Massacre Hill from information center.
Visitor center towards the Cheyenne Village.
The trip to see "Custer's Last Stand" was all planned in conjunction with the trip to the Bear Paws. I would see one the Army won and one the Indian's won. I didn't have an agenda. I just wanted to understand our history a little bit better. My father had told me for years that I couldn't appreciate Reno and Benteen's situation until I stood where they stood. There is an interesting series of lectures at the main Little Big Horn site. I attended several of them. One thing was pointed out and that is when you fired a black powder weapon, you were to roll to the side. This accomplishes two things. First, the cloud of burned powder is a natural target and you vacate the area. Second, you can't see through it and people can move around. If you aren't watching, they can move closer while you can't see. Having someone be able to safely move closer in a battle can be hazardous to your health.
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Massacre Hill from information center. |
Visitor center towards the Cheyenne Village. |
I hunted for years with a 50 caliber Hawken muzzle loading rifle. There are several things permanently burned in my mind. First, burned black powder really stinks. Second, the cloud of burned powder is really large and you can't see after you fire the weapon. Deer are stupid and if you miss and don't move too much, they will come back to see what all of the stuff was and will watch you reload. In my case, it was too cold and after dropping two lead slugs into the snow, I ended up throwing a snow ball at the deer that had come back to watch. I missed with both because of a hang fire on the rifle when I pulled the trigger the first time. Then, I had finally done something that bothered the deer and it jumped faster than I could throw the snowball. Third, black powder really burns fast. I was really cold hunting one time and tried to start a fire with black powder and had the hair on my thumb and index finger burned off. It didn't start the small pieces of wood burning. You can see what I mean about black powder weapns if you watch the battle scenes in the movie "Last of the Mohicans". You will then understand the visibility problem. The night fight was awesome and so was the fight on the trail. The trail fight is where you understand. You can't shoot at someone you can't see. In the case of Custer's troopers, you were supposed to roll 5 or 6 feet so that you could see. You were also not supposed to clump together and provide an easy target. Custer's troops panicked and ended up being clumped together and made easy targets of themselves. Even the most inaccurate Indian rifle was effective at that point.
Massacre hill was visible from everywhere in the Cheyenne village. In the photograph, the village was just behind the row of trees, which didn't exist at the time. The village really wasn't that far away from Massacre Hill and anyone could throw a bullet Custer's way. If you have clumped together because of panic, the trade rifles were even effective. A target 4 feet wide and 5.5 feet long would be easy to hit from that distance. When I was in the reserve, I could put 100% of my shots in a target that big at a distance of 500 yards (~500 meters). The fact that no one was shooting back helped. What did the clumping do? Well, it was pointed out that bullets hitting near by just increased the panic and the troopers clumped even tighter and made an even better target for the Cheyenne's. I didn't realize the kind of crap the traders sold the Indian's until I saw a photograph of a trade rifle. They had a wooden stock but you swear they were just pieces of wood held together with rawhide leather cords. The Buffalo Bill Cody museum in Cody, Wyoming has a wing that is totally devoted to antique weapons.
I was having problems walking around by the time I got to Reno's defensive position. It was obvious even to an amateur strategist that he had a defensive position. Custer was in a position that anyone with a long shooting rifle could plink at. Reno had a hill and it was the highest area in the neighborhood. When the Cheyenne approached Reno, they were coming up hill towards him and Reno had the advantage. He was dug in and the Cheyenne were in the open and were the easy targets. It paid because the Cheyenne left him mostly alone. Benteen survived because he joined Reno. Some of the recent analyses of the Little Bighorn battle, think Reno survived because Benteen joined him. They have Reno's completely paniced and not in control of his troops where as, Benteen was still in control. To my mind, it doesn't matter since they both survived.
The trail from the Cheyenne village to Reno's defensive position. |
The south end of Reno's position from the parking lot. |
From the notes at the National Historical Site, Reno sent a company to explore if they could join Custer but they were driven back at the ridge that separated Reno's hill and Custer's position. The shooting had already died down around Custer and people believe his command had been wiped out by that time. Reno and Benteen stayed in their defensive position. That is where the Army Custer was supposed to have waited for found them.
Crook was also supposed to show up but he had re-supply from Fort Benton. His command had almost been wiped out in the battle of the Rosebud two days earlier and had nearly used up all of their ammunition. He wasn't in condition to fight a battle of any type at that point.
There were a lot of really angry Cheyenne's between Reno's Hill and Custer's hill. The two groups of soldiers were separated by a considerable distance. In my car, driving from one position to the other required 20-30 minutes at 25mph. A horse wasn't nearly as fast as I drove. The prospect of fighting PO'ed Cheyenne's to get from a good defensive position to a badly positioned open one has to be considered. The proof in the end is that one group survived and the other didn't. It was a proof by nature. In a battle, if you do something really stupid, you can die. Custer did something reallly stupid and he and his troop died as a consequence.
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