George Custer: Showdown at Little Bighorn examines the events leading up to the 1876 clash between U.S. Army forces and Native American warriors on the northern plains.
Focusing on George Armstrong Custer, the documentary explores the military decisions, intelligence failures, and cultural tensions that culminated in the Battle of the Little Bighorn—one of the most debated engagements in American history.
Through historical analysis, archival imagery, and expert commentary, the film presents perspectives from both the U.S. Army and the Native American tribes involved, including the Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne. Rather than mythologizing the conflict, the documentary places the battle within the broader context of westward expansion and its consequences.
This presentation is shared for historical and educational purposes only.
#LittleBighorn,#GeorgeCuster,#AmericanHistory,#NativeAmericanHistory,#FrontierWars,#19thCentury,#HistoricalDocumentary,#USArmyHistory,#PlainsWars,#ArchiveFilm,#HistoryFilm,#Education,#ClassicDocumentary,#WesternHistory,#StudioX
#Documentary #RareDocumentary #WarDocumentary #TheCivilWar #VintageDocumentary #ClassicDocumentary #HistoryDocumentary #TrueCrimeDocumentary #ScienceDocumentary #RetroFilm #OldDocumentary #ForgottenFilms #ArchiveFootage #CultDocumentary #HistoricalFootage #DocVault
Focusing on George Armstrong Custer, the documentary explores the military decisions, intelligence failures, and cultural tensions that culminated in the Battle of the Little Bighorn—one of the most debated engagements in American history.
Through historical analysis, archival imagery, and expert commentary, the film presents perspectives from both the U.S. Army and the Native American tribes involved, including the Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne. Rather than mythologizing the conflict, the documentary places the battle within the broader context of westward expansion and its consequences.
This presentation is shared for historical and educational purposes only.
#LittleBighorn,#GeorgeCuster,#AmericanHistory,#NativeAmericanHistory,#FrontierWars,#19thCentury,#HistoricalDocumentary,#USArmyHistory,#PlainsWars,#ArchiveFilm,#HistoryFilm,#Education,#ClassicDocumentary,#WesternHistory,#StudioX
#Documentary #RareDocumentary #WarDocumentary #TheCivilWar #VintageDocumentary #ClassicDocumentary #HistoryDocumentary #TrueCrimeDocumentary #ScienceDocumentary #RetroFilm #OldDocumentary #ForgottenFilms #ArchiveFootage #CultDocumentary #HistoricalFootage #DocVault
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LearningTranscript
00:00On a desolate hillside amidst the rolling prairie of Montana, George Armstrong Custer made his last
00:11stand. Although one of the most successful military leaders in American history, it was
00:17Custer's defeat that made him a legend. His valiant stand in the face of sure death ensured
00:23his immortality and gave the American West its first true hero. Historians now cast a less glorious
00:31picture of George Custer, and he is now more likely referred to as a villain than as an American
00:37martyr. But one point is clear. George Custer was an exceptionally brave and effective combat leader.
00:45During America's bloody civil war, the young cavalry officer drew power from the horrible carnage,
00:51and through his daring on the battlefield, he quickly learned that he could inspire his men,
00:57and soon became the youngest and most admired general in the Union Army.
01:03George Armstrong Custer was literally a household word in the United States. He had performed
01:11brilliantly throughout the war and had made fast friends in high places.
01:18Because of his illustrious status among the American public, the death of Custer and the massacre of
01:26his 7th Cavalry stirred a vengeance that the Plains Indian tribes would forever regret.
01:32The nation was stunned. It produced outrage. It produced disbelief that the greatest Indian fighter of our time,
01:41the boy general of the Civil War, and all those 260 soldiers could have been wiped out by a horde of Indians.
01:51And it produced a demand for revenge and for a final solution to this Indian problem.
01:59And it produced a reaction that brought about that solution.
02:11Oh, could you have but seen some of the charges that were made?
02:21While thinking of them, I cannot but exclaim,
02:25Glorious war.
02:27George Armstrong Custer, 1863
02:30Sunday, June 25th, 1876.
02:45Lieutenant Colonel George Custer once again led his 7th Cavalry in a bold charge across the barren Montana landscape.
02:52Only this time, he was overwhelmed by the warriors of the Sioux and Cheyenne tribes.
03:06The shooting was quick, quick. Pop, pop, pop. Very fast.
03:12Some of the soldiers were down on their knees. Some standing.
03:16The smoke was like a great cloud.
