Custer’s
over-eagerness to promote his own name and battle reputation.
V. The after effects of the battle were not only a horrible
realization of the massacre by the Americans, but only a short-lived victory
for the Indians.
A. Both the commanders and soldiers of the Battle of Little
Bighorn suffered.
1. All 210 soldiers that Custer took with him after he
split his command died.
2. Major Marcus Reno was Court-martialed for the faulty
command.
B. The Indians suffered not during the battle, but after.
1. The Sioux nation was overpowered by an onslaught of
whites bent on avenging Custer.
2. Little Bighorn was the zenith of Indian resistance.
“Custer’s Last Stand was their last stand as well.
C. The losses were so great that The Battle of Little Bighorn
would have been more beneficial to both sides had it not been fought.
VI. The Battle of Little Bighorn was oddly a victory that
sealed the downfall of the Indians on the Plains, and a defeat that helped
ensure manifest destiny for the U.S..
A. The Indians were overpowered in the long run and their
victory meant nothing.
1. The Indians were forced onto reservations.
2. The Americans built many roads and forts, killed buffalo,
and acted as though there were no Indians.
B. The views at the time are what caused the downfall of
the Indians. The whites believed they were superior, therefor had no
guilt about moving or killing the thousands of Indians. In essence
the white Americans destroyed an entire country, not just a sect of people.
THE BATTLE OF LITTLE BIGHORN
The Battle of Little Bighorn could have avoided disaster if Custer had gone
about it differently, although, no matter what the outcome of the battle,
it would be the end of the Indian Resistance. There were many factors
that contributed to the growing hostility between the Plains Indians and
the white Americans pushing westward in the later half of the 1800’s.
The discovery of gold in Indian lands caused a huge influx of American fortune
seekers (Curtis 1). The reason the Indians opposed the white men so
much was because they tore apart the sacred Black Hills, an area that the
Indians had treasured for generations (Herendon 1). Another reason
that the Indians opposed this westward movement is because in order to furnish
the travel needs of the large groups of men, railroads and roads were constructed
for the wagons that the men used. These transportation routes divided
the plains, which caused problems for the buffalo (Curtis 1). The buffalo
needed huge open spaces in order to live, and these roads and railways hindered
them. This was cause for discontent because the buffalo were the Indians
main staple for food, clothing, shelter, tools, and culture through paintings,
stories and songs. Without them, the Indians would struggle to
survive (Curtis 1).
The Indians realized this, and from the first day of the construction of
the roads, one chief Red Cloud, and his warriors killed 91 soldiers, 5 officers,
58 citizens, and took part in many raids (Curtis 2). This was the beginning
of a time in American history called the Indian Wars, from the early 1860’s
to the late 1870’s. Although there were no major battles besides Little
Bighorn, there were many skirmishes (Curtis 2) that earned the Indians reputations
of brutal fighters (Kreyche 4). In one instance, a military force of
80 was sent to quell an Indian uprising, and all 80 were slain, stripped,
and mutilated.
Henry Carrington, the post commander at Bozeman Trail Fort, describes the
carnage of some 80 soldiers killed: “Eyes torn out and laid on the rocks;
noses cut off; ears cut off; chins hewn off; teeth chopped out; joints of
fingers; brains taken out and exposed; arms taken out from sockets; private
parts severed and indecently placed on the person…. All this does not approximate
the whole truth.” (Kreyche 4)
There were many skirmishes like this, all leading up to and culminating at
the Battle of Little Bighorn (Kreyche 4).
The Battle of Little Bighorn, an extremely lopsided victory
for the Sioux and one of the worst United States Military disasters ever,
marked the beginning of the end of Indian resistance on the Plains to westward
expansion. In this battle, Custer personally led less than 300 men
against thousands of Sioux, Cheyenne, and Lakota warriors (Maffly 1).
The battle was such a slaughter that Custer’s 7th Cavalry was forced to shoot
their horses, and stack them up as a defensive barricade against the onslaught
of Indians that faced them (Curry 1). There is no way that Custer could
have won with the numbers that faced him, but in essence, he was victorious.
