I'm a published author working on my third book, and it has led me (unexpectedly) to do an ungodly amount of research on the Battle of the Little Bighorn, George and Elizabeth Custer, the Seventh Cavalry, and the US military on the frontier.
This channel will focus on the many tangents and avenues leading to the Seventh Cavalry-- officers and soldiers, military spouses and families, enemies and allies, newspapers and books, artists and writers and lifestyle, events leading up to the 1876 Little Bighorn fight as well as those that ripple out from it afterwards (the Reno Court of Inquiry in 1879 onward to the Custer Equestrian Statue in 1910, etc).
Though I have been called a "war writer," I am more interested in the people rather than the fight. And this channel will illuminate the details and anecdotes I think best capture the wild spirit of the time.
I came back and listened to this for a second time. The fiesty statement made by Luther Hare was quote: I’m a fighting sonofabitch from Texas! Mother effer was a term that originated during WW2.
Siobhan: Riveting story, CPT Tom Custer deserves the recognition on his own merit; you gave him at least the last word and I felt like I was there with him. Moving tribute and an excellent video; Thanks.😞
@michaelthomas7178 thanks (I think! 😉). It's because it's surprising that I wanted to share. Thank you for watching and commenting! Hope to hear from you again, Michael 🙏
Before Congress and it was his speech which had gotten Secretary of the Interior impeached included this line, "When have you not seen an Indian Agent not leave home poor but within his terms of service come back rich?" President Grant although not corrupt himself, had relatives who were in league with Belnap. There were several people who disliked Custer, notably General George Crook and the Confederate Mosby. In doing a family history, some of my ancestors fought alongside him during the battle of Cedar Creek, helping to turn that battle. I also wondered why I was fascinated by the Plains Indians wars, when my family had no link to them. Then I discovered I did have a link. Marcus Kellogg was first A.P. reporter killed in the line of duty. He was one of the first to die at the Little Big Horn. The date of the conflict coincidentally is the date I was conceived by my parents. I joined the U.S. Marines wanting to be a combat reporter. Does the spirit of Marcus Kellogg have an influence upon my life? I do know Kellogg believed it would be an easy victory but no one expected the Cheyenne and LaKota to combine forces or that they would adopt the Whiteman's tactics. Custer, like Crazy Horse were exceptionally brave but not with their troop's lives. In the book "Son of the Morning Star' the writer claimed Custer promised the "Great Spirit" never to fight either tribe again bur he did. I find it interesting both Sitting Bull and Custer's wife had premonitions of his death and the battle. Also, Custer would have not risked the lives of his brother and another relative had he thought there would be a great danger for them.
My understanding was that he suffered from severe PTSD - a raw example from the 1800s. I am a modern Native American with many relatives who served in the US Military. I studied Agent Orange in graduate school. PTSD wasn't really documented well until the aftermath of the Vietnam War. So, it was surprising to find an early case with Weir from the 1800s. War is hell. He probably wasn't the only one with PTSD from that battle. Weir reminds me of the paralyzed veteran screaming from flashbacks in the VA hospital in the film "Born on the 4th of July" about a US Marine paralyzed around the Tet Offensive of 1968.
@manuelsteele7755 Captain Thomas French did not fare much better. The survivor guilt eventually got them both. Both were bachelors too so no support system at all 😥 Thanks for your insights, Manuel!
One of the points that i struggle with is the fact that while Custer remained on the offensive things were going well but as soon as he gave up manouvre he waa finished. Why on earth didnt he reassemble his battalion and move back down his trail to unite with Benteen and the pack train? Had his horses given out by then?
@chrisjones6736 I assume he had too many wounded. Also, my personal guess is he saw Weir / D campany and then the rest accumulate on Weir Point and assumed that was a signal they would arrive any moment. Some eyewitnesses (Edgerly, Weir's Lt, made it farther than Weir P and say they were there for over an hour, if not two). By the time Custer realized they were just turning around, not coming any farther to unite with his troops, it was too late. Please take a look at my Weir videos, especially the final installment
Siobhan: Thanks again for a picture of how life was on the plains and the men and women who lived the hardships on the frontier. I noticed that Tommy Custer was listed as "Custar" in the census and the obituary cited him as Custer and Custar. There is no doubt in my mind that Tommy Custer was the son of Tom Custer. His rejection of Tommy is a mystery and we will never know why. I really enjoy your tidbits of info that bring to life the human quality that is often missing in telling the story of the Old West. Stay safe and I am looking forward to the next episode. 🤔
@joesphmurphy4013 thanks Joe! I agree with you, and think poor Tommy seems to be Tom's son. But the reasons it never worked out with his mom remain a sad mystery.