03:17And everywhere the Sioux went, the dust rose like smoke.
03:21We circled all around him, swirling like water around a stone.
03:25We shoot. We ride fast. We shoot again.
03:29Soldiers drop, and horses fall on them.
03:32Chief Tumun, 1876.
03:38We have no battle plans.
03:40When Custer came to the battle, our Indian people were ready then.
03:49It didn't take a bunch of generals in the back to be, to see how many miles it is over here, how to approach this.
03:57They were always ready.
03:59When the smoke of the battlefield lifted, every soldier under Custer's command was lost.
04:04Some 225 men, including Custer's two brothers, his brother-in-law, and his nephew.
04:12News of the Battle of the Little Bighorn came like a thunderstorm out of the West, and it rained on the biggest parade of the century.
04:20In Philadelphia, all of the best and brightest of the United States, including all the top brass of the United States Army,
04:28had gathered for the centennial celebration of the United States of America.
04:32The Republic was 100 years old, but now came the news from the Plains that Custer and the 7th Cavalry had been wiped out by the Sioux in Montana.
04:41Sherman and Sheridan responded as one, it's a lie. It couldn't possibly be true.
04:46But nevertheless, on July 4th, 1876, the news broke.
04:52Indeed, it was true.
04:55Custer was dead.
04:56The 7th Cavalry shattered.
04:59The Sioux were triumphant on the Northern Plains.
05:02An angry nation demanded answers.
05:05How could this possibly happen?
05:07Who was to blame?
05:08Was it due to cowardice on the part of the other U.S. commanders?
05:12Was it the result of Custer's reckless bravery?
05:15Custer was reckless according to the person who was doing the evaluating.
05:19Custer's personality, in fact, is a product more of the person who's looking at him than it is Custer himself,
05:29because who he was depends on who you are.
05:33And if you are inclined to see recklessness in his actions, you will consider him to be reckless.
05:39If you are one of the Custer admirers, you will see in his every decision the marks of a military genius.
05:47Custer's last stand, as it came to be known, was immediately perceived as a great and dramatic event.
05:53But the name's important.
05:54Custer's last stand.
05:56Custer's last battle.
05:57Custer's last charge.
05:58Always it was Custer.
06:00It's the riveting personality of George Armstrong Custer, combined with the high mystery and drama of his great battle
06:07that riveted the attention of America and the world on those events in Montana.
06:16Custer was born in New Rumbly, Ohio, on December 5, 1839.
06:21He had three younger brothers and one sister.
06:23He was known as Audie, his own childhood mispronunciation of Armstrong.
06:28The torn knees of four-year-old Audie's trousers showed early signs of Custer's willingness to jump into the fray.
06:36Custer was simply an Ohio farm boy, reared in a rough-and-tumble farm life,
06:43and he grew up to be a great strapping youth with a tremendous sense of humor,
06:51some would even say a sick sense of humor, that found its outlet in practical joking.
06:58He did not, as a youth, look forward to being a professional soldier.
07:06Much of his youth was spent in Monroe, Michigan, living with his older stepsister, Anne.
07:11One of his primary interests was courting the young women of Monroe.
07:15In 1856, he became a teacher at a one-room schoolhouse near Athens, Ohio.
07:22He applied for admission to West Point when he discovered he could get an education and earn $28 a month as well.
07:48From his very earliest years, he had a great hunger for money, and somebody told him you could make money in the Army.
07:58When Custer went to West Point, he was destined to make a record that subsequent generations would look back on,
08:06both as a model of what to do and a model of what not to do.
08:11In conduct and deportment, he was always on the very verge of being expelled.
08:18Like many college students, George Custer spent four years having a lot of fun and spending very little time looking at his books.
08:27He was a miserable student.
08:29On one occasion, he attempted to break into one of his professor's offices and steal his exam so he would have some hope of passing.
08:37But in all of the expressions of the combat arts, swordsmanship, horsemanship, marksmanship, and so forth, he excelled.
08:48In June of 1861, Custer graduated from West Point, 34th in a class of 34.
08:56He received his commission in the Union Army and anxiously awaited his assignment.
09:00One of his first duties was the rather sedate job of manning observation balloons,
09:07but Custer realized his fate would soon guide him to the heart of the Civil War battlefield.
09:16Dear Sister Anne, it is my duty to take whatever position they assign me.
09:22It is useless to hope this struggle will be bloodless or of short duration.
09:26Much blood will be spilled and thousands of lives at the least lost.
