This defeat clouds his legacy, which up until then was quite remarkable. During the Civil War he was known as a daring and highly successful cavalry officer. There are , enrolled members of the Cherokee Nation of Okalahoma. Yes there are still full blood Cherokees. It is also not like the large bony upper brow and large jawline of the Caucasians. One distinct thing about the Native American race is that they possess dominant coloration, wide eyes, dark hair, and eyes that are almond-shaped.
They also have a language that has the same melody as the Asians. Custer would still be remembered as the Boy General and revered for his Civil War accomplishments.
If he had won and died, he would have been more famous than now. Although George Armstrong Custer was considered a hero by many Americans after the Battle of the Little Bighorn, his image changed in the latter half of the 20th century from gallant Indian fighter to bloodthirsty Indian killer.
During the Civil War, he showed himself to be daring and a bit of an egotist. He also proved to be an intelligent leader, skilled as a tactician and opportunistic in battle. After the end of the Civil War, Custer was stationed in the West, where he had some problems adjusting to his role in the peacetime army. Many people today would have you believe that Custer was evil — that he murdered Native American women and children.
Custer was a soldier in the Indian Wars, true, but he never perpetuated massacres, and engaged in no more than a handful of armed conflicts with Native Americans. Custer intended to move the 7th Cavalry to a position that would allow his force to attack the village at dawn the next day.
Mo-nah-se-tah or Mo-nah-see-tah c. Mo-nah-se-tah gave birth to a child in January , two months after Washita; Cheyenne oral history alleges that she later bore a second child, fathered by Custer, in late Custer had with his column a battery of cannon and a battery of Gatling guns. He left them behind in camp to increase his marching speed. They decided to split up into smaller bands that could move faster and hunt more effectively. Among the leaders of these groups were Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse.
This battle was a decisive victory for the Native Americans and a total defeat for the U. Others refuse to run. In the retreat, 38 are killed including 2 officers , 10 are wounded, and several go missing. The remains of the command rally on the steep bluffs at what is now known as Reno Hill. Seventeen of the missing later make their way there. It is now after 4 p. Reno establishes a defensive position atop the hill, and settles in to wait for McDougall and the pack train.
Custer learns of this debacle as it unfolds. After splitting his force near the tepee of the slain warrior, he and his men had set off in pursuit of some 50 warriors spotted to his front. Reaching the ridgeline above the valley, he catches sight of the village for the first time.
There are plenty down there for all of us! He then descends the ridge into Cedar Coulee, a ravine east of the ridgeline, and follows until it merges into the larger Medicine Tail Coulee. Medicine Tail offers a route to the river for his flanking attack on the village.
It is obvious to Custer that his scouts were right: He is in for quite a fight. Custer sends a second message—much more urgent in tone—this time addressed to Benteen, instructing him to hurry forward with his men and the ammunition packs.
John Martin, a bugler and an Italian immigrant, is to relay the order. Come on. Big village. Be quick. Bring packs. Bring Packs. Custer certainly understands that he must support the reeling Reno. In the meantime, to relieve the pressure on Reno, Custer deploys Captain George Yates, an old friend who had fought alongside him in the Civil War, down Medicine Tail to cross the river and enter the village.
Yates is given Companies E and F; according to native testimony, E attempts the crossing near the Northern Cheyenne circle of tents.
At the Medicine Tail ford, an officer wearing a buckskin jacket is shot off his horse. Yates, while failing to cross into the village, succeeds in pulling warriors off Reno. Conventional histories argue that at this point Custer retreats, moving to the northeast, away from the village, and throwing out skirmishers to hold the ridgeline above the river. I now believe that Custer, the ultimate cavalryman, did not retreat to a defensive position. Rather, he constantly remained on the offensive, brushing off the threat on the ridgeline to the east and pressing northwest along the ridge in search of another ford from which to sweep down on the village.
In this theory of the battle, Custer retains three companies and moves north from where Cedar and Medicine Tail Coulees meet on a ridgeline. Shell casings and spent bullets found at both cavalry and Indian positions on the ridge after the fire clearly indicate that he is holding off a group of warriors to his east, perhaps the 50 warriors he had initially pursued.
Then he moves along this ridge, following the high ground, to what is now known as Battle Ridge. If he could capture and hold them as hostages, he might force the warriors to back off and negotiate. This is exactly what he did at the Battle of the Washita River in , where he used more than 50 noncombatant prisoners essentially as human shields to escape the large number of gathering warriors. Numbers are not a problem for the Sioux and Cheyenne warriors who rush to defend these innocents.
Others pressed up Deep Ravine Crazy Horse. He can wait no longer for Benteen if he is to seize these potential hostages before warriors can reinforce the northernmost river ford near the shallow Squaw Creek ravine. Yates, pulling his men back from the ford, moves to link up with his commander, joining him at about atop Battle Ridge at what is now called Calhoun Hill.
Custer orders Captain Myles Keogh, a hard-drinking Irish soldier of fortune, to deploy skirmishers along Battle Ridge to hold off the advancing Sioux and Cheyennes to the south and west. Advancing to the northwest he comes down out of the bluffs and attempts to seize the next northernmost crossing of the Little Bighorn so he might yet capture the Sioux and Cheyenne families hiding in the ravine in and around Squaw Creek.
It is impossible to know the details of this foray. How many troops did he send to the ford? Did Custer himself lead them? His troops and horses arrived tired after the long march. He weakened his forces by dividing them into three - although this was classic US Army tactics. He expected the Sioux warriors to scatter and run. Instead they outmanoeuvred and surrounded him.
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