Battle Of The Little Bighorn Facts: Summary, Location, History & More

The Battle of the Little Bighorn was fought near the Little Bighorn Rivers, on the great plains of Southern Montana Territory, USA.

The Battle of the Little Bighorn was fought between North Plains Indians (Northern Cheyenne warriors and Lakota) led by Sitting Bull and US federal troops, led by Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer. This battle is also known as 'Custer's Last Stand' as Custer died in this battle in an Indian village of the Lakota Sioux.

The events which led to the Battle of The Little Bighorn were the confusing terms of the policies of the US government toward Native Americans.

The earlier treaty, which was the Second Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868), is still in effect and guarantees the people of Dakota Sioux, Arapaho, and Lakota an exclusive possession over the Dakota territory, which was at the west of the Missouri River.

Few white miners were settling to search gold on that land, which was a sacred place to the people of Lakota.

The United States government, hesitant to remove immigrants, was unable to convince Lakota to sell the land and issued an order to Indian agencies requiring all Indians to relocate to specified reservations by January 31, 1876, or face being labeled hostile.

Due to the impossibility of conveying the message to hunters, as well as the fact that many Plains Indians rejected it, a confrontation was unavoidable.

According to some Indian records, forty soldiers from the Custer's army made a stand on Custer Hill. Reno's army was at Reno hill when they got reinforcements. This was the only time when the Indian casualties happened because the Indians and soldiers were widely distributed on Calhoun ridge.

In this battle, the war tactics of Custer have been criticized a lot. Both Reno and Custer joined the Civil War and were familiar with situations like this. However, they somewhat underestimated the potential of the tribal warriors.

The tribal leaders from the Native American Tribes were Crazy Horse, Chief Gall, and Sitting Bull. Sitting Bull had a vision of soldiers dropping on his camp during a 'Sun Dance,' a Native ritual and major religious occasion that the Native tribes had assembled to participate in on June 5.

The United States federal troops had begun to assemble in preparation for the campaign to expel the Lakota from the Black Hills. Custer's men launched their attack on the indigenous people by sending three companies under the leadership of Maj Marcus Reno to approach the settlement from the south.

The other three companies were positioned at the left of Reno. One company was guarding the pack train.

On reaching the village, Maj Reno and his soldiers realized that they had walked into a trap. After splitting up, his soldiers made the wives and children of these tribal people their target and started to kill them.

Because of this, the warriors of the village got angry, and in an hour, they pinned Reno and his soldiers. Custer's company didn't retreat, but Reno's did. Because of that, Custer and his men had to lose their lives as they had no backup.

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Battle Of Little Bighorn Date

The Battle of The Little Bighorn was fought on June 25, 1876.

The Lakota Indians call this battle the Battle of the Greasy Grass. This battle was actually part of a much bigger war between the United States of America and the Sioux Nation, which was known as the Great Sioux Wars of 1876.

Sitting Bull, who was from the Lakota side, already had an idea of their victory.

This battle was a controversial battle and remains a topic of discussion in many TV shows, movies, and even Walt Disney's movie 'Tonka'.

Not just Custer, but many of his relatives also paid the price for this war. Both of his brothers, his nephew, and his brother-in-law also got killed.

Who won the Battle of The Little Bighorn?

The battle of The Little Bighorn was won by Native Americans and Cheyenne warriors. The battle of the Little Bighorn was full of surprises for Col. George A. Custer and the seventh Cavalry soldiers.

They both suffered due to false information.

They were told to be prepared for about 800 warriors, but at the site, there were over 2,500 warriors. The reason there was such a high number of them was that the warriors from Cheyenne and Lakota Sioux teamed up with Sitting Bull and his warriors to go against the United States.

Col. George A. Custer headed from the north with his 200 men towards the village. All of his men, including him, were killed in less than two hours by the village warriors.

Only an injured horse remained as the Native Americans called a halt to their attack. Comanche was the name of the horse. Despite the fact that Custer's last stand was regarded to be the pinnacle of the fight, his death ushered in an influx of American troops, compelling the Native Americans to surrender.

What caused the Battle of The Little Bighorn?

In the year 1868, the then government of the US signed a treaty with the people of Lakota, which guaranteed those people a separate portion from the length of South Dakota, including the Black Hills. But after a few years, people discovered gold in and around the region of the Black Hills.

This led to the trespassing of prospectors on the land of Dakota.

After signing the treaty, the United States demanded the region of Black Hills back from the Indian tribes living there so that they could easily mine in whatever amount they wanted. However, the Indian tribes were rigid in their take over of the Black Hills and didn't agree with the conditions of Americans.

Soon, Americans started to force the tribes out of the area. Later, an army was also prepared to send to attack any village of Indians there and other tribes too.

At some point, people started to gather around the Little Bighorn Valley River in large numbers. General Custer was put in charge of keeping the group from escaping.

Who fought in the Battle of The Little Bighorn?

The US Army was under the command of Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer and Maj. Marcus Reno. Both of these officers were seasoned veterans of the American Civil War.

The combined force of their army was somewhere around 600-800. On the other side, Lakota and Cheyenne were commanded by many chiefs who were Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, Lame White Man, Two Moon, and Chief Gall.

The tribes which were involved in this Battle of The Little bighorn were Arapaho, Dakota, Cheyenne, and Lakota. Their combined number of soldiers surpassed 2,500.

On reaching the Lakota Village and Cheyenne at the bottom of the valley, he thought to wait and explore the village to have a tactical analysis of the area. But as soon the villagers living became aware of the presence of an army in their area, Custer immediately made a plan to attack them.

However, he did not have any idea about the number of people he was going to face. Custer assumed that there would be very few, but there turned out to be thousands.

The warriors of Lakota and Cheyenne opposed the forces of Custer using a wide range of weaponry, which were lances, war clubs and firearms. Most of the warriors carried muzzleloaders and cap-lock smoothbores.

Custer's battalion immediately split. Half were ordered by Major Reno to begin an attack in the south.

Soon after approaching the village, on Maj Reno's command, his soldiers open-fired on village people. They got overwhelmed by the number of warriors there.

Because of not being able to handle this big number, his soldiers escaped into the hills and waited for reinforcements. However, it was not the same with Custer and his people. No one from his army survived the attack.

Custer tried to engage the villagers from the north, but because of having such a small army, they were also overwhelmed by the huge number of Indian warriors. After a lot of combat between him and the tribes there, he and 50 of his men ended up on a hill where Custer made his very 'last stand'.

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