09:32If it is to be my lot to fall in the service of my country and my country's rights, so be it.
09:40George Armstrong Custer, 1861.
09:50By the spring of 1862, Custer's bravery had caught the eye of General George McClellan.
09:55He offered Custer a place on his staff.
09:59Custer was simply a reckless, gallant boy, undeterred by fatigue, unconscious of fear.
10:06But his head was always clear in danger, and he always brought me clear and intelligible reports
10:11of what he saw under the heaviest fire.
10:15General George B. McClellan, 1862.
10:17In 11 short months, Custer had catapulted from the class goat to a prominent position within
10:26the Union's most important command.
10:28But McClellan and President Lincoln were at odds, and in November, McClellan was relieved
10:33of command.
10:34Custer took an extended winter leave back in Monroe.
10:36When Custer went home after McClellan got sacked, he simply had a good time all winter.
10:46He didn't have any assignment.
10:48He frolicked about in the snow with his girlfriends and went to hops and dances and other social
10:55affairs and ate quite well and just had a good time.
10:59He was very good at having a good time.
11:02At a Thanksgiving party, he was introduced to Elizabeth Bacon, Libby to family and friends.
11:08How I watched her every motion.
11:11In that throng of youth and beauty, she reigned supreme.
11:15When she left, Armstrong Custer went home to dream.
11:20George Armstrong Custer, 1862.
11:26Libby expressed little interest in George.
11:29She disliked his philandering dating habits, and besides, her father, Judge Daniel Bacon,
11:35didn't approve of the match.
11:36Eventually, he won Libby's heart.
11:39My dearest Armstrong, I believe you would love me a little if you knew how I say afternoons.
11:45Half past four, let her please arrive.
11:48I count the time till father returns from the post.
11:52Elizabeth Bacon, 1863.
11:59In 1863, Custer joined the staff of General Alfred Pleasanton, a strong advocate of the use of cavalry in battle.
12:06The northern generals really didn't know how to use cavalry.
12:11The southern generals did.
12:12The fact is, Pleasanton needed hard-driving, young, energetic men who weren't afraid to risk their lives and the lives of their men in order to do what cavalry's supposed to do, which is the charge.
12:26On June 16th, near Aldi, Virginia, Custer rallied the faltering troops of Colonel Kilpatrick to victory.
12:37From the crowd rode a young captain wearing a broad plantation straw hat, from under which long, bright curls flowed over his shoulders.
12:48He waved his long blade in the air and pointed to the enemy, then turned his horse and galloped alone toward them.
12:55An electric shock seemed to silence the line.
12:58He looked back and beckoned with his sword.
13:00Come on, boys, he shouted.
13:03Captain Frederick Whitaker, 1863.
13:05Custer's style of leadership was essentially a style of inspiration.
13:13He led the charge.
13:13He was right where his men could always see him.
13:15He was always in the thickest of the fighting, where it was the hottest.
13:19His soldiers often wrote with admiration that they would follow him anywhere.
13:24And who wouldn't follow a general who didn't give orders, but who simply took his position right in the front and led you where he wanted you to go?
13:35On June 28, 1863, Custer was shocked to learn he'd been promoted to brigadier general.
13:42George Armstrong Custer was just 23 years old.
13:45He was assigned to lead the Michigan Cavalry Brigade.
13:48He dubbed them the Wolverines.
13:50On July 3rd, less than one week after he took command, Custer led his troops against the fearsome leader of the Confederate cavalry, Jeb Stuart, at the Battle of Gettysburg.
14:04Custer had just 500 men against an approaching force four times that size.
14:09As usual, Custer himself led the charge, brandishing his saber and yelling,
14:15Come on, you Wolverines!
14:17The inspired troops followed with ferocious intensity.
14:22So sudden and violent was the collision that many of the horses were turned end over end and crushed their riders beneath them.
14:30The clashing of sabers, the firing of pistols, the demands for surrender, and the cries of the combatants filled the air.
14:40Captain William E. Miller, 1863.
14:44Stewart's unit was known as the Invincibles, but on this day, Custer's Wolverines would emerge victorious.
14:50This 23-year-old kid, who's now a general, did have a pretty large ego, and his personal flamboyance, both in action and in appearance, was an expression of that vanity.
15:04But it was a conscious leadership technique, in addition, to make himself as conspicuous as possible.
15:12He designed a special uniform for himself, a black velveteen jacket decorated with yards of gold braid, a blue sailor's shirt, a flaming red scarf, a black broad-brimmed hat, and high-topped boots with golden spurs.