The news of the slaughter of Custer’s men reached the Eastern United States
on the centennial, and the crushing news of the death of a Civil War hero
on the Nation’s birthday fueled the country into a feverish campaign to rid
itself of the Indians as a problem (Maffly 1).
Custer was the perfect commander to send against Indians
in battle, yet the United States Army could not have made a worse choice
sending him the day of the Battle of Little Bighorn. The reasons that
this ironic situation arose are many. Custer was a famed and respected
Civil War hero, and made many brave and excellent charges and decisions while
fighting (Kreyche 3). He was the youngest man to ever receive the rank
of Brigadier General, at the age of 23, and later even became a Major General.
Abraham Lincoln himself even praised Custer for his abilities. At the
end of the Civil War, he was reduced to captain, not because of lack of ability,
but because there was an over-abundance of officers and he was so young (Kreyche
3). It was in no way a punishment, because he was still referred to
as General, out of courtesy. Another reason that he was a good choice
against the Indians is because he was one of the few men who had experience
against them. He had a tremendous but immoral victory over a band of
Indians in the Battle of Washita, a battle in which he killed women and children,
earning him the title of “Squaw Killer”(Kreyche 4). In this battle,
which he provoked, Custer surrounded a village and killed many innocent women
and children (Maffly 3). There are just as many reasons that Custer
should not have gone to battle that day.
He graduated at the bottom of his class at West Point and his list of demerits
while in attendance was the highest ever at that point in time (Kreyche 2).
Custer was also a very cruel leader. He ordered deserters shot, and
never let up on his men. His second in command, Major Marcus Reno,
absolutely abhorred him. This love hate relationship that Custer created
was often a cause of tension throughout his troops, causing them not to fight
as hard (Kreyche 6). Custer was also known to be arrogant, a showoff,
a braggart, a risk taker, and a glory hunter, meaning his decisions on the
battlefield were geared toward boosting his reputation (Kreyche 3). Surprisingly
through all these things detracting from his character, many famous and prestigious
Generals favored him. Men such as General Winfield Scott, General George
McClellan, General Irvin McDowell, General Alfred Pleasanton, and General
Philip Sheridan (Kreyche 3).
Even with all these negatives going against him, nobody would have expected
Custer and all the men he led into battle that day to die, but the Battle
of Little Bighorn was nothing more than a complete slaughter. There
were more reasons than Custer alone for the loss that day. Some speculated
reasons for defeat are: that Custer disobeyed orders; that he disregarded
his scouts warnings; that he violated the common principles of war; his men
were too tired; the troops did not have enough experience; the Indians had
better weapons; and were just too severely outnumbered (Michno 1).
Custer’s orders were simple. He was to be part of a three pronged attack
on the Indian’s encampment, and he was to bring his troops to the area of
the camp and wait the arrival of the other divisions of the Cavalry.
Custer upon hearing he may have been spotted decided to attack the Indians
while he still had the element of surprise, instead of waiting for the reinforcements
coming.
Crook [U.S. General] with a force of 10 hundred, and 49 officers, left Fort
Fetterman on May 29 (….) and on June 17 fought Crazy Horse [Sioux Chief]
and lost, so waited for reinforcements [instead of continuing to Little Bighorn
to meet Custer] while Crazy Horse went on to Little Bighorn. (Curtis 6)
So he split his troops (only slightly over 600) into three groups, attempting
to create the same tactic that was going to be used, but with less than one-third
the number of men. Dividing his troops in such a fashion is the aspect
of defeat that went against war ethics, (Michno 3) especially since estimates
of Indian force have been as great as 20,000 (the most realistic estimates
were about 7,000) (Connell 383).
Not only were Custer and his men outnumbered, they were
also outgunned. Archaeological studies have found that on the area where
Custer fought, the number of guns used by the Indians may have more than
doubled the number used by the United States Army (Michno 4). The types
of weapons were another factor. Weapons used by Custer were Springfield
single-shot rifles, and Colt .45 six-shot pistols, while the Indians used
repeating rifles, which were rifles that held between thirteen and seventeen
shots (Michno 1). The final disadvantage of weapons was in close combat.
