* * *
George Custer is nowhere to be seen. The Indians now surround Reno’s position. A hail of rifle fire and arrows comes not just from the warriors attacking from the rear but also from the bluffs overlooking the river. Reno retreats, ordering his men to fall back to the right, into the protective cover of the cottonwoods along the riverbank.
Reno and his men mount their horses and ride hard for the timber, hoping to make a stand until Custer arrives. The major calls out to Bloody Knife, but before the scout can respond he is shot through the head—his brains and blood splatter all over Reno’s face.
The soldiers make it to the cottonwoods, only to find Crazy Horse and his band of Oglala warriors waiting for them. A panicked Reno orders his hundred men to dismount, then immediately tells them to remount. Crazy Horse smashes through the brush on his horse, killing a trooper with his stone war club, pushing another soldier from his horse and stealing the animal within a matter of seconds. As other warriors swarm his lines, Major Reno has had enough.
He orders his men to flee across the Little Bighorn River.
But there’s a problem. The bank is a sheer drop of several feet into the fast-moving current. The troopers are exposed and vulnerable as they guide their reluctant mounts down the treacherous slope. Crazy Horse and his warriors kill with calm and cool precision, looping their bowstrings around the necks of soldiers, then yanking hard to pull them from the saddle. Other fleeing troopers are simply clubbed with stone hammers, then shot as they scramble and crawl unhorsed in the waist-deep water. The river runs red with blood.
A now frantic and terrified Reno finally crosses to the right bank. He does not know how many of his men are alive, only that he needs to get away from the battlefield as fast as he can. He spurs his horse hard, desperately urging his mount up a steep grassy hill. The escaping troopers take heavy fire, but there is no attempt by them to shoot back at their enemy. The rout is complete.
By 4:10 p.m., less than an hour after his initial charge into the Indian village, Major Reno and his troopers have clawed to the top of a high bluff overlooking the river. Approximately forty men are dead, and another fifty are badly wounded. Reno quickly re-forms the men who can still fight into a skirmish line—but the Indians have not given chase.
So for the moment the troopers are safe on this ridgeline. From their vantage point three hundred feet above the river, they can see the entire battlefield below. Dead troopers are being scalped and mutilated before their eyes, women young and old crushing skulls with rocks. As always, all the bodies will be stripped.
Reno’s scouts report to him that General Custer’s men have already departed from the ridge—presumably in the hopes of attacking the village from another direction. But Reno doesn’t know where Custer is. He only knows that his force remains in severe jeopardy.
Ten minutes after mounting atop the summit, Reno and his men are joined by Captain Benteen and his command, which has not seen any fighting.
“Where’s Custer?” Benteen demands. He holds an order from the general in his pocket, telling him to race forward with more ammunition.
Reno says he does not know.
Then, five miles to the north, comes the unmistakable sound of gunfire.
* * *
In fact, George Custer witnessed Reno’s initial charge into the village. Custer now knows how strong the Indian force is and orders a courier to ride back to Captain Benteen with orders to bring more ammo. “Tell him to come quick,” Custer adds.
About a mile away from Major Reno, at a gully known as Cedar Coulee, an impatient Custer sees no sign of Benteen’s column. The general knows Reno’s force has taken heavy casualties, but he cannot rescue Reno until he is resupplied with ammunition.
So, Custer dispatches a second courier, this time instructing him to make the urgency of their present situation clear. Lieutenant William W. Cooke hands the messenger a scribbled note to reinforce Custer’s order. “Benteen. Come on. Big Village. Be quick. Bring Packs.”
Custer waits until he can wait no more. Knowing that the warriors are focused completely on Reno, he now has the opportunity to attack from the opposite end of the village, capturing the women and children and hoping the warriors will surrender in order to protect them from death.
