Battle of the Little Bighorn, Custer's Last Stand

I believe Custer, did not dismiss what Half Yellow face and one of his officers said to him about keeping the men together. He sounded dismissive to them, but in his mind he probably knew this was the safest route, but that wasn’t his personality. He tested fate in his youth and was successful. I believe, he believed, that destiny was on his side and even though he wasn’t doing it by the book, he was doing it his way. It had to be successful!

Reno was a Drunken insubordinate Coward who Hated Custer & benteen was also insubordinate & he hated Custer!!

Excellent. I've studied the Battle, been to the Little Bighorn twice, armed with maps of my own. This presentation agrees with my own as far as what I've learned. I'd like to see a follow-up on troopers that "almost" got away! (horseback) Were their breakouts from the "C" company charge, or Calhoun Ridge, the Keough Sector or from Last Stand Hill?

Custer got what he deserved on the little Big Horn I have no feelings for him

Outnumbered, inferior weapons for the most part, lack of familiarity with he terrain, over confidence and a dash of incompetence. Doubt any of them thought that was how their lives would end. But arrogant men produce terrible results.

Jesus Loves you !!! Roman’s 10:9 KJV!!!

I never understood the fascination with the minute details of this battle. In the end, Custer's command was wiped out. Having said that, I like the way you present the various conflicting accounts, the maps, and the on site photos. Very well done.

Dividing your forces in the face of a numerically superior enemy is a bad idea.

Thank you for the exercise in well presented clarity.......we appreciate the work and dedication to the subject.

Dr Mallott = Dr Fooshey !!!!!!!!!

Well done, you have tied together the failures of the commander, fate, and the victors, the Souix command. Still can't come to grips with the "extras" in this "terrible glory"....

Custer liked nothing more than to attack and murder defenseless elders,women and children,,,,,he got what he deserved when he ran into men,,,,

The paraphrase at the end I think its the fairest and most concise appraisal; the Natives fought a better fight. Really interesting, thank you!

I think the fact the calvary still fought the way they did in the Civil War is a part of their downfall. To get off your horse, with every fifth man holding the horses, was a bad way to fight. The Indians fought from their horses, and excelled

safe to say, they were out numbered

Fantastic analysis, I enjoyed this immensely. Well thought out and presented. Thank you for this.

Thanks very much...nicely done

Very nicely presented n detail with helpful diagrams showing placements and movements. First class.

Well done. I am obsessessed with this battle, have studied and read even the court martial details. Well done.

My Mother is a Oglala Lakota and I’m proud my family help make Custer and his men greasy marks on the prairie ! The Lakota were nomadic hunters , also in constant warfare with other tribes and Europeans when they showed up.

All i know is he had to be pretty crazy to even go near that huge Indian camp.

What a wonderfully insightful analysis and presentation.

Deep ravine likely suffered much water runoff from storms, flooding, etc. and probably washed out anything inside it long ago. I suppose if there was a dry spell and bones were covered up by brush and soil (or buried), and in the ensuing years there has been zero heavy rains or flooding...moderate runoff, etc.... something could still be there.

This fight had a route first then slaughter

The soldiers were grossly outnumbered

There are so many secrets hidden in this incident

I never get that wrong feeling from Custer, don't know why

This is a good summary

There is the place where Custer shit in his undertrousers. He whas a squawkiller and failure , not a general ( he whas Lieutenant Colonel ) and the name of Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse are known in most of western countrys. G.A. Custer is unknown , because he whas a bullshit guy and not more than a buffalo fart in the wind ! Sioux , Cheyenne and Arapaho tribe are famous , especialy in Germany. Greets from Germany. Washte ! RED POWER !!!

Thank you! I was leery of watching this video, because I'm sick and tired of people who call Custer a stupid, crazy, Indian hater, and a butcher of women and children, who was completely at fault for the disaster...because they watched the movie Little Big Man.
Custer was a legitimate hero of the Civil War, and was a Lt. Colonel in 1876, and not the commander of the Dakota Column. That was General Terry, who absolutely knew Custer's personality, and knew he would attack if he found his quarry. You are dead on when you point out the misconceptions, because everyone, from Sherman on down, believed that the biggest problem would be finding the Natives and forcing them to engage; their typical strategy was to break up into family groups and disappear into the countryside when confronted with the prospect of a battle they were not prepared for. Hancock, for instance, had chased them all over creation a few years before and never caught up with them...he managed to kill a total of three Natives, two of whom were friendlies! After the Little Big Horn debacle, Crook nearly starved his troopers to death before he caught up with them at Slim Buttes.
Custer has been unfairly maligned the last few decades, and has become the poster child of every awful thing Europeans have done to the tribes since first contact, mostly because few Americans can name any other soldier involved in the conflicts.

'Kernight' lol

Well done! Very nicely done. I didn’t realize that Custer’s companies had become so spread out that they were useless a fighting group and ultimately chopped up so piecemeal. What a cluster f**k. Embarrassing, really. Every military rule or guideline for survival in battle was utterly disregarded.

I love this series...

Custer was an impetuous fighter always charging headlong into the fray. He had been exceptionally lucky in the past having repeatedly attacked Southern Cavalry with a Devil may care attitude and coming out unscathed. He had not changed his tactics at this battle and suffered the consequences of not knowing exactly what he was up against since he did not want to risk discovery and the Indians fleeing. Must have been a real bummer. Grass was much taller. They couldn't see the Indians crawling through the grass. Indians called it the battle of the greasy grass. Steel tipped arrows.

