| “Reno
took a steady gallop down the creek bottom three miles where it emptied
into the little Bighorn.
He found a natural ford and started to cross the Little Bighorn
River.
He started the cross, when the scouts he had sent out came back
and told him that the Sioux were coming in large numbers to meet him.
He crossed over, however and formed his companies on prairie in
line of Battle, and moved forward at a trot.
They soon took a gallop.” In a hour’s time or less, Custer,
his brother, nephew, brother-in-law, and his command were surrounded for
the whole day, without water or food. Gibbons command came upon them and
the Indians left.
The next day Reno and Benteen’s now united forces got away when
the fighting was stopped by the Indians.
They learned that the other columns were coming toward them, so
they fled.
“The number of dead was started at about 300 and the wounded at
31.”
The Battle of the Little Bighorn was the worst known American
Military disaster.
The Indians came through after the battle and stripped the bodies
and mutilated all the uniformed soldiers, believing that the souls would
be forced to walk the earth forever, and could not ascend into heaven.
The Battle of the Little Bighorn was the high point of the
Indians power. They won their greatest victory yet, their tenuous union
would soon fall apart.
Angry at the Indians, the Americans ere outraged at the loss of
their leader, General George Armstrong Custer.
The American people set revenge on them. Although they won the
Battle of the Little Bighorn, it was not a major event for the Sioux.
They knew it would be a severe punishment so the fled, that way
the seventh Calvary would have a hard time finding them.
They would be forced onto a reservation and their land would go
to the white men.
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