But Custer has a problem. With Reno retreating away from the village, he does not have the force to drive directly into it. So Custer compromises. He once again splits his men. One element, comprised of Companies E and F, will charge down and take control of the river crossing two miles north of Reno. The remainder of the force, Custer included, will watch the proceedings from a high vantage point and wait for Benteen and the ammunition.
The time is 4:20 p.m.
At this very moment, Captain Benteen is talking to Major Reno—holding in his pocket orders telling him to rush ammunition to Custer as quickly as possible. In addition to the 125 men under Benteen’s command, Reno has 100 soldiers available. They now own the high ground, giving them a tactical superiority that makes up for their smaller fighting force when compared with the Indians.
Captain Benteen knows what needs to be done. As a career officer, he understands what will happen to him if he does not resupply General Custer. He will most likely be court-martialed for disobeying an order, which will most likely end Benteen’s military career.
Captain Frederick Benteen does not care.
He and his men will go no further.
Custer and his troopers are on their own.
Chapter Twenty-Three
JUNE 25, 1876
LITTLE BIGHORN BATTLEFIELD, MONTANA
4:20 P.M.
Crazy Horse is engaged.
Just one hour into the battle, the war chief rides back through the village amid a throng of fleeing Indians. No one can ever remember a fight like today, nor the sight of so many dead and dying men and horses. Some women begin dismantling tepees in the hopes of fleeing as soon as possible, while others run with their children toward new hiding places far from the shooting. Sitting Bull also rides his horse through the commotion, urging calm. He directs the fleeing women and children to follow him to a place of safety.
Arriving back to their tepees, Crazy Horse and his Oglala warriors exchange their ponies for fresh mounts. The war chief dons a white buckskin shirt and leggings to protect his bare flesh from thorns and brush. The battle is shifting north, to where Custer’s soldiers are now attempting to ride down the hillside, cross the Little Bighorn River, and attack the village from a different direction. But Sioux and Cheyenne warriors currently line those riverbanks, raining lead on the white soldiers approaching the creek from the other side.
Seeing that Sitting Bull is herding hundreds of women, children, and elderly toward the river crossing, Crazy Horse positions his warriors between these helpless dependents and the attacking cavalry.
At 4:35 p.m., Custer’s troops are driven back from the Little Bighorn River. Bands of Cheyenne and Hunkpapa warriors under a war chief named Crow King follow in hot pursuit, riding hard to catch the Americans as the soldiers race up the grassy hills.
Crazy Horse is not among them. Observing the commotion, gunshots, and dust of battle, he calmly sits astride his pony and takes charge. He exhorts the assembled warriors to be relentless in pressing the attack. No whites must survive this day.
The war chief then gallops his Oglala band a mile north, where he charges his force across the river, then up a low bluff through a spot known as Deep Ravine. But they do not ascend to the very top where the whites will be able to see them. Instead, the warriors hug the gullies and narrow draws on the sides of the hill, keeping out of sight as they slowly work their way around the slope.
Crazy Horse orders his warriors to dismount. They walk their horses as the war chief assesses the battlefield. Rifle in his left hand, he crawls on his belly until he is up and out of the ravine, concealing himself in the tall grass. In the distance to the south, Crazy Horse sees several white soldiers sitting tall in the saddle, so focuse
d on the action that they are unaware that a major Indian force has crept behind them. Crazy Horse takes careful aim.
“He shot them as fast as he could load his gun,” a warrior named Flying Hawk will remember. Tasked with holding the reins of Crazy Horse’s pony while he fired, Flying Hawk has a unique close-up look at the war chief’s prowess.
“They fell off their horses as fast as he could shoot.”
Without the whites even knowing it, the combined forces of Crow King attacking from the south and Crazy Horse from the north have the U.S. soldiers completely blocked. The Indian forces are separated by almost a mile.
Now it is up to Crazy Horse to close the trap.
* * *
General George Custer is under siege.
