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A brash young man who attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Custer first proved his brilliance and daring as a calvary officer with the Union Army in the Civil War. Leading the Third Calvary Division in General Philip Sheridan's Shenandoah Valley campaign, Custer was sent to pursue General Robert E. Lee's Army of the Confederacy as it fled from Richmond, Virginia and he himself received the Confederate flag of truce when Lee surrendered at Appomattox Courthouse.
At the end of the Civil War, Custer was commissioned to the western frontier as part of the U.S. Army's effort to impress and intimidate hostile Plains Indians who had very good reason to be hostile. After the discovery of gold in the Black Hills territory in 1874, the sacred land that had been ceded to the Sioux ten years earlier was overrun by white miners looking to get rich quick. Although the 1868 second treaty of Fort Laramie clearly granted the tribe use of the Black Hills, the U.S. government reneged on the deal and ordered the Sioux to return to their reservation.
Custer's division of the 7th Calvary was sent on an expedition to locate and rout tribes gathered under Chief Sitting Bull, the great warrior of the Sioux and Cheyenne, who was believed to be camped in the Little Bighorn area. While Custer's commanding officer, Brigadier General Alfred H. Terry, branched off with the majority of the 7th Calvary down the Yellowstone River, Custer and his division followed the Rosebud River with orders to meet up at the mouth of the Little Bighorn where they would combine forces and push the Sioux and Cheyenne back to their reservations.

His troops were quickly encircled by the Sioux so Custer ordered his men to shoot their horses and stack the carcasses to form a wall. This provided very little protection against bullets and in less than an hour, the five companies under his immediate command were slaughtered in the worst military disaster ever. Nearly a third of the men of the 7th Calvary, including Custer and his brother, died at the Battle of Little Bighorn. a stunning victory for the Sioux.

Harsh retribution was soon brought down upon the Indian Nation as news of the death of a popular Civil War hero on the very eve of the country's Centennial spread. Though many Native Americans surrendered to the federal authorities, Sitting Bill fled to Canada in 1877 and sought refuge there for four years before returning to the United States on the brink of starvation.
Returning to the Standing Rock Agency in North Dakota, he fought for the sale of tribal lands and participated in the Ghost Dance Movement - a cultural and religious awakening among Native Americans that "expressed a desperate longing for the restoration of the past; a return to a life free of hunger, epidemic disease, and the bitter warring and divisiveness that accompanied the Indians' subjugation by whites."
Fearing the end of white dominance in the West, federal authorities attempted to take custody of Sitting Bull in 1890 but his followers were still loyal and a scuffle ensued. Thinking that the Army meant to kill Sitting Bull, shots were fired between the factions and both Sitting Bull, who was shot in the head, and his son Crow Foot died in the mêlée.
Someday I hope to be able to visit the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument just as I have been fortunate enough to visit many of our Civil War Battlefields throughout Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. I think it's important to know the history of one's country, both the tragic and the heroic, as then you can have a greater appreciation of what you have and how you came to have it. Many people died to make this Nation the great country that it is and it's only fitting that we honor and remember them.

this is a very good history post, and Churchill was a very smart man.....
ReplyDelete"Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it." truer words were never spoken!
ReplyDeletesmiles, bee
Great history lesson Linda.
ReplyDeleteAnother wonderful history lesson Linda. I too believe we will continue to repeat our mistakes. Well, that's what we seem to do over and over again. Have a great day. :)
ReplyDeleteReally good post as you explained what REALLY created the situation at Little Big Horn and it really wasn't an issue as many of us were led to believe as kids that it was those darned Indians who were the ones ALL at fault - cause it sure as heck wasn't them who started the whole thing.
ReplyDeleteWhether if be history lessons like this, or in one's personal life too, if you don't know -and understand too - where you've been, how're you ever going to know where you're going? Learn the history from all angles too - the way you've been doing - cause it's important to get much needed lessons from one's mistakes.
Very good history post. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteMe and Mike visited there last year on vacation and we learned SO very much that we hadn't known before.
ReplyDeleteThere are places all along that tell you what happened at that point.. and you can look out and see markers where soldiers and indians fell. There were a LOT more soldiers.
It was doomed from the beginning.
Me and Mike live in Custer's hometown.
Nicely done, Linda. Your "Cyber School of History" is quite fascinating - as evidenced by the comments you seem to get every time you do a historical post! Keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteBTW: That's one of the places on our agenda to visit someday!
Linda, You did a wonderful job with this. Excellent detail and research.
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