Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument

PREFACE ABOUT THIS BOOK AND AUTHOR'S BIOGRAPHY the long tragic history of indian warfare in the american west reached its climax with the defeat of lieutenant-colonel george armstrong custer and his seventh cavalry in montana's valley of the little bighorn river on june twenty five eighteen seventy six although the indians won the battle they subsequently lost the war against the white man's efforts to end their independent way of life the story of the battle and its consequences is told in the following pages by robert m utley in a compelling narrative of an event that has excited the imagination and provoked controversy ever since it happened about the author Robert M. Utley is a former chief historian and assistant director of the National Park Service.

He began his career in the service at Custer Battlefield National Monument, where he served as historian from 1947 to 1952.

He is the author of numerous books and articles on military and Indian topics, including a two-volume history of the U.S. Army and the Indian.

frontiersman in blue and frontier regulars his most recent book is the indian frontier of the american west eighteen forty six to eighteen ninety now retired from the national park service he devotes full time to writing history end of preface and author's biography Part One of Custer Battlefield by Robert M. Utley.

For historians, the record of the Reno Court of Inquiry is invaluable.

ironically though this mountain of first-hand evidence has brought students no closer to definitive answers than it did the judges who first pondered it more than a century ago sidebar the faces on the barroom wall no faces in american history have inspired greater boozy contemplation than those of the adams becker rendering below of the men who struggled atop Custer Hill on June 25, 1876.