A few moments ago, his youngest brother, Boston, galloped to his side with news that Captain Benteen and the ammunition were getting close. But forty-five minutes later, there is still no sign of Benteen. Custer cannot wait any longer if he is to capture the village. He orders his men forward, hoping Benteen will catch up.
U.S. Cavalry troopers being pursued across a river during the Battle of the Little Bighorn, as depicted by noted Oglala Lakota artist Amos Bad Heart Bull
Though history does not record his thoughts during the last hour of his life, and the actual movements of his troopers are still open to debate almost 150 years after the Battle of the Little Bighorn, it is known that the general’s attention is squarely focused on the hundreds of women, children, and old people in the valley below, fleeing the Indian encampment under Sitting Bull’s direction.
Custer is frustrated that his plan to capture the entire Sioux encampment might slip away. The smart maneuver seems to be a retreat, galloping his men four miles back along the ridgeline to where other army forces may be setting up defensive positions. By clustering the entire remnant of the Seventh Cavalry in that location, knowing that Captain Benteen and the ammunition must eventually arrive, Custer might still achieve his victory.
But Custer has no plans to retreat. There is still a chance for immediate victory. The five companies under his command are now clustered atop a low summit with a sweeping view of the Little Bighorn River, roughly a quarter mile below. The grassy slopes leading up to their position are not steep, but several ravines and dry creek beds would give cover to an approaching enemy. In addition to George’s brothers Tom and Boston and nephew Autie Reed, a fourth member of the extended Custer family sits astride his horse on this magnificent viewpoint. Thirty-year-old Lieutenant James Calhoun is Custer’s brother-in-law. Known as the “Adonis of the Seventh” for his good looks, Calhoun is married to General Custer’s sister Margaret.
General Custer once again decides to split his command. He orders three companies to remain atop the hill while he and two other companies move forward along the ridgeline to try to flank the Indians. He will then charge down off the ridge to capture the women and children.
Custer dispatches an Indian scout named Curley to seek out help from General Alfred Terry, who is on his way to assist in the fight with Crazy Horse. Terry commands the remainder of the Seventh Cavalry, a force that numbers several hundred men. History will long question whether Custer was supposed to link up with Terry before the battle so that the Americans could enter the village with a greater fighting force or whether Terry gave Custer the order to proceed without him. But none of that matters to Custer now, because he believes victory is before him.
The soldiers Custer has ordered to stay behind are the men of Companies C, I, and L. Their goal is to protect the general’s rear. The unit farthest to the south, sure to be the first to bear the brunt of an Indian assault, is Company L, commanded by Lieutenant James Calhoun.
As Curley rides off, Calhoun and his men dismount, setting up defensive skirmish formations. The men arrange themselves in a semicircle five yards apart. Per military guidelines, one in four men is pulled off the line to hold the horses. The “horse holders” believe the Indians cannot see them. They are wrong.
Soon enough, Indian rifle fire zeroes in on their position.
* * *
Meanwhile, Crazy Horse waits. He watches the American soldiers from a hidden position in a ravine. All around him, warriors in the grass fire long-distance rifle shots at the soldiers, with little effect. Indian marksmanship is best from close range. But Crazy Horse knows that an ill-timed attack could harm the Indian advantage, and he patiently watches for a weakness to exploit. He believes the men of Company L are the key to this battle. If he defeats them, Custer will be completely cut off. Not only will “Long Hair” be unable to retreat; he will not even succeed in sending a messenger back to Major Reno requesting help.
A warrior named White Bull grows impatient. He is tired of waiting. He tells Crazy Horse he wants to attack.
Crazy Horse orders White Bull to stand down.
* * *
George Custer finally gives up on Captain Benteen.
Unable to wait any longer for ammunition, he maneuvers his two companies down toward the village. The general has successfully flanked the enemy by traveling north along the ridgeline, and he can now move carefully down the hillside to cross the Little Bighorn River in force. Because of Custer’s patient examination of the battlefield terrain, his movements are carefully screened from the Indian village by the slope of the hill.