Just finished reading "A Life on the Plains" by Custer. I was suprised as you have shown in your video the admiration that he had for the Indian tribes. The reputation he has of being irreverent and vain did not match how he wrote. I tried to explain that to others, but they are convinced that Custer despised Indians. Good video...thanks.
@@SiobhanFallon7 yes indeed. It was a good movie but just as biased, in the opposite direction, as those old movies from the 40’s. Thanks for setting the record straight 👍. I enjoy your videos.
@ml5955 you are so right about the pendulum swinging to the other side from old Westerns to Little Big Man. Thank you again for the kind words and I hope you find other videos of mine you like! 🙏
I was at the battlefield yesterday. When I told my neighbor, he said that as a kid they would go there and run all over the place. He said you could still find relics on the ground and a kid he knew found a bugle.
@fishbum55 where is that bugle??? OMG! 🤣 I've heard stories like that too. Which makes me think that there must have been so many more cartridges etc left on the battlefield, with 100 plus years of people picking them up, than our modern technology could ever realize.
It's been told that a graveyard in my area of Berea Kentucky there's a tombstone of an African American soldier that says he rode with Gen. Custer. It's terribly overgrown and neglected
@@microsofty5778 If there was a genocide of the indigenous they would not need reservations and millions of acres of land set aside for them. You know who truly had genocidal intent toward the tribes? Other tribes. To eradicate their enemy tribes would have been a great victory for them and they relished the opportunity to do so. In the general scheme of things, the tribes in the western US were a relatively small issue until the late 19th century and even then they were controlled rather quickly. It was inevitable. There was no way that a relatively small group of people (the tribes), spread across thousands of miles of territory were ever going to be compatible with the encroaching tide of non-native settlers. The individual soldiers were not genocidal either. They would much have preferred to be in garrison at a fort, warm, getting fed vs dying at the hands of a people they had no quarrel with.
Thank you so much for sharing this letter from Jack's mother. I didn'tknow it existed, and it certainly has information i hadn't heard before. Also hadn't heard about where the clothing had been found, or about the heads. I'm a retired Army officer, and distantly related to Jack and visiting the battlefield for the first time 2 weeks from now. This video will help me view the battlefield in a different way than i would have. Thank you!
@gfv5647 oh how wonderful!! I wish I could have gotten there this summer! And thank you for the kind words. You probably know this, but there's some current construction on the battlefield so maybe double check the website or call. And since the visitor center is closed, may I recommend you stop at the Little Bighorn museum in Hardin? It's more of a general museum about Montana but they do have some great exhibits and photos concerning the 7th Cav as well as the Tribes. You could spend a whole day there in itself. I always stop in and check out their awesome books in the shop and walk around and each time I see something new and wonderful. And of course I recommend that you watch more of my videos as you prepare for your journey... 😉🤣📚
@frankmorris4790 Frank, that's a neat insight. I do always wonder why it's not more highly recommended to those studying the Little Bighorn, and nothing reveals the man more than his own writing and thoughts. And the more I read up on the Washita, which Custer outlines in great detail in My Life, the more I can see the parallels between the two campaigns.
Nice work Siobhan bringing some justice for Custer. So many times we heard about the despite he had for Native Americans and all the while so called historians and writers fed on these stories and it was too bad. The idea of the Native Americans wanted to seek revenge on him at the Little Big horn because of his so called hatred was another myth from that battle. Your story told us of a totally different Custer. Thank you.
