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Battle of the Little Bighorn

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Pre 1900 Military

   Battle of the Little Bighorn
   Part of the Black Hills War
   Custer Massacre at Big Horn, Montana —
   June 25, 1876, artist unknown

     Date   June 25 – June 26, 1876
   Location Near the Little Bighorn River, Big Horn County, Montana
    Result  Native American victory
   Combatants
   Lakota,
   Northern Cheyenne,
   Arapaho United States
   Commanders
   Sitting Bull,
   Crazy Horse George Armstrong Custer †
   Strength
   949 lodges (probably 950-1200 warriors) 31 officers,
   566 troopers,
   15 civilians,
   ~35-40 scouts
   Casualties
   ~200 killed (according to Yellow Horse, Red Horse and Little Buck Elk
   and latest NPS researchs) ~268 killed (16 officers, 242 troopers, ~10
   civilians/scouts),
   ~55 wounded
                                   Black Hills War
   Powder River – Rosebud – Little Bighorn – Warbonnet Creek – Slim Buttes
   – Cedar Creek – Dull Knife Fight – Wolf Mountain

   The Battle of the Little Bighorn — which is also called Custer's last
   stand and Custer Massacre and, in the parlance of the relevant Native
   Americans, the Battle of the Greasy Grass — was an armed engagement
   between a Lakota- Northern Cheyenne combined force and the 7th Cavalry
   of the United States Army. It occurred June 25– June 26, 1876, near the
   Little Bighorn River in the eastern Montana Territory.

   The battle was the most famous incident in the Indian Wars and was a
   remarkable victory for the Lakota and Northern Cheyenne. A U.S. cavalry
   detachment commanded by Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer was
   annihilated.

Prelude to battle

Background

   Forces from the Army were sent to attack the Native Americans based on
   Indian Inspector E.C. Watkins' report (issued on November 9, 1875) that
   claimed that hundreds of Lakota and Northern Cheyenne associated with
   Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse were hostile to the United States.

   Thousands of Indians had indeed slipped away from their reservations
   through early 1876. Military officials planned a three-pronged
   expedition to corral them and force them back to the reservations,
   using both infantry and cavalry, as well as small detachments of
   artillery, including Gatling guns. Brig. Gen. George Crook's column
   moved north from Fort Fetterman in the Wyoming Territory toward the
   Powder River area. Col. John Gibbon's column marched east from Fort
   Ellis in western Montana Territory. The third column under Brig. Gen.
   Alfred Terry, including George Custer's 7th Cavalry, departed westward
   from Fort Abraham Lincoln in the Dakota Territory. However, on June 17,
   Crook's column was defeated at the Battle of the Rosebud and forced to
   stop and regroup. Gibbon and Terry proceeded, joining forces in late
   June near the mouth of the Rosebud River. Terry and Gibbon formulated a
   plan that called for Custer's regiment to proceed up the Rosebud River,
   while Terry and Gibbon's united columns would proceed up the Big Horn
   and Little Big Horn rivers. The officers hoped to trap the Indian
   village between the two forces.

   Custer's force arrived at an overlook 14 miles (23 km) east of the
   Little Bighorn River in what is now the state of Montana, on the night
   of June 24, as the Terry/Gibbon column was marching toward the mouth of
   the Little Big Horn.
   Localisation of Little Bighorn in United States
   Enlarge
   Localisation of Little Bighorn in United States

7th Cavalry deployment

   The 7th had previously served four-and-a-half years at Ft. Riley,
   Kansas, during which time it fought one major engagement and numerous
   skirmishes, experiencing casualties of 36 killed and 27 wounded. 6
   other troopers had died of drowning and 51 from cholera epidemics.

   Fully half of the 7th Cavalry had just returned from eighteen months of
   constabulary duty in the deep South, having been recalled to Fort
   Abraham Lincoln to reassemble the regiment for the campaign.
   Approximately 20% of the troopers had been enlisted in the prior seven
   months (139 of an enlisted roll of 718), were only marginally trained,
   and had no combat or frontier experience. A sizable number of these
   recruits were immigrants from Ireland, England, and Prussia, as had
   been many of the veteran troopers prior to their enlistments. Several
   men were veterans of the American Civil War, including many of the
   leading officers.

   Of the 44 officers and 718 troopers then assigned to the 7th Cavalry
   (including a second lieutenant detached from the 20th Infantry and
   serving in L Troop), 13 officers (including the regimental commander,
   Col. Samuel D. Sturgis, who was on detached duty) and 152 troopers did
   not accompany the 7th during the campaign. Among those left behind at
   Fort Abraham Lincoln were the regimental band.