The lesson of The Battle of Bighorn---Custer was a power hungry military leader(as many were and still are).As one reads all accounts (stories) of this battle---Custer did not accept the the fact the Indians were no idiots and were trying to defend their land.Custer never realized THERE ARE POWERS IN NUMBERS !

I think it is a bit different when you are the leader under fire. not back at HQ. Do you agree?

I like the video, I'm Italian and I've always studied the battles of the past (mainly those of the Roman army) ... I would like to say, after listening, that I learned studying those short moments, but long and infinite for those who lived them, that all known historical battles are made by commanders who have to make decisions, many times those decisions have to be made quickly, and executed as quickly as possible, because 1 minute after that order may no longer have a tactical meaning to advantage ... and here history teaches us that battles are made mainly by mistakes ... because it is easier to make mistakes than to understand a field which was sometimes 1 km long or even 5/6 km long, if not more ... you cannot see everything in the confusion of the moment and sometimes the signals are already wrong when they arrive ... you think at the beginning that everything is coordinated well, but events like this change quickly ... a clash between opponents is not a game of chess where you can think about the next move ... but you have to anticipate it, act and react ... and that's why it is easy to make mistakes, because everything changes ... above all the soul of the soldiers ... Custer was just unlucky, maybe he didn't quite understand what was happening, maybe ... perhaps he had managed to take prisoners, maybe ... perhaps he thought Benteen would arrive, maybe ... I don't know and we will never know ... but I think that probably the confusion of the moment could have created anarchy among some officers and petty officers, since they weren't all united around their commander ... on the other hand, soldiers are people made up of their weaknesses, when suddenly chaos reigns and you don't understand the orders or who is sending them (because the soldier can also understand that an order could be wrong because it arrived late, or just because from his position he sees a different scenario, so he cannot act and gets confused and panicked) the soldiers panic and escape if they can ... in the history of battles is full of soldiers running away ... these were the battles of the past ... I repeat: we will never know the truth, but it is clear (from my point of view) that those soldiers were only looking for salvation, because everything went haywire ... Custer is not to blame, he could not do anything, moreover, it is wrong to think that he was not a good commander ... he was an excellent commander, because he was bad enough to command and he knew how to make decisions very quickly ... but that day everything became uncontrollable ... he could not do anything even before it all happened, since he could not know it nor prevent ... it is easy to say after ... from my point of view, this battle is the example that panic, anarchy and confusion is the most important part of battles, since it always decides the fate of one side ... soldiers are people who reason, they are sensitive to life and the instinct of salvation is human, it also prevails over orders ... especially in hand-to-hand battles of the past ... there are no heroes in battles, only men

10000 to 210 no wonder Custer lost. Give Him another hour and Benteen comes to help. Maybe we would know what happened because the outcome would have been different Maybe. Indians lie so much and they change their stories too often

10000 to 210 no wonder Custer lost. Give Him another hour and Benteen comes to help. Maybe we would know what happened because the outcome would have been different Maybe. Indians lie so much and they change their stories too often

The fact that General Custer and his 210 men were out numbered by approximately 10 to 1 may have had a hell of a lot to do with it! 💀

Would be nice if you could do a UAV flight explanation of the Fetterman battle. Never have been able to find a video that shows the relationship of the movements relative to the fort and the ridge that the commander told them not to cross.

pickett's comment sums it up. they were experienced hunters from a harsh enviornment who had fought often and needed little leadership. red cloud had already showed their stuff and the army wasn't reading the messages

Custer's plan is to wait until the 26th, and the columns' reconnecting. However, scouts tell him he's been discovered, and now he fears the worst: the hostiles will bolt & scatter, and the campaign will fail.
So, now he develops an even more daring & ambitious plan that will require every member of the 7th's full effort & cooperation.
And, here, IMO, is where the battle goes south for the 7th. Because, some of the regiment will make the supreme effort to make this plan work, and the other two battalion officers will take a decidedly obtuse, passive-aggressive attitude toward Custer's plan, denying any chance of the plan's, and thereby the 7th's, success. Non-success carried direct consequences for half the regiment. Many of the subalterns knew this, saw & heard the ominous developments, and pushed vociferously for supporting Custer, to no avail. Others felt the Reno battalion was poorly (incorrectly) handled, also affecting Custer's plan. Many of these opinions were not publicly aired, in order not to completely destroy the regiment's reputation, thus leaving opening for a rather convenient narrative, that Custer was a psychotic, power-mad, rash, glory hound, the 7th couldn't possibly defeat that village, and the surviving battalion commanders were simultaneously victims of circumstance and the only wise officers that day.
But, the reported facts, figures & timelines reported that day & immediately after the battle, by subalterns, the battalion commanders themselves, and others in the Montana column, as well as some NA sources, contradict this narrative that is now firmly in the popular imagination.

All the archeology of this site is a money grab for some soft scientists with a ideological bend. The battlefield was looted thoroughly from day 1, was a gun range a year later, was a picnic stop for wagons as well. I have zero trust in their trade ( archeology), and their intentions

Now I understand why Custer was called as the dumbest US general of history

Being attacked by 3000 soldiers against 200...I don't who who can stand a chance

Custer had to go against his own judgment and ordered a immediate attack