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FIRST ACCOUNT OF THE CUSTER MASSACRE
Richmond Dispatch
Bismarck, Dakota Territory, July 6, 1876
THE MASSACRE
FURTHER AND FULLER PARTICULARS OF THE LITTLE HORN BUTCHERY
CUSTER ONE OF THE LAST TO FALL HOW THE MEN LAY ON THE RIDGE OF DEATH
LOT 1213
Highly Desirable, Documented, Ainsworth Inspected, Historic, and Fresh Lot Five 7th Cavalry Custer Battle Era U.S. Cavalry Colt Single Action Army Revolver with Kopec Gold Seal Letter - Serial no. 4694, 45 Long Colt cal., 7 1/2 inch round bbl., blue/casehardened finish, walnut grips. In terms of the American Indian Wars in the late 19th century, no battle is as famous as the Battle of the Little Bighorn on June 25-26, 1876, during the Great Sioux War of 1876 (aka the Black Hills War). The “Battle
of the Greasy Grass” as it was known to Native Americans, was one of the greatest battlefield victories in Native American history and one of the worst defeats in U.S. history. In the battle, the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho fought off an attack and then pursued and defeated the
7th Cavalry, including decimating Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer’s immediate command. Like St. Clair’s Defeat during the Northwest Indian War almost a century earlier, the impressive Native American victory did little to slow the tide of western expansion, but it did make legends out of many of the warriors and chiefs that fought that day. By the time the corpses of Custer and his men laid strewn across the plains, Custer was already a very well-known military leader, but his death fighting alongside his command against a superior number of native warriors secured his place in history and has made “Custer’s Last Stand” one of the most iconic legends of the American West. As a result, Custer became the most famous U.S. cavalry officer of the Indian Wars, and
he and his men have been memorialized in countless works of art and literature. Their defeat shocked the nation.
Over the decades, the story of Custer’s defeat has been told over and over with varying degrees of accuracy. Much of what happened has
been lost to time given no one fighting alongside Custer lived to tell the tale. Instead we have oral histories passed down from Native American warriors who defeated him, reports from surviving members of the 7th Cavalry and the U.S. allied Crow and Arikara scouts that fought elsewhere during the battle, and evidence collected from the battlefield. The basic story is clear. Custer led the 7th Cavalry in an attack on a large combines village of Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapahoes on the Little Bighorn River. He believed the village was smaller contained at most
800 warriors, but instead, they found it contained around 8,000 Native Americans and as many as 1,800 warriors. The 7th Cavalry had 600 men, and 125 men were with the pack train. Custer took command of five companies (210 men) while two other detachments were led by Captain Frederick Benteen and Major Marcus Reno. After the initial attack, Reno’s men retreated, and Custer’s command remained separated and was decimated by the Native American warriors. Instead of one last stand as
is often depicted, there were multiple attempts by groups of his men to fight. Around 40 of the 210 fighting under Custer died surrounded by hundreds of warriors on the hill where a stone monument stands today. Reno’s detachment, supported by Benteen’s men, fought on to the south through the night and learned of Custer’s death the following day. The whole nation was soon shocked by the news of “Custer’s Last Stand.” As a result, the military committed additional resources to the effort to “pacify” the “hostile Indians” on the plains, and most were defeated and confined to reservations within a year.