   After discovering a large trail on June 15, the 7th Cavalry split from
   the remainder of the Terry column on June 22 and began a pursuit along
   the trail. Following a night forced march on June 24– 25, in which Crow
   Indian scouts reported to Custer the presence of what was judged a very
   large encampment of Indians, Custer divided the 7th Cavalry into four
   detachments.

   The largest detachment consisted of Troops C, E, F, I, and L,
   personally led by Custer. It numbered 13 officers, 198 men (7 of whom
   would eventually be detached before the "last stand") and three
   civilians—a newspaper reporter, and two scouts. Two of Custer's
   relatives would later join the column. Troop C was commanded by
   Custer's brother, Capt. Thomas Custer, and L Company by his
   brother-in-law, 1st Lt. James Calhoun. This detachment marched along a
   ridge line on the east bank of the Little Big Horn in an attempt to
   enter the encampment from the north.

   A second detachment, led by Maj. Marcus Reno, was sent into the Little
   Big Horn valley to provoke an engagement. This detachment consisted of
   Troops A, G, and M, and numbered 11 officers, 131 troopers, and most of
   the approximately 35 Sioux, Ree/ Arikara and Crow scouts.

   A third detachment was led by a company commander, Capt. Frederick
   Benteen, and was made up of Troops D, H, and K, with 5 officers and 110
   men. Its mission was to scout within supporting distance of either of
   the other columns or to attack any body of Indians it encountered.

   The last group was the regimental pack train, consisting of 7 or 8
   troopers from each company and escorted by Troop B. Commanded by
   Captain Thomas McDougall, this sizable force had 2 officers, 127
   troopers, and 7 civilian packers.

   Each of the first three detachments was to seek out the Indian
   encampments, attack them, and hold them in place until the other two
   detachments arrived to support. Custer had employed similar tactics in
   1868 during the Battle of the Washita.

The Battle

Reno's attack

   The first detachment to attack was Major Reno's, conducted after
   receiving orders from Custer delivered by Lt. William W. Cooke. The
   orders, made without accurate knowledge of the village's size,
   location, or propensity to stand and fight, were to pursue the Indians
   and "bring them to battle". However, Custer did promise to
   "support...[Reno] with the whole outfit". Reno's force crossed the
   Little Bighorn at the mouth of what is today called Reno Creek and
   immediately realized that the Lakota and Northern Cheyenne were present
   "in force and ...not running away".

   Sending a message to Custer, but hearing nothing in return, Reno
   advanced rapidly northward, stating that he drove the enemy "with
   ease". However, he suspected "a trap" and stopped a few hundred yards
   short of the encampment, dismounting and deploying in a skirmish line,
   as standard army doctrine called for. In deploying in a skirmish line,
   every fifth trooper handled the horses for four troopers taking firing
   positions, thus immediately reducing the fighting force by 20%. The
   troopers on the skirmish line were positioned five to ten yards apart,
   with officers just to their rear and the troopers with horses behind
   the officers. After about 20 minutes of long distance firing he had
   taken only one casualty but the odds against him had become more
   obvious (Reno estimated five to one) and Custer had not reinforced him.
   Reno ordered a withdrawal into nearby woods in a loop of the river,
   then made a disorderly retreat across the river to reach the high
   ground of the bluffs on the other side. The retreat was confused and
   immediately disrupted by Cheyenne attacks at close quarters. Reno later
   reported that 3 officers and 29 troopers were killed during the retreat
   and the subsequent fording of the river and another officer and 13-18
   men missing, left behind in the woods, although most of these men
   eventually rejoined the detachment.
   The battlefield today.
   Enlarge
   The battlefield today.

   Atop the bluffs, Reno's shaken troops soon linked up with the
   detachment of Captain Benteen, arriving from the south. This force had
   been on its lateral scouting mission when it had been summoned by a
   messenger from Custer to "Come on...big village, be quick...bring
   pacs...". (This messenger was John Martin, a trumpeter, who was the
   last white person to see Custer alive and survive the battle.)
   Benteen's coincidental arrival on the bluffs was just in time to save
   Reno's men from possible annihilation. Their detachments were then
   reinforced by McDougall and the pack train. The 14 officers and 340
   troopers on the bluffs organized an all-around defense and dug rifle
   pits.