Cassilly Adams painted the original in 1886. a huge stilted undramatic composition intended as a traveling exhibition but it remained for otto becker recreating the canvas in eighteen ninety six for a lithograph by the anhauser busch brewing company to beget the version shown here that adorned the saloon walls of the nation for a generation ultimately a million copies of the becker print rolled off the presses prompting one authority to speculate that it had been viewed by more lowbrows and fewer art critics than any other picture in american history the adams becker painting is by all odds the most known but hardly the only one and assuredly not the most fanciful in the late nineteen sixties the staff of the ammon carter museum in fort worth attempted to catalogue the many pictures of the custer fight each of the more than nine hundred versions identified is of course the product of the artist's imagination in a situation where imagination may properly replace truth no witness survived to contest the artist it is curious that almost every artist to the present time has been absorbed in the reality of the event and has neglected the human overtones the sullen quiet of the indian betrayed the sudden surprise and totality of death on the vast plains the frustration of the hindsight judgments the responsibilities and loyalties obliterated in the aftermath there were no victors that day just survivors each aware that a day of reckoning had passed and another would soon be upon them as in any disaster many people learned much but too late custer battlefield to-day of custer battlefield by robert m part three custer battlefield to-day from battlefield to national monument almost overnight the site of the battle of the little bighorn became a national shrine and tourist attraction its care fell to the army which in eighteen seventy seven built fort custer fifteen miles to the north a year after the battle captain keel's old company eye of the seventh cavalry now reconstituted returned to comb the battlefield and exhume the bodies of custer and eleven other officers and two civilians for reinterment elsewhere in accordance with custer's wishes his widow had his remains reburied at the united states military academy at west point new york in eighteen seventy nine custer battlefield was designated a national cemetery and the fort custer troopers worked to make it more presentable on top of custer hill they erected a log memorial they remounted the scattered graves and marked each with a substantial wooden stake in eighteen eighty one an imposing granite monument bearing the names of all the slain arrived at the fort custer landing and soon replaced the log memorial on custer hill at the same time the remains of the fallen troopers were exhumed from their individual graves and reinterred in a common grave around the base of the monument in eighteen ninety white marble headstones replaced the wooden stakes marking the original graves and thus formed a rough guide to where the soldiers had been killed as indian warfare subsided the army began to abandon its frontier forts custer battlefield national cemetery offered a convenient place to move the bodies buried in the various post cemeteries gradually the dead from other indian battles took their place in the national cemetery at the foot of custer hill they serve as reminders of the whole sweep of military history on the northern great plains the first battlefield superintendent arrived in eighteen ninety three for almost fifty years afterward a succession of war department officials cared for the area many were retired soldiers some veterans of the sioux campaign of eighteen seventy six their personal knowledge of the battle served them well in dealing with the growing number of visitors people came the custodians discovered not so much to visit the national cemetery as to see the scene of custer's last stand many were avid relic hunters and curiosity seekers and often carried off mementos ranging from cartridge cases to human bones and above all fragments of the marble headstones in nineteen forty stewardship passed from the war department to the national park service of the department of the interior reflecting the changed emphasis on historic site rather than active cemetery custer battlefield national cemetery was renamed custer battlefield national monument in nineteen forty six preserving and interpreting the battlefield now became the principal mission interpretation underwent changes too originally established to pay homage to the fallen soldiers and white civilians the battlefield came gradually to stand for the indian side of the story as well and interpretation expanded to fill the void today custer battlefield fittingly commemorates not only the westward advance of the american frontier but also the last phases of the indian struggle to retain their lands and way of life modern indians some descendants of those who fought custer and others of indian scouts who served custer share with white interpreters the task of explaining the battle of the little bighorn to the hundreds of thousands of visitors who come each year the following guide highlights the principal battlefield features side bar visitor center the exhibits and interpretative programs here will help you understand the battle and the ground on which it was fought the museum features numerous military and indian artifacts artwork dioramas and audio-visual programs dealing with the sioux war of eighteen seventy six the battle and the lives of soldiers and indians the visitor center is also depository for significant collections of documents and memorabilia including the elizabeth b custer collection of more than five thousand letters and other papers the battle is best understood by beginning the battlefield tour at the reno-benteen battlefield four and a half miles from the visitor center wayside exhibits will then be in sequence on the return trip this guide is arranged in the same order consult the map on page ninety five for orientation among the park's indian artifacts are a pair of beaded moccasins that purportedly belonged to sitting bull and a sioux war bonnet the park's seventh cavalry collection includes the uniform coat of sergeant william williams a private in company h at the time of the battle a buckskin jacket owned by lieutenant colonel george a custer lieutenant w w cook's dress helmet one of captain thomas custer's regimental shoulder knots and lieutenant-colonel custer's commission sidebar archeology on the battlefield nineteen eighty four and nineteen eighty five in august nineteen eighty three a prairie fire swept over custer battlefield consuming nearly six hundred acres of the six hundred and forty acre site with the battlefield stripped of vegetation the national park service saw an opportunity to initiate archeological investigation hoping the barren hills and ravines would reveal some of the battle closely guarded secrets for five weeks in the spring of nineteen eighty four and again in nineteen eighty five a team of archeologists and volunteers combed the park nearly five thousand artifacts were recovered yielding primarily expended cartridges like those shown at right fired by soldier or brave during the battle and aiding in site identification of indian positions excavations around marble markers placed on the field in eighteen ninety to show where soldiers had been originally interred they were exhumed in eighteen eighty one and placed in a mass grave