From Kate Bighead/ Antelope Woman, Meotzi's cousin, interviewed by Dr. Marquis: "My cousin, a young woman named Me-o-tzi , went often with him to help in finding the trails of Indians. She said he told her his soldier horses were given plenty of corn and oats to eat, so they could outrun and catch the Indians riding ponies that had only grass to eat. All of the Cheyennes liked her, and all were glad she had so important a place in life. After Long Hair went away, different ones of the Cheyenne young men wanted to marry her, but she would not have any of them. She said that Long Hair was her husband; that he had promised to come back to her, and that she would wait for him. She waited 7 years, then he was killed. Meotzi mourned when she learned of his death. I was not then with those people, but I heard that she cut off her hair and gashed her arms and legs for mourning. Her heart was much the more sad on account of his having been killed in a battle where the Northern Cheyennes fought against him. About a year later she married a white man named Isaac. They had several children. One of her daughters is now a middle-aged woman living with us Northern Cheyennes on Tongue River. The mother lived to old age and died in Oklahoma 6 years ago, some time after Christmas (in January, 1921), but her name is continued among us. A little granddaughter of mine is known to us as Meotzi. At times the young people joke her: "You are Custer's Indian wife."
It’s interesting that this is the soldiers all went past your body to identify her. But if you look at the Wikipedia story they say her body wasn’t found till 2 weeks later. Dead body would be unrecognizable I would think
Never knew the powder river campaign drove the plains indians into an alliance. This fact further condemns Crook for not informing anyone of the unexpected strength of the Indians he found at the Rosebud. Again great job on putting this all together. As i recall Custer found a dead soldier while following the trail to the LBH. They attributed the dead soldier to the Powder River fight. Could that body been Ayers?
@Freedomfred939 wow I don't know! Wooden Leg talks of the Cheyenne killing a soldier who said he got lost so I always assumed that was the soldier body. But I'll looking into the Ayers story more...
Most modern Native Americans are part white. It's statistically rare to find a truly full-blooded Native American. I have read accounts about Custer having fathered a child with a Cheyenne woman. It would not surprise me if that were true. Soldiers, trappers, hunters, and scouts along the isolated frontier far from the European settlements tended to have relations with Native American women. I am willing to bet that a few soldiers of the 7th Calvary actually have mixed-blooded descendants somewhere out there. Usually, if a tribe has a half-white member, that individual grows up and marries another Native American. After several generations, the children look full-blooded but are actually 1/4 white, 1/8, etc. In modern times, I often see "full-blooded" Plains Indians who appear to have some distant white ancestry. The person could have been a French fur trapper. Or maybe a member of the 7th Calvary. It's speculation to a large degree, but DNA testing could uncover a lot of that.
@@microsofty5778 I'm a data scientist with a background in biochemistry. It depends on how you define "pure". If you look at government enrollment, a tribe like the Navajos will have documents that list most of them as "4/4". But if you look at DNA, there is some degree of admixture with Spanish ancestry. The Navajos have a clan called the "Mexican Clan" near Shiprock. That Mexican Clan has intermixed with other Navajo families for over a hundred years. So, a Navajo of the Mexican clan is likely 1/4, 1/8, or 1/16 Spanish. Any family they marry into will have that Spanish ancestry intermixed partially. But it wouldn't be noticeable to outsiders. However, to those who grew up on the reservation like me, I know the variation is there. I can see it. I knew a Navajo from Shiprock with curly hair and grayish eyes - obviously part Spanish. I collaborated with a historian from UNM once about the topic regarding DNA and partial Spanish ancestry of "full-blooded" Native Americans in the southwest. He said it was common. So, that means over half of Navajos could literally be part Spanish - but just a small amount that most people can't tell. And many will vehemently deny it's there. But the DNA testing could uncover a lot.
@@microsofty5778 The arguments over blood quantum get really fierce. I’ve seen it many times. The Navajos and Cherokees got into a war of words over which tribe is larger. The Dineeh claimed they are the real Indians and Cherokees are not. But I am a data scientist working on a PhD. I have spent years studying statistical models. I am also Apache from a reservation. I stand by my analysis but will politely excuse myself from further comments on the topic. Have a great weekend.
Bloody Knife was with Reno's battalion. He was right next to Reno when he was killed by a head shot. That prompted Reno's panicked retreat from the timber.
He was shot near Major Reno. Custer sent him with Reno and the scouts as the first wave of troops to engage the Indian village. I'll put the links here to my videos on Bloody Knife!
@@unpob and here is Part II: Bloody Knife, The Indian Scout Who Fought & Died for Custer ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-vpPzw-4w8Hc.htmlsi=cMzTx4obYqOpLAcU Please let me know what you think!