The United States army had none. In June of 1876, before the Battle
of Little Bighorn, Custer’s men sent their sabers back to the supply boats
thinking that they would not get close enough to the Indians to use them
(Maffly 2). Even if they did not use the sabers, they should have brought
them as an intimidation factor, “these ‘long knives’ astounded the Natives”
and often the sight of them stayed the Indians (Connell 383).
The final reason thought for Custer’s defeat was the caliber of his army.
Keegan writes that in general, the post Civil War United States Army was
pathetic. They were underpaid and overworked, and many were immigrants
who had no reason to fight for the United States (284). Also, the Army
had not been raised to fight Indians, and Until the Civil War, had done little
of none of it. The majority of local Indian fighting was done by local
militias who, due to direct conflict with the Indians, had a dire hatred
for them (Keegan 281). Not only was the army inexperienced in Indian fighting,
but inexperienced altogether.
In Custer’s 7th Cavalry, which was to fight at the Little Bighorn in 1876,
one-quarter of the soldiers were recruits that year, fifteen percent were
raw recruits, and one-third the regiment had joined within the last six months…(Keegan
285)
Custer was an exception to that. The only place that he belonged was
at the head of a Cavalry (285). Even if the weapons and conditions
of the army had not been a factor, the Battle most likely still would have
been lost because of the overwhelming numbers and Custer’s over-eagerness
to promote his own name and battle reputation.
When Custer heard from his scouts that they might have been spotted, he decided
to attack (Taylor, 34). He marched to a hill above the village and
halted. He then split his force into three groups, one of approximately
175, another of approximately 220 led by Frederick Benteen, and the final
force of approximately 210 led by Custer himself. The reason he did
this is because this strategy had won him the Battle of Washita (Custer 270).
He then sent Benteen and Reno to opposite sides of the Village as himself
to surround them. He hoped to attack the northern and southern ends
of the village at the same time, causing mass confusion and easy slaughter,
but the terrain prevented this, and Reno attacked before Custer arrived (Herendon
1). The soldiers were ready for battle, and before they marched in,
one officer is quoted as saying “Boys, hold your horses, there are plenty
of them down their for us all” (Robinson 187).
Reno’s squadron attacked the northern end, but found themselves outnumbered.
When a bullet smashed into the face of Bloody Knife, the scout beside him,
Reno decided it was time to retreat, so in a desperate attempt to stay alive,
they retreated after less than ten minutes (Rachlis 124). At the same
time the Indians caused Reno to retreat, Custer and his 210 men attacked
the southern end. Without Reno to draw some fire, all the Indians were
free to attack Custer, and a force of near 3,000 surrounded him (Herendon
1). The Indians then commenced their attack, shouting their famous
Sioux battle cry, “Hoka hey! [It is a good day to die] Hurry! Hurry!”.
The attack was so brutal that many men died so quickly they remained in their
saddles. There were so many Indians that Custer was completely surrounded,
and wave after wave annihilated his force (Rachlis 128). The final blow came
when the Indians killed the horse handlers, when the army saw that, they
panicked as they watched their only means of escape disappear, some stopped
fighting, some killed themselves, and others just tried to run, but all ended
up dead. In fact one soldier managed to mount a rider-less horse and
break free of the battle. After he outran the Indians pursuing him,
he killed himself less than one mile from Reno’s position and safety (Robinson
192-193).
With only a brief enough pause to gather ammunition and valuables, the Indians
left the scene of Custer’s Last Stand, and returned to battle Reno and Benteen’s
men. Benteen and Reno were in a horrible position to defend themselves.
The survivors of the first encounter had only coffee cups and hatchets to
dig protective trenches with, and knew that they were vastly outnumbered
(Rachlis 130). Those soldiers with horses shot them in order to make
an attempt at a wall, but luckily for them, these barriers were unneeded.
Upon attacking Reno and Benteen, the Indians killed only 18 more men.