One of his companies, E, is led by Lieutenant Algernon Smith. His soldiers all ride gray horses. Custer orders them to stand firm in reserve, while he and the men of Company F lead the way downhill. Bismarck Tribune correspondent Mark Kellogg rides with Custer, eager to record this moment for posterity. The river is just a few hundred yards away, as are the women and children, huddled for safety in a tributary known as Squaw Creek. Custer can see them clearly.
Then shots ring out from the riverbank. Kellogg, the journalist, is killed instantly. The gunfire comes from willows along the banks, where elderly warriors have been stationed as a last line of defense against the bluecoats.
Custer cautiously orders Company F to retreat momentarily, just far enough to get out of rifle range.
But scores of Indian fighters still remaining in the village are alerted by the shots. These Cheyenne and Hunkpapa Sioux now attack Custer’s men in force. Company E holds the line, protecting Custer’s left flank.
George Custer decides to counterattack, arranging the four dozen men of Company F in a V-formation on the hillside, ready to pour fire down on the approaching warriors. The frightened women and children are still on the riverbank. The general has been in many a battle and knows that a single bold action can quickly swing momentum.
Victory is still within Custer’s grasp.
Or so he thinks.
* * *
The soldiers holding the horses are killed first.
A wave of Indians led by Chief Gall flows up and over the hill into the positions held by Company L. The troopers fire their single-shot Springfields, but as they pause to reload the Indians are upon them. The fighting becomes hand to hand, soldiers swinging rifle butts as the warriors wield war clubs.
Within moments, bands of warriors open fire from hiding places in gullies and brush. Snapping red blankets, they scare the horses, driving away many animals. Company L pulls back atop the ridgeline. More and more warriors who recently arrived from the village silently crawl up through the grass. They wait for their leaders to give the signal. Some Indians are fewer than fifty yards from Company L’s position.
Company C, also atop the summit, refuses to assume a defensive position. Instead, the roughly fifty soldiers on horseback charge the Indians, causing panic as the warriors run for their lives. For a brief moment, the army has regained momentum.
But a Cheyenne chief named Lame White Man changes all that. He does not run in the face of the approaching whites. Instead, he stands his ground, screaming at the fleeing warriors to hold fast and fight. Even as Company C dismounts so they can open fire more accurately with their big-bore carbines, Lame White Man barks orders.
Hundreds of Cheyenne and Sioux open fire on Company C. Once again, brightly colored blankets are snapped to frighten the horses.
* * *
Crazy Horse challenges the impatient White Bull to stop complaining and show his courage. Together, the two men mount up and gallop their horses across the battlefield, completely exposed to American rifle fire. Both men taunt the white soldiers. The warriors ride low, hugging the necks of their horses.
Yet, as Crazy Horse’s vision quest once prophesied, not a single bullet strikes the war chief. Nor is White Bull hit. Returning safely to the Indian lines, Crazy Horse and White Bull decide to repeat their courageous run. This time, other warriors choose to ride with them even as Indians on the ground rise up from their prone firing positions and attack—rifles in one hand and war clubs in the other.
The charging soldiers, many of whom have lost their horses, quickly run back up the hillside to their brothers in Company L. Upon reaching the summit, all the Americans start to retreat further.
Many soldiers flee in panic. The few who still have mounts get away more quickly, leaving behind those on foot. Carbines and bullets are tossed aside by the panicked soldiers and quickly snatched up by the pursuing warriors.
The men under Custer’s command are now in disarray. Indians are everywhere, using war clubs and guns to kill each man they set upon. Hand-to-hand fighting is fierce. Lieutenant James Calhoun dies on the hill that will one day be renamed in his honor.
Just 20 soldiers out of more than 120 escape, running hard to the north toward their commander, George Custer.
* * *
But Custer has also retreated.
Killing Crazy Horse Page 21