Not sure if Crazy Horse was even a part of the fight on Last Stand Hill. Usually he is given credit for breaking the line of troops between Captain Keogh and Lt Calhoun.
@@SiobhanFallon7 I can back this one up, Siobhan. According to existing evidence Crazy Horse was credited with splitting Myles Keogh's Company l from Calhoun's L company. I've seen a BBC documentary showing Crazy Horse attacking Custers section but that was pure dramatic licence. Maybe that's where the commentor saw this?
Actually it was a tactical victory for Custer's command. The Sioux left the battlefield in possession of Custer's troops and the objective of making the Sioux leave Crow land was achieved.
@31terikennedy Teri, very true. And Custer did manage the objective of bringing the NA to battle rather than have them scatter. Unfortunately for everyone, really. The human loss for the US Army, but also the crack down that followed upon the tribes. No one was a winner ultimately.
@@SiobhanFallon7 How long did the Last Stand fight last, two hours? Custer ran out of ammo and that's when he was overrunned. Benteen had his orders , chose not to obey them and got away with it because Grant was behind it. Custer was at LBH because the Crow wanted Army help to expel the Sioux from Crow land . Some tribes got along and some didn't. The Sioux didn't and something had to be done.
@@chrisjones6736 A victory just the same. Custer failed at the LBH because of the treachery of Reno and Benteen with the backing of Grant. Yep, Red Cloud made a treaty and lived by it which shows treaties could work. I agree with Grant stopping making treaties with Indians because they caused more problems than they were worth.
@31terikennedy is that the same kind of treachery that resulted in the death of Elliott and his troops at Washita? I think blaming anyone at this remove is Monday morning quarterbacking at best. Custer was in charge, he could have withdrawn down his supply line while he had time, but I guess he didn't think he had to. I wouldn't rule disobedience out, but I suspect if the rump 7th had persisted in advancing towards Custer they too would have ended up as white stone markers.
Great Job Siobhan clearing up alot of false information, that seemed to come out after Vietnam when it became vogue for historians to put their anti military spin in their writings. So much of their teachings and writings were just crap and now because of historians like yourself are showing what was being written and taught by these people was nothing but lies and garbage. Keep up your great research and videos! Are you planning on putting together any type of outing for the 150th. anniversary at the Little Big Horn battlefield?
Oh I MUST be there for the anniversary!! Unfortunately I think that's also the summer of ou big military move back to the states so I don't know if it will be possible 😭😭😭😭
Thanks for all your continued support and comments, Mark. I think Little Big Man did a huge disservice to Custer, and was wholly wrong about everything 🤦🏼♀️🤣 It's based on a fictional novel, of course, but people make assumptions it's true, and too few are willing to dig a little to find the real man. 📚
@davidlord7364 honestly, as a military spouse who has lived within the military community for more than 20 years, any successful officer needs a big ego. How else can you risk men's lives? Any leader must be certain he/ she is right. Like doctors maybe. A battlefield or an operating table is not the time to second guess ones self.
It may seem petty after the fact but I blame the movie: Little Big Man. It portrayed the Sioux in the best of light which was fine, but it showed the 7th Cavalry as mean and cold hearted. The worst was showing Custer as a madman, only out for glory for himself. This idea of Custer as a glory hound on that day is founded on some faulty after the battle "reporting". After the battle the Sioux abandoned or moved the part of the camp closest to Reno's initial attack, but they did not leave. They set up on the opposite side of the camp. When the word came that Terry was approaching, the entire camp packed up and left. When Terry's forces surveyed the battle site they looked at the "footprint" of the camp. Of course it looked huge because of the shifting of lodges. Someone decided that only a madman would attack a Indian camp that big with the forces available on that day. Custer did attack, therefore he must have been a madman. This idea of Custer as one brick short of a load has persisted in some cases to this day. I think that is what the movie Little Big Man dramatized as fact. Especially Custer's last scene on Last Stand Hill. This movie and others since have made Custer fair game for unfair criticism while ignoring the fact that the Sioux and Cheyanne were just better motivated on that day. This was in my mind the beginning of the revisionist we have today where "white man bad" and "white man always has been bad and always will be".