   Despite hearing heavy gunfire from the north, Benteen concentrated on
   reinforcing Reno's badly wounded battalion, rather than continuing on
   towards Custer. There was documented conversations between Benteen and
   Reno taking note of the similarity in Custer's strategy to that used
   years earlier at the Battle of the Washita. There, when his position
   looked threatened, Custer retreated instead of supporting one of his
   sub-commanders, Major Joel Elliot, resulting in the complete
   annihilation of Elliot's unit. Benteen wondered if history had just
   repeated itself and Custer had abandoned them to possible annihilation.
   Benteen was heard to say "I wonder if this is to be another Maj. Elliot
   affair?" (See Hardoff, Camp; and Nichols, Reno Court.)

   After an hour, nearing five o'clock and the end of the Custer fight,
   Capt. Thomas Weir and Company D moved out against orders to make
   contact with Custer. They advanced a mile and could see Lakota shooting
   in the distance, but were under considerable pressure themselves. The
   other companies eventually followed by assigned batalions, first
   Benteen, then Reno, and finally the pack train, but growing Lakota
   attacks forced all seven companies to return to the bluff before the
   pack train, with the ammunition, had moved even a quarter mile.
   Benteen's apparent reluctance prompted later criticism that he had
   failed to follow orders.

Custer's fight

   The gunfire heard on the bluffs was from Custer's fight. His force of
   208 was engaged by the Lakota and Northern Cheyenne approximately 3.5
   miles (6 km) to the north. Having driven Reno's force away from the
   encampment and isolated it, many warriors were free to pursue Custer.
   The route taken by Custer to his "Last Stand" remains a subject of
   debate. It does seem clear that after ordering Reno to charge, Custer
   continued down Reno Creek to within about a half mile (800 m) of the
   Little Bighorn, but then turned north, and climbed up the bluffs,
   reaching the same spot to which Reno would soon retreat. From this
   point, he could see Reno, on the other side of the river, charging the
   village.
   General Custer on horseback and his U. S. Army troops make their last
   charge at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
   Enlarge
   General Custer on horseback and his U. S. Army troops make their last
   charge at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

   Custer then rode north along the bluffs, and descended into a drainage
   called Medicine Tail Coulee, which led to the river. Some historians
   believe that part of Custer's force descended the coulee, going west to
   the river and attempting unsuccessfully to cross into the village.
   Other authorities believe that Custer never approached the river, but
   rather continued north across the coulee and up the other side, where
   he gradually came under attack. By the time Custer realized he was
   badly outnumbered by the Indians who came from the Reno fight,
   according to this theory, it was too late to break through back to the
   south, where Reno and Benteen could have provided reinforcement.

   Within roughly three hours, Custer's force was completely annihilated.
   Only two men from the 7th Cavalry later claimed to have seen Custer
   engage the Indians: a young Crow whose name translated as Curley, and a
   trooper named Peter Thompson, who had fallen behind Custer's column,
   and most accounts of the last moments of Custer's forces are
   conjecture. Lakota accounts assert that Crazy Horse personally led one
   of the large groups of Lakota who overwhelmed the cavalrymen. While
   exact numbers are difficult to determine, it is commonly estimated that
   the Northern Cheyenne and Lakota outnumbered the 7th Cavalry by
   approximately 3:1, a ratio which was extended to 5:1 during the
   fragmented parts of the battle. In addition, some of the Indians were
   armed with repeating Spencer and Winchester rifles, while the 7th
   Cavalry carried single-shot Springfield carbines, which had a slow rate
   of fire, tended to jam when overheated, and were difficult to operate
   from horseback.

   The terrain of the battlefield gave Lakota and Cheyenne bows an
   advantage, since Custer's troops were pinned in a depression on higher
   ground from which they could not use direct fire at the Indians in
   defilade. On the other hand, the Lakota and Cheyenne were able to fire
   their arrows into the depression by launching them on a high arching
   indirect fire, with the volume of arrows ensuring severe casualties.
   U.S. small arms might have been more accurate over open distances, but
   the fighting on this occasion was close combat where rate of fire and
   reliability of a weapon were more important attributes.

   Recent archaeological work at the battlefield site indicates that
   Custer initially deployed his troops in skirmish lines per Army
   doctrine. This deployment would have resulted in only approximately 150
   troopers providing defensive fire over several long skirmish lines. As
   individual troopers were killed, wounded or their carbines jammed, the
   skirmish lines became untenable.

   While many of Custer's troops were recruits who did not possess an
   adequate level of military training and skill, archaeological evidence
   also suggests that they were undernourished, in poor physical
   condition, and had been on forced march nearly 24 hours without sleep
   at the commencement of the engagement.

