The Gray Horse Troop and Deep Ravine | Are Troopers Still Unburied at the Little Bighorn? 

Yup- they call those kinds of storms "Gulley Washers " for a reason.

Great points you two,seriously e-mail the Park System/Historian that is certainly plausible Video said over time the high walls of deep ravine collapsed some perhaps covering the shallow graves.That was before the 80s excavations and with the thick growth in there could they use ground penetrating radar or simply to difficult to get at.People can be assuming it was done when it wasn't or even wolves/coyote's carrying off body parts

Grew up in Northern UT, yep seen the same types of thing if there was a heavy snow pack.

Great theory, parallels my own considering steepness & seasonal run-off. However, to take it one step further, it's reasonable to assume the burial detail (as a rule, a people by & large much more in tune with the environment than most are today) naturally considered/anticipated this & transferred these bodies up to the mass burial site at the monument. (by hand to horse travois up the creek bed, to wagon or all the way by travois) Why? If it was impossible to bury them where they lay, command would then not necessarily want them buried at the more reasonable slopes at the head of the ravine & risk confusing the layout. Consider context likely mattered to them as much as it does to us today. They took great care everywhere (as much as possible) to mark bodies in situ. Not taking the ravine casualties all the way to the monument would have confused the investigation/legacy/layout of a profound battlefield they surely knew had "Memorial in Perpetuity" written all over it. Many present were Civil War veterans keenly aware of the historic magnitude of such occasions.

Perhaps I've read many times because of the heat, and what two days,the diggers were just too overwhelmed with the horrific stench and hordes of flies.These guys were just slapped together not trained undertakers with hazmet gear & breathing apparatus. Dirty Job - better call Mike Rowe

I concur with that thought plus they were then out of sight and out of mind, I believe they are there too.

I Concur Also...

Yes I believe their still in the deep ravine also.

Intersting thought, maybe you are right but maybe not. It occured to me that when a deluge occurs out west, then everything in a ravine gets washed away and covered up and sometimes it lies quite far from its original location. There may have been enough time since the battle to have had a deluge or two, so there may be no traces, i. e. bones, leather boot rests, buttons, shell casings, rusty spoons, etc., to be found and one job of the squaws was to scavange the battlefield taking everything they could, so there may not be as many traces as one may think. This is out west, so there were also coyotes or wolves around in the summer which smelled the blood and the smell from bacteria starting to decay flesh from the summer heat right after the battle and they can crush bones with sharp teeth for its marrow. All sorts of varmints gnaw on bones for its minerals, just take a look at the teeth marks on an antler which has been on the ground for a couple of years. Just a couple of things to ponder.

The people assigned to the burial detail probably didn't realize the significance of this battle would have for future generations. And that the location of the fallen soldiers would be individually marked. They probably did their duty as quickly as possible, so I believe the bodies are still there.

Agree. .Times Change..things Move.

The Indians stripped them of their cloths. so buttons wouldn't be found.

@@barbarapatterson4132 i think in the other videos in this series some bodies were identified and names added to markers because buttons were found.

John McMorris , perhaps your father's acquaintence had a father/friend/relative who collected the scavenged articles .Because that doesn't sound right as WWII started basically in 1940 that's 82 ys ago so that fellow was only like 4 yrs old then and couldn't possibly have worked in that area prior to the War.Also I believe the poster Kirk Dunston above has a very plausible explanation and if I had to bet it all I would guess his theory is accurate

@@bigwoody4704 BW. You are correct. The person who collected the artifacts was at least 20-25 years older than my father. He was not the same generation as my father. The gentleman I referenced lived in a tiny town in northeast Missouri and I have talked others who knew him that had seen his collection. I do not know what became of the relics.

The troopers who buried the dead in the ravine say they did so by breaking off parts of the banks so it fell on top of the corpses, which by that time were very ripe. IMO that, and the difficulty of getting down into the ravine which was no doubt foul beyond words, accounts for the lack of markers placed by the first burial detail and explains why these troopers were missed by subsequent battlefield cleanups.