15:27It was like a circus rider gone mad, someone wrote.
15:31But those who at first thought this was just a showman quickly changed their mind, because Custer was a fighter.
15:36His soldiers, they admired him, even worshipped him.
15:39They emulated his dress, and his division began to sport red scarves, so that they could all look like Custer.
15:48That fall, a bullet whipped Custer's boot and injured his leg.
15:52He returned home to recuperate.
15:54Well, this first time he gets to strut around Monroe with that star on his shoulder, this is big business for a 23-year-old kid to be a brigadier general.
16:04So he and Libby really hit it off, and at a dance one night, he sat down on a sofa and said that he wanted to marry her.
16:15The proposal was as much a cavalry charge as any he took in the field.
16:20This vehement, stammery disclosure of years of purpose, I had no breath to protest.
16:27Libby Custer, 1862.
16:30In February of 1864, they were married in the First Presbyterian Church of Monroe,
16:38in what had to be the most glittering social occasion of the year for that little Michigan town.
16:46On their honeymoon, they went to see a play called East Lind, which was a very sad play.
16:51And Libby had a small handkerchief with her, which was maybe two inches square, and the rest was all lace.
16:58And during the play, she was crying quite copiously and had filled the handkerchief and turned to Audie and asked him for his.
17:04And he says, I can't give it to you.
17:06I need it.
17:06And it was completely soaked from his tears.
17:09After their honeymoon, Libby took up residence at the brigade headquarters.
17:16Throughout their marriage, she always stayed as close to him as possible, sometimes even on the front.
17:23Soon, General Pleasanton was transferred, and Custer became fast friends with the new cavalry chief, General Philip Sheridan.
17:32General Custer continued to rack up victory after victory.
17:35At the Battle of Yellow Tavern, one of his wolverines even killed Jeb Stuart himself.
17:42Custer is the ablest man in the Cavalry Corps.
17:45General Philip Sheridan, 1864.
17:49Custer was eventually promoted to major general and chosen to lead the entire 3rd Cavalry Division.
17:55His first action with the new command was the Battle of Tomsbrook against Confederate General Thomas Rosser, a good friend from West Point.
18:02To everyone's amazement, before the battle, Custer rode out between the lines, doffed his hat, and bowed to his adversary.
18:11Rosser smiled, but proclaimed,
18:13That's the General Custer the Yanks are so proud of, and I intend to give him the best whipping today that he ever got.
18:20But again, Custer soundly defeated his enemy.
18:22Finally, in the crowning achievement of his Civil War career, he helped defeat General Lee at Appomattox.
18:30And on April 9th, 1865, he received the flag of surrender from the Confederate forces.
18:37The only good Indians I ever saw were dead, General Philip Sheridan, 1868.
18:52By the age of 25, George Armstrong Custer had gained more fame and honor than most soldiers could hope to earn in a lifetime.
19:01Custer spent the remainder of his years trying to recapture the glory of the Civil War years.
19:06His promotion to general was actually a brevet rank, an honorary distinction.
19:11His official rank was still captain.
19:14After the war, he received a fine promotion to lieutenant colonel.
19:17But for a man of Custer's pride, that was a long way from general.
19:22It's tough when you're a 25-year-old major general and the shooting stops.
19:27War had helped define who George Armstrong Custer was.
19:30It had made him into a national figure.
19:32And without it, he lost that power to inspire others, to impress people.
19:39He didn't know if he even wanted to remain in the Army.
19:42But he decided to stay in the Army.
19:44And through the intervention of Phil Sheridan and other friends, he managed to get a lieutenant colonel seat in the new 7th Cavalry,
19:51a unit that was viewed by everyone in the Army as an elite cavalry unit.
19:56The mission of the 7th Cavalry was to protect the settlers and miners on their journey west.
20:01In the fall of 1866, Fort Riley, Kansas, became their headquarters.
20:05In the Civil War, Custer had learned how flamboyant dress could impress others and inspire his men.
20:13Well, on the planes, he immediately adopted the fringed buckskin of the frontiersmen.
20:19And so off comes the black velveteen uniform, and now comes the fringed buckskin jacket,
20:25the fringed pants, the broad white sombrero, but still the red scarf.
20:29Older officers, like Captain Frederick Benteen, hated Custer for his youthful success and large ego.
20:38During the Civil War, all of those red ties who followed him worshipped him.
20:43And it came as a tremendous jolt to him to discover that on the frontier, the regulars didn't worship him.