The Fight on the Bluffs

   After the Custer force was annihilated, the Lakota and Northern
   Cheyenne regrouped to attack Reno and Benteen. The fight continued
   until dark (approximately 9:00 p.m. by local timekeeping) and for much
   of the next day, with the outcome in doubt. Reno credited Benteen's
   leadership with repulsing a severe attack on the portion of the
   perimeter held by Companies H and M. On June 26 the column under Terry
   approached from the north, and the Indians drew off in the opposite
   direction. The wounded were given what treatment was available at that
   time; five later died of their wounds. Two of the regiment's three
   surgeons had been with Custer's column; the remaining doctor was
   assisted by interpreter Fred Gerard.
   General Custer and his U. S. Army troops are defeated in battle with
   Native American Lakota Sioux, Crow, Northern, and Cheyenne, on the
   Little Bighorn Battlefield, June 25, 1876 at Little Bighorn River,
   Montana.
   Enlarge
   General Custer and his U. S. Army troops are defeated in battle with
   Native American Lakota Sioux, Crow, Northern, and Cheyenne, on the
   Little Bighorn Battlefield, June 25, 1876 at Little Bighorn River,
   Montana.

   An examination was made of the Custer battle site. The Indian dead had
   mostly been removed from the field. The 7th's dead were identified as
   best as possible and hastily buried where they fell. Custer was found
   to have been shot in the left temple and in the left chest; either
   wound would have been fatal. He also suffered a wound to the arm. Some
   Lakota oral histories assert that Custer committed suicide to avoid
   capture and subsequent torture or death—as Custer believed—but he was
   right-handed. His body was found near the top of "Last Stand Hill"
   where a large obelisk inscribed with the names of the 7th's dead now
   stands. Most of the dead had been stripped of their clothing,
   mutilated, and were in an advanced state of deterioration, such that
   identification of many of the bodies was impossible.

   From the evidence, it was impossible to determine what exactly had
   transpired, but there was not much evidence of prolonged organized
   resistance. Several days after the battle, the young Crow scout Curley
   gave an account of the battle which indicated that Custer had attacked
   the village after crossing the river at the mouth of Medicine Tail
   Coulee and had been driven back across the river, retreating up the
   slope to the hill where his body was later found. This scenario seemed
   compatible with Custer's aggressive style of warfare, and with some of
   the evidence found on the ground, and formed the basis for many of the
   popular accounts of the battle.

   Unfortunately (for Custer and his troops), this aggressive action was
   deeply flawed as a military tactic. First, Custer did not have adequate
   information (or did not believe it) on the size of the Lakota/Cheyenne
   encampment. According to Herman Viola's 1998 book on the battle,
   Custer's Crow scouts did tell Custer the encampment was far too large
   to be attacked, and began to change into their native dress, because
   they did not want to die dressed in white man's uniforms. When Custer
   asked his famed Indian Scout, Mitch Bouyer, why the Crow scouts were
   changing, Bouyer told him the scouts believed the attack on the village
   would be fatal to them all.
   "Custer's Last Stand." Native American Lakota Sioux, Crow, Northern,
   and Cheyenne, defeat General Custer standing center, wearing buckskin,
   with few of his soldiers of the Seventh Cavalry still standing, Little
   Bighorn Battlefield, June 26, 1876 at the Little Bighorn River,
   Montana.
   Enlarge
   "Custer's Last Stand." Native American Lakota Sioux, Crow, Northern,
   and Cheyenne, defeat General Custer standing centre, wearing buckskin,
   with few of his soldiers of the Seventh Cavalry still standing, Little
   Bighorn Battlefield, June 26, 1876 at the Little Bighorn River,
   Montana.

   Custer then released the Crow Scouts, including Curley and White Man
   Runs Him, from their duty. (White Man Runs Him was the first to tell
   General Terry's officers that Custer's force had "been wiped out".) The
   element of surprise in the 7th Cavalry attack may have been able to
   overcome a slightly larger force, but not a force roughly five times as
   large. Second, Custer did not know the terrain from which he would
   attempt his attack. Custer, according to Lakota/Cheyenne sources, was
   never able to get any part of his battalion across the river to the
   encampment. Custer's troops were never able to concentrate their
   firepower on the Lakota/Cheyenne forces. Third, Custer set his regiment
   up for "defeat in detail" by dividing it into three smaller battle
   units (the troops assigned to the pack train were a necessary part of
   any battle plan), that could not quickly support each other. None of
   the battalions was large enough to win a major engagement, due to the
   standard skirmish line deployment in battle. In addition, many of the
   Native American warriors had far better weapons than the U.S. cavalry
   soldiers.