Neat that’s how i found some buffalo skulls and bones in Alberta

Preach it Bruth’a

@@jonathansparks3386 it's his view , not preaching

I come from a line of service people and I'd just like to think someone sent blessings over them . Life is tough it's a long time not to have blessed words over . Maybe coming from a line of sailors it's superstition 💙 you have served I don't know your beliefs but I would imagine you have strong ones . From one man to another god bless you 👊

@@matthewevans3292 As a Christian, I've learned to pray for the living, that they make it to heaven, once the spirit has left, it's a done deal. I pray frequently for our troops, sailors, etc. in all branches. The saber rattling is loud now and I don't want to wait for an attack to start praying.

Hell no, if I died on a battlefield I'd want to be sent back home and not left where I laid

Do you have any of Dr. Fox's books from his research after the big fire in the 1980's.? Fox is a history professor at University of South Dakota and a huge Bighorn buff. I know one book shows plotting of empty cartridge cases, unfired cartridges and bullets impacted into the ground. The Nebraska State Police Forensic Firearms Examiner helped Fox and Crew a lot on the scene and in the lab. Many of the bullets had penetrated the hard soil enough to reliably show its trajectory angle at impact. From that they identified the likely cartridge/rifle combination and plot back to where that bullet was launched at. It really shook some long held myths about what happened on both sides. One thing Fox has pointed out with 45-70 bullet and cases we can't assume a soldier fired it, because Indians were picking up weapons from fallen soldiers and using them. The coolest finding was the confirming a specific Trapdoor carbine was fired from a specific point. Someone in the region has a Trapdoor carbine reputed to have been taken by Indians off the battlefield. A fired 45-70 case was found south of Last Stand Hill during the 80s big dig. The Nebraska State Lab examiner was able to test that carbine and it was a perfect match. One of the few times in history they could say this carbine serial number xxxx fired this cartridge on this date and time.

Indians who were there in the fight interviewed years later stated a group of soldiers were killed in the ravine at the conclusion of the fight. Several of the Chiefs visited the battlefield weeks later and remarked of the stench coming from the ravine area. They cited bodies and weapons still there at that time.......

Maybe didn't have to much interest in going down there for what ever reason.

ie: they didn’t do it.

It's only steep on 2 sides, the burial detail can simply walk down from upstream or downstream instead of crawling down the sides. And the burial team would simply move the bodies out of the ravine before burial so they don't get washed out.

The only tenseness I felt was keeping a eye for rattlesnakes as they do lay along the trails.

I made a large reply to another post above with views from angles not usually mentioned but are pertinent. I just reexamined the area on Google Maps 3-D satellite and that reinforced the possibility of mis-identification of "deep ravine". I hunted out west for years and one mile of hills and ravines and grass looks like the next 30 miles of the exact same thing. They all look the same real quick. But its possible they missed covered evidence. It would just be a matter of a few inches for hit or miss items. The bodies were probably hacked to pieces like the troops on the hill. I'm convinced there are no "complete" body burials. If they were buried or just rotted then it'd be far easier to metal detect buttons, cartridges and other accoutrements.

The Battlefield is indeed an amazing place to visit. It is the only one I have ever visited, where a sense of how big the battle was..the markers where people passed makes that much clear. On my visit, I didn’t have much time to walk around, but I still got a good sense where everything happened.

where markers are found in pairs, it likely means that's where horse and trooper fell and were buried. The markers were placed sometime later at locations where the grass was greener (better fertilized).

@@greenflagracing7067 When you go there. The horses were just on the other side were the big wall with the names of all the Indians on it. The markers for the horses is there.

..DOES make sense. My thought is there aren’t any bodies LEFT in the ravine..IF THERE EVER WERE ANY, BECAUSE they’d been moved “after that 3-day period”…

@@m118lr Uh..... Okay. Thanks I guess.