20:50And the reason they didn't was that there were very few battles in which he could provide the kind of combat leadership that inspires men.
20:58Custer was a strict disciplinarian.
21:01His men hated him.
21:03Custer demanded of others what he wouldn't give himself.
21:06He constantly disobeyed orders.
21:08He constantly flaunted regulations.
21:11But for everyone below him, they had to obey the strict letter of the army regulations.
21:17In December 1866, Chief Red Cloud Sioux wiped out Captain George Fetterman's troops on the Northern Plains.
21:28General Sherman and General Hancock feared the Southern Indians might be inspired to attack.
21:33In March of 1867, Hancock dispatched Custer to find the Cheyenne.
21:38Custer chased those Cheyennes all over northern and western Kansas without ever really catching up with them.
21:48And Indians were not Jeb Stewart's cavalry.
21:51They didn't stand up and fight like Jeb Stewart.
21:54You could chase them all over those plains, and if they didn't want to be seen, you would never see them.
21:59And if you did fight them, it was because they had caught you at a disadvantage.
22:05So that was his real baptism in Indian warfare, and he made a real botch of it.
22:11At the same time, he was acutely unhappy at being separated from Libby.
22:17My darling, you remember how eager I was to have you for my little wife.
22:25I was not as impatient then as now.
22:28I almost feel tempted to desert and fly to you.
22:32George Armstrong Custer, 1867.
22:37In July, he left his command to visit her.
22:40As his escort, he took a group of 76 men and led them on a forced march 150 miles in 55 hours.
22:49Custer was arrested, and court-martial proceedings began for this action,
22:53as well as charges of shooting deserters without a trial.
22:57The court found him guilty on all charges and sentenced him to be placed on leave of absence without pay for a whole year.
23:07And he cools his heels back in Michigan.
23:11But the Plains War doesn't go well without him.
23:13Hancock is replaced and sent to reconstruction duty.
23:16Sheridan comes out to command on the southern plains.
23:19Sheridan wants Custer back.
23:21In the fall of 1868, he requested Custer's return to command.
23:25Sheridan needed a bold leader to carry out his policy.
23:29His plan was to drive the Indians from their winter camps and destroy their horses and food supply.
23:34In late November, Custer and 800 horsemen attacked Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle's camp on the Washita River in Oklahoma.
23:45The sleeping Indians were overwhelmed, and Custer took the village in 10 minutes.
23:51It was the Washita and the surprise achieved there that laid the foundation for his reputation as an Indian fighter.
23:58It also laid the foundation for a great schism in the 7th Cavalry, because in his haste to pull away from the battlefield,
24:09he thought it necessary to forego a search for Major Elliott and a detail of 19 men who had not been accounted for.
24:19That Custer pulled out without ascertaining Elliott's fate, opened up divisions in the regiment that left it a highly factionalized officer corps to the very last day of Custer's life.
24:34The white man had made a treaty with Red Cloud that said the black hills would be ours as long as the grass should grow and the water flow.
24:50Later, I learned that the long hair had found there much of the yellow metal that makes the white man crazy,
24:56and that is what made the band trouble.
25:00Black Elk, 1874
25:02West of Fort Abraham Lincoln were the Black Hills.
25:09Rumors were rampant of gold in these mountains.
25:14General Sheridan wanted to establish a fort in this area to keep a watchful eye on the Sioux.
25:19In the summer of 1874, he dispatched Custer and the 7th Cavalry to explore the region.
25:25Officially, the mission was to scout for a suitable location for a fort,
25:29but the party included two practical miners as well.
25:32Gold to the grass roots was the report that was sent out of the Black Hills,
25:53and that set off a tremendous boom all around the country.
25:58But gold miners and the Black Hills were clearly, explicitly a violation of the Treaty of 1868
26:06because those hills were part of the Great Sioux Reservation.
26:10And so some way had to be found to buy the hills from the Indians so that it was no longer part of the reservation.
26:18The Sioux called Custer's Trail Thieves' Row and angrily declined any government offers to purchase the territory.
26:25The great chief of the non-treaty Indians was Sitting Bull, a brave warrior who had become their spiritual and political leader.
26:32An ultimatum was sent out that Sitting Bull and all of his non-reservation people,
26:38who were perceived by the government as being responsible for the Sioux's refusal to sell the Black Hills to the United States,
26:45that all of those people had to come in.
26:47Report at the agency by January 31st, 1876,
26:51or be considered hostile, and the army will come after you.