   Estimates of Lakota and Cheyenne casualties widely vary, from as few as
   36 dead (listings of dead by name) to as many as 300. The 7th Cavalry
   suffered 52% casualties: 16 officers and 242 troopers killed or died of
   wounds, one officer and 51 troopers wounded. Every soldier in Custer's
   detachment was killed. The sole survivor that was found by General
   Terry's troops was Captain Keogh's horse Comanche. By July, the 7th
   cavalry had been restocked with officers and new recruiting efforts
   were underway. It would again take the field in pursuit of its
   adversaries, but its legacy remains the Little Bighorn.

   For further details on participants and casualties, see below.

Inquiries into the causes for the defeat

   Scene of Custer's last stand, looking in the direction of the ford and
   the Indian village, 1877.
   Enlarge
   Scene of Custer's last stand, looking in the direction of the ford and
   the Indian village, 1877.

   In 1878, the army awarded 24 Medals of Honour to participants in the
   fight on the bluffs for bravery, most for risking their lives to carry
   water from the river up the hill to the wounded. Few questioned the
   conduct of the enlisted men, but many questioned the tactics, strategy,
   and conduct of the officers, particularly Major Reno.

   The battle was the subject of an army Court of Inquiry, made at Reno's
   request, in 1879 in Chicago, in which Reno's conduct was scrutinized.
   Some testimony was presented suggesting that he was drunk and a coward,
   but since none of this came from army officers, Reno was not officially
   condemned. Other factors have been identified which may have
   contributed to the outcome of the fight: it is apparent that a number
   of the cavalry troopers were inexperienced and poorly trained. Benteen
   has been criticized for "dawdling" on the first day of the fight, and
   disobeying Custer's order. Both Reno and Benteen were heavy drinkers
   whose subsequent careers were truncated. Terry has been criticized for
   his tardy arrival on the scene.

   Pvt. William Taylor wrote to Lt. Edward Godfrey on February 20, 1910:
   "Reno proved his incompetence and Benteen showed his indifference—I
   will not use the words I've often thought about. Both failed Custer and
   he had to fight it alone."

   For years a debate raged as to whether Custer himself had disobeyed
   Terry's order not to attack the village until reinforcements arrived.
   Finally, almost a hundred years after the fight, a document surfaced
   which indicated that Terry actually had given Custer considerable
   freedom to do as he saw fit. Custer's widow Libby actively affected the
   historiography of the battle by suppressing criticism of her husband. A
   number of participants decided to wait for her death before disclosing
   what they knew; however, she outlived almost all of them. As a result,
   the event was recreated along tragic Victorian lines in numerous books,
   films and other media. The story of Custer's purported heroic attack
   across the river, however, was undermined by the account of participant
   Gall, who told Lt. Edward Godfrey that Custer never came near the
   river. Godfrey incorporated this into his important publication in 1892
   in The Century Magazine. In spite of this, however, Custer's legend was
   embedded in the American imagination as a heroic officer fighting
   valiantly against savage forces, an image popularized in "Wild West"
   extravaganzas hosted by showman "Buffalo Bill" Cody.

   By the end of the 20th century, the general recognition of the
   mistreatment of the various Indian tribes in the conquest of the
   American West, and the perception of Custer's role in it, have changed
   the image of the battle and of Custer. The Little Bighorn is now viewed
   by some as a confrontation between relentless U.S. westward expansion
   and warriors defending their land and way of life.

Battlefield preservation

   Indian Memorial
   Enlarge
   Indian Memorial

   The site was first preserved as a national cemetery in 1879, to protect
   graves of the 7th Cavalry troopers buried there. It was redesignated
   Custer Battlefield National Monument in 1946, and later renamed Little
   Bighorn Battlefield National Monument in 1991.

   Memorialization on the battlefield began in 1879 with a temporary
   monument to U.S. dead. This was replaced with the current marble
   obelisk in 1881. In 1890 the marble blocks that dot the field were
   added to mark the place where the U.S. cavalry soldiers fell. The bill
   that changed the name of the national monument also called for an
   Indian Memorial to be built near Last Stand Hill. On Memorial Day 1999,
   two red granite markers were added to the battlefield where Native
   American warriors fell. As of June 2005 there are now a total of 10
   warrior markers (three at the Reno-Benteen Defense Site, seven on the
   Custer Battlefield).