The attack was called off after this last charge because Sitting Bull (an
Indian Chief present that day) said that killing so many whites in one day
would only make them send larger armies (Rachlis 130-131), and with that,
the Indians left.
The after effects of the Battle were harsh on both sides. Major Marcus
Reno was court-martialed for not assisting, hundreds of United States soldiers
died, and it was a blow to morale. The Indians however, did not feel
the effects of the battle until later. Custer’s death was a blow to
the natives, not immediately, but eventually. After the battle, the
Indians went through and stripped and mutilated all the bodies. This
was done because they believed the soul of a mutilated body would be forced
to walk the earth for all eternity. For some unknown reason, the Indians
stripped and cleaned Custer’s body as best they could, (he had been shot
in the head) and left it unscathed after death (Herendon 2). Immediately
after the battle, the Indians described the United States Army as valiant
and brave, but later changed their story (Curry 2). They said that
all the men they killed were running, and that there was no fabled “Last
Stand” (Robinson 193).
Fox dismisses Indian descriptions of the soldier's bravery recorded just
after the battle, noting that tribal leaders were likely trying to salve
white pride during sensitive treaty negotiations. Later on when the
fate of the Indians was sealed, they opened up more (…) describing Custer’s
men running like ‘a stampede of buffalo’, shooting like drunken men, firing
into the ground into the air, wildly in every way. (Curry 2)
No matter what was said though, the Sioux nation was overpowered by a nation
of whites bent on avenging Custer. Little Bighorn was the zenith of
Indian resistance. The battle enraged the whites because of the death
of a war hero on the Centennial (Herendon 2). The defeat paved the
way for the Indians to be forced onto reservations (Curry 3). “Custer’s
Last Stand was their last stand as well” (Herendon 2). This battle
would have been more beneficial to both sides had it not been fought at all.
The Battle of Little Bighorn was oddly a victory that sealed the downfall
of the Indians on the Plains, and a defeat that helped ensure manifest destiny
for the United States. The fired up American nation doubled its efforts
to populate and develop the West, and they succeeded in building their forts
and roads. They acted as if there were never any Indians on the plains,
that it was originally there for them to utilize. They slaughtered
thousands of Indians and buffalo, severely shocking the Indian culture, and
brought many tribes to extinction, and other very close to it. Those
Indians that were not killed were forced onto reservations, and they were
not allowed to roam and hunt. Supplies were delivered to them, and
they were not allowed off. These effects were due to the supremacist views
at the time. The white Americans viewed themselves as superior to the
Indians, and therefore had no guilt while moving or killing them. In
essence, the white Americans relocated and destroyed entire individual civilizations,
not just a sect a people.
WORKS CITED
Connell, Evan S. Son of the Morning Star. New York: Harper & Rowe, Publishers
Inc., 1984. 284-383
Curry, Andrew. “11: Custer’s Bluster.” U.S News & World Report (2000):
57-60
Curtis E.S. “Notes from ‘The North American Indian’ Volume-3 The Battle of
Little Bighorn.” <http://curtis-collection.com/tribe%20data/custer.html>
Custer, Elizabeth B. Boots and Saddles. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers,
1899. 260-275
Herendon, George. “The Battle of Little Bighorn, 1876.” Eyewitness- History
Through The Eyes of Those Who Lived It. 1997: <http://www.ibiscom.com/custer.htm>
Keegan John. Fields of Battle, The Wars for North America. New York: Alfred
A. Knopf, 1996. 278-290
Kreyche, Gerald F. “The Two Faces of George Armstrong Custer.” USA Today
May 1994: 2-6.
Maffly, Brian. “Custer Loses Again.” Salt Lake Tribune June 2002: 1-3.
Michno, Greg. “Guns of the Little Bighorn.” Wild West June 1998: 1-4.
Rachlis, Eugene. Indians of the Plains. New York: American Heritage Publishing
Co., Inc., 1960. 124-131.
Robinson, Charles M. III. A Good Year to Die. New York: Random House Inc.,
1995. 187-193.
Taylor, William O. With Custer on the Little Bighorn. New York: Penguin Books
USA Inc., 1996. 33-36.
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