26:56Indians did not have any real sense of time as we measured time.
27:01An ultimatum, January 31st, 1876, would have been almost meaningless in their culture.
27:07So they had no sense that they were about to be the objects of a declaration of war.
27:15Now the government knew that the Indians would not obey this ultimatum.
27:18In fact, they probably never even got it.
27:21But once, of course, they had not obeyed it.
27:24Then the army was sent in.
27:27All of the bureaucratic niceties had been taken care of,
27:30and there was now a legal justification for the movement of troops into the Sioux country
27:35and the final suppression of Sitting Bull and the non-reservation bans.
27:41The Indians' exact location was a mystery.
27:44General Sheridan devised a plan that called for three columns to converge,
27:47trapping the Indians in the middle.
27:50Three great columns would move into the Sioux country in the Yellowstone basin.
27:54From the west came General Gibbon.
27:58From the south would come General Crook.
28:01From the east would come General Terry,
28:04with Custer leading his strike force, the 7th Cavalry.
28:07The fear in the campaign of 1876 was that the Indians would get away,
28:11that the Indians would escape.
28:12Everyone was obsessed with this idea from Sheridan on down,
28:17and none more so than Custer.
28:26Early in June, Sitting Bull conducted a Sundance,
28:29an annual ceremony of spiritual renewal.
28:32He received a prophetic vision.
28:33During that Sundance, Sitting Bull had 50 pieces of flesh cut away from each of his arms.
28:43He sacrificed his flesh and his blood.
28:46He sacrificed of himself.
28:49And what he received in exchange for that sacrifice was a vision.
28:54He saw soldiers falling out of the sky like grasshoppers.
28:59They were falling headfirst into the Lakota village.
29:03He heard the words,
29:05I give you these for they have no ears.
29:07And Sitting Bull told the people that this was a sign
29:10that there was going to be a battle between the Lakota and the soldiers
29:16where the Lakota would be the winners, the victors.
29:20On June 17th, General Cook's column stopped for morning coffee on Upper Rosebud Creek.
29:29Suddenly, they were attacked by hundreds of Sioux and Cheyenne warriors.
29:32Crook was badly beaten and forced to retreat to camp.
29:36Word of his defeat and that large Indian force was never relayed to the other columns.
29:41The Indian Bureau assured the army that no more than 500 to 800 warriors
29:47roamed the entire unseated territory, a fairly accurate estimate for the winter camps.
29:52But in the spring, many reservation Indians would join Sitting Bull's band.
29:59Within a week or so prior to the Battle of Little Bighorn,
30:04many more of these reservation Indians were pouring into Sitting Bull's camps.
30:11This number swelled to probably 1,500 to perhaps as many as 2,000 warriors by June 25th.
30:20Seven to 8,000 individuals altogether.
30:26Custer's force numbered some 600 soldiers and 35 Indian scouts.
30:31Scouts had reported that there was a great Indian encampment near the Little Bighorn.
30:36The trails all led that way.
30:38General Terry sent Custer toward the south, toward the Bighorn Mountains.
30:43The fear, of course, again, was that the Indians would escape to the south,
30:47into the mountains and scatter.
30:49Custer would circle around and come up from the south.
30:52Terry and Gibbon would move down from the north with the infantry.
30:55But Custer, of course, didn't scout as far south as he was ordered to do.
31:00He followed a hot Indian trail straight toward the Little Bighorn Valley.
31:05The morning of the 24th, Custer came upon the site of Sitting Bull's Sundance.
31:09The Indian scouts sensed powerful medicine and grew nervous.
31:13They were hesitant to move forward because they already knew how large the encampment was.
31:20And they kept telling Custer that there was too many and for them to wait for the other soldiers to come in.
31:27But he kept moving his soldiers forward.
31:30In fact, he kept moving them throughout the night.
31:34On the morning of the 25th, at the Crow's Nest lookout just 15 miles away, the Indian scouts spotted the village.
31:42Custer had hoped to rest his weary troops on the 25th and scout the village.
31:46The plan was to attack on the 26th, the appointed date to join with Gibbon's column.
31:52Now came a report that a Sioux party had discovered the regiment.
31:57Custer decided he had to attack on the 25th.
32:00He couldn't wait for Terry because the Indians would escape.
32:04The Indians would get away.
32:06Quickly, he mounted the regiment and they rode toward the Little Bighorn.
32:10He didn't know what was up ahead.
32:13He had no idea of the size of his enemy.