at the top of custer hill produced a scattering of human bones missed in previous reburial efforts more importantly the excavations substantiated the historical record that the markers are reasonably accurate in approximating where soldiers had been buried readers note the rest of this text has been obscured by an illustration side wolf mountain and crow's nest standing at the monument on the reno benteen battlefield face to the southeast or your left the mountains on the skyline are the wolf mountains or shadish as the crow indians called them they divide the drainages of the rosebud and little bighorn valleys to your left near a low saddle in the northern end of the mountains is a promontory the crows called the crow's nest before sunrise on june twenty five eighteen seventy six custer's crow and araucara scouts ranging in advance of the seventh cavalry climbed this lookout from here they sighted the indian encampment in the little bighorn valley fifteen miles distant side bar reno creek and lone tepee site custer's approach to the little bighorn lay down the narrow valley of a stream then known as sundance or ash creek but later renamed reno creek in honor of major reno the creek rises in the low pass through the northern end of the wolf mountains mentioned above a thread of timber marking the lower part is visible from the reno benteen battlefield along this stretch of the stream at a site never conclusively identified stood the lone tepee left standing when the sioux moved a week earlier this tepee contained the body of a warrior killed at the battle of the rosebud at this point scouts reported in the meat warriors to the front and custer ordered major reno in pursuit sidebar reno's valley fight looking west and slightly to the right from the reno benteen monument one sees the garrytown post office at a point on the highway and railroad where a timbered bend of the little bighorn river sweeps almost across the valley immediately to the right or north of this point lay the upper end of the sioux and cheyenne indian village after crossing the river at the mouth of reno creek reno and his command advanced down the valley this far opposed here by several hundred mounted warriors he dismounted his troopers in a thin skirmish line quickly outflanked he withdrew them to the timber on his right this too proved untenable and he led his men in retreat across the open valley in the foreground toward the bluffs where the monument is located sidebar reno retreat crossing repeated assaults on both flanks and rear of reno's retreating column made crossing the little bighorn river difficult and dangerous recalled lieutenant luther r hare the crossing was not covered and no effort was made to hold the indians back if the indians had followed us in force to the hilltop they would have got us all sidebar reno-benteen battlefield after retreating from the valley to the bluffs reno and his shattered command took positions in the vicinity of the present reno-benteen monument here reno was shortly joined by captain benteen and his battalion and soon afterward by captain mcdougall and the pack train after wiping out custer four miles to the north the sioux and cheyenne warriors laid siege to reno at this site the command about four hundred strong entrenched in a rough circle around the saucer-like depression just south of the monument in this sheltered swale dr porter established the hospital beginning at the monument intrenchment trail provides an interpretive tour of reno's defensive position sidebar sharpshooters ridge from the reno benteen parking area proceed point four mile back along the tour road to your right parallel to the road and two hundred yards distant is a long ridge that took its name from an unusually skilled indian marksman recalled first sergeant john ryan there was a high ridge on the right and one indian in particular i must give credit for being a good shot while we were lying in the line he fired a shot and killed the fourth man on my right soon afterward he fired again and shot the third man his third shot wounded the man on my right who jumped back from the line and down among the rest of the wounded i thought my turn was coming next i jumped up with captain french and some half a dozen members of my company and instead of firing straight to the front as we had been doing we wheeled to our right and put in a deadly volley and i think we put an end to that indian as there were no more men killed at that particular spot sidebar weir point a drive of one point two miles on the road back toward custer battlefield leads to a high peak through which the road has been cut named for captain thomas b weir this marks the limit of advance by elements of major reno's command in the effort to open communications with custer a brisk skirmish occurred here with hundreds of warriors returning from the custer battlefield and reno's men were ordered to withdraw to the bluff top positions where the monument now stands indian village approaching weir point and descending its north face the tour road affords good views of the little bighorn valley to the west this was the site of the indian village custer first glimpsed it from the bluffs near where reno and benteen later fought approximately three miles long the village covered much of the valley west of the river from present gary owen post office to a point almost opposite battle ridge side bar medicine tail coulee from weir point the tour road drops one point six miles to the crossing of medicine tail coulee to the west about three hundred yards the coulee empties into the little bighorn river descending medicine tail coulee part of custer's command encountered indians at its mouth and after an exchange of fire and possibly some casualties retreated to the north and east to battle ridge side bar nye cartwright ridge named for two students of the battle who discovered firing positions marked by expended cartridge cases nye cartwright ridge lies one half mile east of the marker denoting where sergeant james butler was found the ridge forms part of the divide between medicine tail and deep coulis a battalion of custer's force fought dismounted defensive actions on this ridge before moving on to battle ridge How the troopers got here is one of the battle's imponderables.

Some believe they may have become separated from the rest of the command as a result of Indian gunfire in Medicine Tail Coulee.

And she drove out, and she investigated the monument, and she earned the trust of the Cheyenne tribe, and they allowed her to take a look inside it.

So she actually got inside the monument, saw the artifacts and the treasure map? [upbeat music]I'm in Montana investigating a lead that when Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer was killed, he left a treasure behind, a possible mix of soldiers' pay and valuables from the Little Bighorn Battlefield.

I also learned that a burial monument was built for a Cheyenne chief named Two Moon by his friend W.P. Moncure.

It was vandalized several years ago, and I couldn't get access to it.

Uh, the site of the battle where so many people were killed, so many people were killed, but it's, it's...

If you're there, there's a monument called the Little Bighorn Monument that is, I mean, I hate to say it, but it's remarkably unremarkable.

It's just, like, this, this monolith, this big rock monolith, and just open field.

And have you ever been to M- to Montana by any chance? No? Have you not been to Mont-