7th Cavalry Officers at the Little Big Horn

   An obelisk commemorates the U.S. dead.
   Enlarge
   An obelisk commemorates the U.S. dead.
     * Commanding Officer: Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer killed
     * Major Marcus Reno
     * Adjutant: 1st Lt. William W. Cooke killed
     * Assistant Surgeon George Edwin Lord, killed
     * Acting Assistant Surgeon James Madison DeWolf, killed
     * Acting Assistant Surgeon Henry Rinaldo Porter
     * Chief of Scouts: 2nd Lt. Charles Varnum wounded
     * 2nd in command of Scouts: 2nd Lt. Luther Hare detached from K
       Company
     * Pack Train commander: 1st Lt. Edward Mathey detached from M Company
     * A Company: Captain Myles Moylan, 1st Lt. Charles DeRudio
     * B Company: Captain Thomas McDougall, 2nd Lt. Benjamin Hodgson
       killed
     * C Company: Captain Thomas Custer killed, 2nd Lt. Henry Moore
       Harrington killed
     * D Company: Captain Thomas Weir, 2nd Lt. Winfield Edgerly
     * E Company: 1st Lt. Algernon Smith killed, 2nd Lt. James Sturgis
       killed
     * F Company: Captain George Yates killed, 2nd Lt. William Reily
       killed
     * G Company: 1st Lt. Donald McIntosh killed, 2nd Lt. George Wallace
     * H Company: Captain Frederick Benteen, 1st Lt. Francis Gibson
     * I Company: Captain Myles Keogh killed, 1st Lt. James Porter killed
     * K Company: 1st Lt. Edward Godfrey
     * L Company: 1st Lt. James Calhoun killed, 2nd Lt. John J. Crittenden
       killed
     * M Company: Captain Thomas French

   Crittenden was on loan to the 7th Cavalry from the 20th U.S. Infantry,
   since the cavalry regiment was short on officers.
   Photo taken in 1894 by H.R. Locke on Battle Ridge looking toward Last
   Stand Hill top center. Wooden Leg Hill can be seen at the far top
   right.
   Enlarge
   Photo taken in 1894 by H.R. Locke on Battle Ridge looking toward Last
   Stand Hill top centre. Wooden Leg Hill can be seen at the far top
   right.

Civilians killed

     * Boston Custer: brother of George & Thomas, Forager for the 7th,
       killed
     * Mark Kellogg: Reporter, killed
     * Henry Armstrong Reed: Nephew of Custer's, Herder for the 7th,
       killed
     * Frank C. Mann: Packer, killed during the fight on the bluffs

Notable Scouts/Interpreters in the battle

     * Charley Reynolds: Scout for the 7th, killed
     * Bloody Knife: Arikara/Lakota Scout for the 7th, killed
     * Curley: Crow Scout for the 7th
     * Mitch Bouyer: Scout/interpreter for the 7th, killed
     * Isaiah Dorman: Interpreter for the 7th, killed
     * Fred Gerard: Interpreter for the 7th
     * White Man Runs Him: Crow Scout for the 7th
     * Goes Ahead: Crow Scout for the 7th
     * Hairy Moccasin: Crow Scout for the 7th
     * White Swan: Crow Scout for the 7th
     * Half Yellow Face: Crow Scout for the 7th

Prominent Native Americans in the battle

     * American Horse (Miniconjou Lakota)
     * Buffalo Calf Road Woman (Cheyenne)
     * Chief Crow, (Sioux)
     * Minnie Hollow Wood, (Lakota)
     * Crazy Horse (Oglala Lakota)
     * Curley (Crow)
     * Gall (Hunkpapa Lakota)
     * Goes Ahead, (Crow)
     * Hairy Moccasin, (Crow)
     * He Dog (Oglala Lakota)
     * Hump (Minniconjou Lakota), wounded
     * Lame White Man (Cheyenne), killed
     * Moving Robe Woman (Hunkpapa Lakota)
     * One Who Walks With the Stars (Oglala Lakota)
     * Rain-in-the-Face (Hunkpapa Lakota)
     * Short Bull (Brulé Lakota)
     * Sitting Bull (Hunkpapa Lakota) spiritual leader in the camp, but
       non-combatant
     * Two Moons (Cheyenne)
     * White Bull (Sioux)
     * Wooden Leg (Cheyenne)
     * Black Elk {Oglala Lakota}
     * Red Horse {Sioux}
     * White Bull {Sioux}

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