32:15He had no idea even of their exact location.
32:19Custer divided his troops into three battalions.
32:22125 men with Captain Benteen and 140 with Major Marcus Reno.
32:27225 remained with Custer.
32:31Captain Benteen was ordered to scout the bluffs to the south.
32:34Custer continued north toward the lower end of the village,
32:37while Reno was ordered to cross the river and attack.
32:43It is a good day to fight.
32:45It is a good day to die.
32:47Strong hearts.
32:49Brave hearts to the front.
32:51Weak hearts and cowards to the rear.
32:53Crazy Horse.
32:54The Battle of the Little Bighorn was related to me by my father.
33:05I was approximately about 10 or 11 years old at the time.
33:11The first thing he recalled was there was a commotion outside.
33:16A lot of horse hoofs pounding.
33:19And pretty soon he heard shouting that the soldiers were coming.
33:24Curiosity took the better part of him and he ran out of a teepee.
33:28And the thing that stamped indelibly in his mind's eye was a long line of horsemen coming along in the ridge.
33:36He heard the gunfire and the sound of the bullets whooping by his face and his ears, which are like angry bees, he said.
33:52And he ran as fast as he could and headed for a brother.
33:56The Indians were surprised but poured out towards Reno.
34:02Reno's a bad choice.
34:04He's weak.
34:05He's timid.
34:05He's indecisive.
34:07His charge toward the village quickly sputters out.
34:12He doesn't ride into the village like he's ordered to do.
34:14The village is too vast.
34:16Nervously he dismounts his men and there they sputter away at the Indian encampment.
34:43Where's Custer?
34:43He keeps looking around.
34:45Where's Custer?
34:46Bloody Knife, Custer's favorite scout, is at his side.
34:49Suddenly Bloody Knife's head explodes in blood and brains.
34:55They go all over Reno's face.
34:58Reno mounts his horse, yells charge, and leads a bloody retreat.
35:04Route is what it was.
35:06And the Indians, who describe it as a buffalo hunt, shoot them down from their horses.
35:12Many are killed trying to get across the river.
35:13I met a soldier on horseback, and I let him have it.
35:19The arrow went right through from side to side under his ribs and stuck out on both sides.
35:24I was mad because I was mad because I was thinking of the women and little children running down there all scared and out of breath.
35:31Reno, with 50% casualties, finally digs in on the bluffs above the little bighorn and waits for help.
35:49This freed all of the Indians who had been holding against Reno, they were all released by Reno's retreat at the very time that Custer was advancing from the other end.
36:04So they were all freed to return and concentrate now on Custer.
36:09One of the scouts by the name of Goes Ahead had taken off his military shirt or whatever he was wearing
36:22and stripped down to his bridge cloth, and wore shirt that he brought along.
36:30By that time, the general came, and our interpreter, Mr. Mitch Boyer, was there and said,
36:36What are they doing?
36:38He said, Tell him that he himself, all his soldiers, all of us are going to get killed today.
36:46And we are going to the happy hunting grounds as Indians, so we're taking off our white man's clothes and wearing our native clothes.
36:57Custer told his crow scouts they need not follow him into battle.
37:01Custer, after leaving Reno, moved along the bluffs above the little bighorn river.
37:08Finally, at a high point now called Weir Point, he could see the great village below him.
37:14He was delighted.
37:16It was the biggest Indian village he'd ever seen.
37:20But maybe he had an inner warning, because he immediately scribbles a note to Benteen.
37:26Bring up the pack train, he says.
37:29Benteen, be quick.
37:30Bring packs.
37:31He needs the ammunition.
37:32He needs more men.
37:33Off he sends the message with his orderly of the day, trumpeter John Martin.
37:39Giovanni Martini, a young recent recruit who could barely speak English.
37:44Custer moves on toward the little bighorn.
37:49He needs to find a place to cross the river.
37:51But he doesn't want to attack the encampment until Benteen comes up.
37:55When Martini reaches Benteen, he can't express himself.
38:00Benteen wants to know what's going on.
38:01Martini can only say, Indians, they skedaddling.
38:04Well, Benteen thinks that Custer's winning a big victory.
38:08He can't seem to speed up his column.
38:12They finally begin to move a little quicker after Martini's message.
38:16But still, Benteen comes way too slow.
38:19He hates Custer.
38:22He's got a bad attitude.
38:25He's derelict in his duty.
38:28Benteen doddled on the trail, ultimately joined with Reno,
38:32and never made more than a half-hearted attempt to join Custer.
