George Armstrong Custer

On June 25, 1876, Under the command of General Alfred Terry, George Armstrong Custer led the 7th Calvary as one force in a 3-pronged campaign against Sitting Bull's alliance of Sioux and Cheyenne. Although scouts warned that he was facing superior numbers of warriors, Custer divided his regiment of 647 men into 3 groups, one went with Captain Fredrick Benteen, one went with Major Marcus Reno, and the rest went with Custer.

Custer decided to attack before infantry and other support arived. With the rest of his regiment, Custer continued along high ground on the right side of the valley. In the resulting battle, he and about 250 of his men were out numbered by the warriors of Crazy Horse and Gall. The battle lasted for about an hour or two, by the end of the battle Custer and his regiment were annihilated.

Reno and Benteen suffered high casualties but managed to escape to a defensive position. On June 26, 1876, the Indians disbanded their camp and left the territory. Out of the 647 soldiers that went into battle 210 were killed, and 400 survived. His enemies accused him of disobeying Terry by attacking the Indians without waiting for the main body of soldiers. Others blamed Terry for not knowing the size of the Indian force.

There has been a lot of controversy about what Custer should have done on that day. By doing archeology diggings the work clearly shows that Custer divided and then subdivided his troops into wings. By dividing them like this with the amount of Indians that they had to fight, it spread them too thin and was proven to be a bad decision. It had worked on other military field tests and was successful until this battle. Not only did the Indians outnumber the soldiers, but they outgunned and out fought the soldiers.

The stories of this battle will always be a hot topic for an argument because no white survivors lived to tell the tale and the language of the Indians created an inaccurate account. This battle showed the clash between two cultures, their ideas about land, their ideas on how to fight a war. No one really knows the reason for Custers defeat. A lot of people believe that Custer was a glory seeker and was hoping to be commissioned to serve in Washington D.C. on the presidents military staff.

I personally think he was an alright guy but his ego and his dreams of going down in history got in the way. His grave site is located at West Point US Military Academy, Post Cemetery, West Point, Orange County, New York. The battle site, "Custers last stand", attracts thousands of visitors each year.

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