“WE'VE CAUGHT THEM NAPPING!”

[johnny7]

Those were George Armstrong Custers last words heard by a living human being a few minutes before the “unthinkable” happened.

1876 was an exciting time in America. It was the year of the Centenial, the Brooklyn Bridge was being built and the future was bright and limitless.

On a hot afternoon in June... the 25th, this euphoria would recieve a cold slap in the face. Custer, boy general of the Civil War/Indian fighter would lay dead on the field along with his two brothers, a nephew and a brother-in-law.

210 troopers under his direct command also layed dead, scattered about him. The mutilation of the bodies was horrific. Very little evidence of skirmish lines or solid defensive positions were found. The famous “Last Stand” was just a cluster of fifty or so frightened and wounded troopers waiting for the Indian “coup-de-gras”.

Although there have been volumes written on Custer and the battle, no one except the Sioux and Northern Cheyenne knew how his five companys were destroyed. Did Custer fall early in the fight or was he blazing away at the ghastly end?

Perhaps Sitting Bull summed it up the best. “Custer stood like sheaf of corn with all the ears around him. He laughed when he died... he fired his last shot.”

[SAMWolf]

Bump

[Bringbackthedraft]

"210 troopers under his direct command also layed dead" Wasn't there also a newspaper reporter? (Charles Daniels?)

[ought-six]

"210 troopers under his direct command also layed dead" Wasn't there also a newspaper reporter? (Charles Daniels?)"

The reporter was Mark Kellogg, and he wasn't even supposed to be there (another reporter had been slated to go on the expedition). He was killed with Custer's command, and his body was found down the slope from Last Stand Hill, not too far from the river. There is some speculation that he was trying to flee the carnage and was killed as he tried to make his escape. But that is speculation only; no one knows for sure exactly what were the circumstances of his death. Indian sources say virtually nothing about Kellogg, aside from some comments that a couple "soldiers" (the Indians referred to all the white men there as soldiers) tried to escape toward the river (which was, interestingly enough, also towards the village; the suspicion being that there was nowhere else to go, and at least there was some cover near the river among the cottonwood trees).