38:37You can speculate whether he would have been wiped out too or would have saved the day.
38:43Who knows?
38:46My father said one of his uncles rode down to the creek bottom
38:51and caught him over and grabbed him by the arm
38:57and jerked him up behind him on his horse
39:02and said, come, my little brother.
39:06He said, this day you will become a man.
39:09He was going to take him to the battlefield.
39:12But my grandmother cried and carried on,
39:16and so he didn't take him.
39:19The Indians were led by great warriors like Two Moon, Gal,
39:23and the legendary Crazy Horse.
39:25It is believed that Sitting Bull, no longer a young man,
39:28remained in the village as the inspirational leader.
39:32Probably one of his greatest contributions that he ever made
39:35in that battle was that we already knew we were going to win.
39:40In his vision, he already foretold that what was going to happen,
39:46and all they had to do was just carry it up.
39:51Custer wasn't a man to ever retreat,
39:53and so instead of heading back the way he had come,
39:57he, of course, advances up the ridge.
39:59When Custer reached what we now know as Medicine Tail Cooley,
40:03which is that broad couley that gave him a ford across the river
40:09to attack the center of the Indian village,
40:11he had sent two companies to the mouth of the couley
40:15as kind of a holding action,
40:17and these Indians had driven them back.
40:20So Custer's immediate command is now in two components.
40:25Now the Indians are starting to pour across Medicine Tail Cooley,
40:29hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of them.
40:32Custer's 212 men are stretched dangerously thin
40:35as he begins to throw out skirmish lines
40:37across what we now call Calhoun Hill.
40:40He retreats to a high point of ground
40:42and establishes his command post.
40:44Gall led the frontal assault against Custer
40:47while Crazy Horse and Two Moon attacked from the flank and rear.
40:52There were about 100 men with him at this time.
40:55They shot their horses, used them as barricades,
40:58and they formed that circle so dear to the hearts of the movie makers
41:02that came to be known in our folklore as Custer's last stand.
41:06The Indians are moving up the gullies.
41:10They're not exposing themselves.
41:11They're not foolish enough to ride their horses
41:13around the soldiers in Hollywood fashion.
41:17There probably was not, at least until the very last,
41:20any grand rush of Indians over them.
41:23They didn't have to.
41:24They simply took positions in the high grass and the broken ground
41:28and fired on them and loosed great clouds of arrows
41:32to come down from above, and it was all over very quickly.
41:39One by one, Custer's men are killed or wounded.
41:42A small group made a break for the river, but they were cut down.
41:47And then there was a rush, and Custer's last stand is over.
41:53Probably the whole battle, from the time first Custer was engaged
41:58until the last man was killed, did not consume an entire hour.
42:07For the remainder of June 25th and throughout the 26th,
42:10Reno and Benteen maintained their defenses
42:12until the sniping Indians left.
42:16Finally, on the morning of the 27th,
42:18the Terry Gibbon column arrived.
42:20In addition to the more than 200 men who perished with Custer,
42:2647 more were killed with Reno and Benteen,
42:29and another 52 wounded.
42:31The Indians lost less than 100.
42:34The next day, the survivors began the grisly task
42:37of burying their fallen comrades.
42:39Most of the bodies were stripped naked, scalped, and mutilated.
42:43Often, the Indians would mutilate bodies as a form of revenge.
42:46They believed you would go to your next life
42:49in whatever condition you left this one.
42:51Custer's body bore two wounds,
42:54one in the left breast, right above the heart,
42:57and one in the left temple.
43:01There were probably a few other marks that,
43:04for delicacy's sake, were left out of the official record.
43:08His body was stripped, but otherwise unmutilated.
43:14Afterwards, the controversy raged.
43:17Who was at fault?
43:19A lot of the controversy centered on Custer.
43:22It's funny that we have to blame someone.
43:24We can't say that the Army lost that fight
43:27because the Indians won.
43:29A lot of the Dky.
43:32A lot of Dётistic players in the land
43:34are coming to the section of Custer.
43:35Who had killed Custer?
43:35A lot of the disorderly in the text of Custer.
43:37The Navy lost.
43:40A lot of their followers are coming to Kim.
43:42They took a few other times.
43:43They took a few letters to Custer.
43:44They took a few letters.
43:46They took a few letters to download cases.
43:47So I had it.
43:49It was a freshman and a lot of juice that说
43:51they took a few other parties'
43:56but now it was worth the количе loading approach
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