I could not agree with you more. Little Big Man created the unhinged Custer and that's the image that lingers, nevermind that the actual book it was based on was a novel, and that the movie decided to use the script to make an anti-war statement. I am rather new to this study, and had all the same assumptions about Custer myself until fairly recently. And, especially as a military spouse, I see the injustice and chasm between the actual man and the villian we have made him with lazy history and journalism. He wasn't perfect, I know, but he is more than most realize. Great point about the size of the camp being exaggerated by the move/ footprint, as well as the testimony of 7th eyewitnesses whose first reports claimed 1,500 to 3000 "hostiles", but by the time of the Reno Court of Inquiry and mass scrutiny into their actions, suddenly claimed 8 to 9000.
Huh? Here are Terry's orders. Please show me where it says Custer needs to wait for reinforcements? "Headquarters of the Department of Dakota, Camp at Mouth of Rosebud River, Montana Territory June 22nd, 1876 Lieutenant-Colonel Custer, 7th Calvary Colonel: The Brigadier-General Commanding directs that, as soon as your regiment can be made ready for the march, you will proceed up the Rosebud in pursuit of the Indians whose trail was discovered by Major Reno a few days since. It is impossible to give you any definite instructions in regard to this movement, and were it not impossible to do so the Department Commander places too much confidence in your zeal, energy, and ability to wish to impose upon you precise orders which might hamper your action when nearly in contact with the enemy. He will, however, indicate to you his own views of what your action should be, and he desires that you should conform to them unless you shall see sufficient reason for departing from them. He thinks that you should proceed up the Rosebud until you ascertain definitely the direction in which the trail above spoken of leads. Should it be found (as it appears almost certain that it will be found) to turn towards the Little Bighorn, he thinks that you should still proceed southward, perhaps as far as the headwaters of the Tongue, and then turn toward the Little Horn, feeling constantly, however, to your left, so as to preclude the escape of the Indians passing around your left flank. The column of Colonel Gibbon is now in motion for the mouth of the Big Horn. As soon as it reaches that point will cross the Yellowstone and move up at least as far as the forks of the Big and Little Horns. Of course its future movements must be controlled by circumstances as they arise, but it is hoped that the Indians, if upon the Little Horn, may be so nearly inclosed by the two columns that their escape will be impossible. The Department Commander desires that on your way up the Rosebud you should thoroughly examine the upper part of Tullock's Creek, and that you should endeavor to send a scout through to Colonel Gibbon's command. The supply-steamer will be pushed up the Big Horn as far as the forks of the river is found to be navigable for that distance, and the Department Commander, who will accompany the column of Colonel Gibbon, desires you to report to him there not later than the expiration of the time for which your troops are rationed, unless in the mean time you receive further orders. Very respectfully, Your obedient servant, E. W. Smith, Captain, 18th Infantry A. A. J. G
@@SiobhanFallon7 another good book on the LBH is; Lakota Noon by Gregory F. Michno. He breaks down the battle in fifteen minute increments or so using the Sioux participants recollections and testimonials. The Indians never condemned Custer and neither does the author. In my mind Custer tried to cross the river to take the women or the horses or just surround the camp. When he was rebuffed, he withdrew to the bluffs and sent for reinforcement that never came.
There was something about the educational system of 19th century West Point that made men highly literate and observant. This shows in the civil war memoires of Grant, Sheridan, Longstreet, and many others. And perhaps you, Ms Fallon, could make a video to compare the opinions and observations of General custer with those of his boss, General Sheridan.
@@ciarandoyle4349 that's a great idea. Thank you. I will mull it over! I've just started working on a video about Irish immigrants in the 7th Cavalry, but I'll put your suggestion on my list!
@@SiobhanFallon7 Their books got me through the Covid lockdowns anyway. And if I might make a comment in passing, Sheridan mentions a type of education that existed in Ireland before the national schools system was established, the "hedge school". He doesn't use the term, but his description of his own elementary education shows that this form of schooling was carried over from Ireland to rural Ohio. These "hedge schools" no longer existed after the 1830s and the younger Irish cavalrymen who died at Little Big Horn would likely have attended the Irish national schools.
@@ciarandoyle4349 interesting! I know very little about Sheridan, but his Irish heritage makes me curious to learn more. 🍀 Thanks for that bit of background on him!