I know literally nothing about this battle beyond the fact that it occurred, but looking at the terrain topology, it seems pretty obvious that anyone that ducked into that wash for cover was unlikely to get out without a horse. While the Indians seemingly chopped the dead up some, it isn't clear to me that they would have moved any quantity of them any great distance. So I think the bodies would still have been there a few days later, when found. The Christian idea of a "decent burial" includes the idea of a relatively permanent resting place. The bottom of a wash that is most likely going to see fairly swift running water after a heavy rain is not a good place for a graveyard, as it will wash away. I think it is reasonable that as much as possible, the bodies would have been recovered to higher ground, probably using improvised liters or the like. How far they would have been moved is then open to debate, but your theory that they would be buried near their fallen commander seems to me a likely possibility. It may be possible that a small number of assorted body parts remained in the ravine for one reason or another, but if so, scavengers or surface water would likely have scattered them and also probably moved them a ways (probably 100-200 feet) downstream. It is perhaps more probable that the troupers did a good job of collecting the remains, so there would have been nothing left in the ravine.

I don't think there's a mystery here. You wouldn't want to bury your comrades in a ravine, which would be subject to washing out. So you would bury them up the hill a little ways.

That's possible. But the bodies had been in the hot sun for three days, and soldiers in the burial party mostly buried people where they lay; the degree of decomposition made them very hard to move...skin slippage, etc. Also there were an awful lot of corpses to find and bury. The troopers had very few digging instruments; they were necessarily in a big hurry to get it done because of the sickening smell, the worry of Natives turning up again, and the pressing need to get the wounded away. I think these factors would mean any bodies in the ravine would be left there, and some soil scraped over them from the ravine's sides. With the condition the bodies were in...naked, mutilated, and well on the way to decomposition... getting them up out of the ravine would have been a nightmare.

You might be thinking of Sgt Miles O'Hara, who was killed in the valley fight. In my Stories From the Little Bighorn playlist, there is a documentary called Custer's Last Trooper that covers this story.

@@TheStoryOutWest I think that's right. Wasn't there also a soldier named Moody who was found in the river bank in the valley as well?

My recollection also is that this was a trooper associated with the valley fight, he died at the river, and when the rivers course here changed ~130 yrs later part of his skeleton was exposed. A forensic reconstruction of his skull was able to identify him.

Yes, one of them at least, was Sergeant Miles O'Hara. O'Hara was the first soldier to come to grief in the battle. For all of that, O'Hara wasn't in E. Troop; he was part of Reno's battalion.

The trooper was Vincent Charlie, I believe he was Company K's farrier. He was shot through both hips during the retreat from Weir Point and left behind. When they found his body 3 days later, a stick had been shoved down his throat. On the Custer part of the battlefield they found some facial bones that had to have come from Mitch Bouyer Many believe Bouyer led the last breakout attempt from Last Stand Hill and it consisted of a handful of troopers as well as Boston Custer and Autie Reed.

Oh come on. What a crock.

@@58landman believe what you want

Murderers

@@thomashealey291 no, not even close. Soldiers who served the USA. IF, IF You live ANY way other than as the Natives, you are a beneficiary of the advancement. Also WE ALL KNOW, even the Natives say, the tribes were NOT, ever, peaceful. They warred against each other and enslaved and killed. They took property and lives on a regular basis. NOT innocent. So, either you are confused or a hypocrit. Peace & Health

@@MyelinProductions All groups of people kill and take advantage of other groups of people. Just how it was/ is. Don't be hatin'. Just strive to be better going fwd. Peace.

@@chriswalter7419 "hatin'" - WOW! Not at all. The "natives" were NEVER peaceful, their OWN History reveals this. They conquered and were in time & turn conquered. The native peoples sought to erase each other centuries before the White/European EVER showed up - same as Africans did/do to Africans, Europeans did/do to Europeans, Asians did/do to Asians, etc etc etc - But Thankfully we have modern advanced technology and science because WE, USA, expanded. No hate at all. Peace & health to Us All - Be Safe out there. Thank You.

I agree. They are very deeply buried now due to the collapse of the ravine walls.

Agreed, too many reports from both sides that clearly state the direct eyewitness accounts from that area. Because nothing was found is no reason to discredit first hand information.

The soil & substrate are loose here, with a lot of loose rock and/or shale, contributing to slippage. There is no doubt the bodies could have been covered over several times since the battle. If burial detail had sloughed in the sides to cover the bodies (as suspected) there could be several feet of cover over the bodies.

