18761776 Club
Custer leads five companies into a village far larger than warned; not one man with him survives
268 soldiers are dead and 55 severely wounded along the Little Bighorn, the worst blow the U.S. Army has suffered since the Civil War.
The Black Hills gold rush had broken a federal treaty, and by the summer of 1876, thousands of Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho had left their reservations to gather along the Little Bighorn River in Montana Territory. On June 25, Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer divided his 7th Cavalry Regiment into three battalions and led five companies directly into a village far larger than his scouts had warned. Custer and all the men with him were killed; when the shooting stopped, 268 were dead and 55 severely wounded. The U.S. Army had not lost a fight like it since the Civil War…