I don't doubt the eyewitnesses that there were soldiers killed in the ravine but we're making a logical leap when we assume because that's where they fell that's where they were buried. It takes a few minutes to drag a body out of the ravine, even if it's 3 days decomposed, and I would definitely do so if time allowed otherwise every spring with snow melt there's a chance of the shallow grave being uncovered by water.

You mean Custer right?

i like how custer was portrayed in Little Big Man, old Dustin Hoffmann film. custer would not have cared for it

Same as it ever was.

As a Native American who currently lives on a reservation, I hope his soul and the souls of his men find no peace. They will walk our plains as ghosts, forever searching for something they'll never find.

@@Sam_the_Sham_and_the_Pharoahs it's a good thing that you're so unhappy and bitter. You've earned it.

Couldn't agree more, a very informative and well put together book.

the grass fire was in 1983 (just to clarify) and it was a god send for archaeoligists. Some of the things they discovered were fantastic, like the oral histories of the Indians were correct and they were better armed than the soldiers. But in my mind was when they were able use forensics to identify the bullet casings from one soldier as he fought his way up to finally die on Last Stand Hill!

@@korbell1089 The Firearms Examiner from Nebraska State Police Lab was the ballistics go-to. The soil being so hard maintained the bullet holes so well they were able to laser off angles. Then depending on the cartridge/rifle calculate where the bullet came from and distance. Lot of lead was fired that day. I met the examiner in the early 2000's and he showed me some of the photos from fired cases off the battlefield. I really think another major grass fire would be beneficial while the original major investigators are still with us.

Absolutely, especially if the bank has collapsed

Were looking at a serious trench using an excavator to really look properly and sieving everything that comes out to look for bone fragments.

Blue Duck, I thought you jumped out that window in Lonesome Dove

Dr Fox of University of South Dakota history dept was a leader in that operation. He's written several books covering different aspects of physical evidence found. They re-wrote the book and eliminated some myths on what happened. The ballistics work was incredible and labor intensive but paid off with a FAR clearer understanding on movements in the battle ara. I highly recommend them. My kid went to USD and if you want to be a captive audience of Dr Fox then just mention Little Bighorn and he will hold you for hours talking about it.

Amen, bro....

Well spoken, sir. I live near Gettysburg, and have visited the battlefield often. It is still overwhelming, and depressing to realize the extent of the death and destruction there. As well documented as that place is( many photos taken in the aftermath as well) there are still discrepancies in exact timing and movement of the forces there.

@Rob Eastwood I would certainly think that the most likely scenario. Through the years, they probably washed down into the river and far downstream. This seems the most plausible explanation to me at any rate.

The reason God won't save us from ourselves is that there is no god and never was.. Neither was there a pregnant married virgin riding a donkey at christmas.. I am from the 1st world..

I only made it there once about ten years ago. There is nothing like walking those hills, seeing how steep they are and the lay of the land. You can start seeing puzzle pieces fall into place. The most sobering one for me was the hill that Reno's troops and horse had to climb. Those were not good horses to start with, then they were run down with so many miles on the trail, then expect the horse to jump into the river, swim for it, climb out the east side and THEN climb that incredibly steep and tall hill and THEN try to make a fighting position. They were operating on sheer adrenaline and divine intervention to go through that gauntlet. It would be tough for a muscular, in-shape Quarter Horse to do that today. The horse would be puffing pretty hard when reached the top.

I wonder too. But, by the time they were able to move the bodies, would they? The decomposition of the bodies would be far along and very unpleasant to work with - particularly since they would have been working bare handed. Decomposing bodies are the worst smell I've ever experienced. It gets in your nose and stays there for days. I'm not saying they didn't do this, but unless someone forced me at gunpoint I would never do it without modern protective gear.

@@blueindigo1000 The post battle, 1st person accts confirm this. The only "specialized" piece of equipment was a bandana around nose & mouth. Flies/maggots, stench everywhere. Serious skin slippage. Much wretching. Not a lot of entrenching shovels--boards torn from ammo, hardtack packing crates used in absence of shovels. That, and the need to quickly press on with the campaign were the reasons dirt & brush were loosely, thinly thrown over most bodies. A BIG effort to protect & bury Custer (and somewhat lesser extent, Tom) was ordered by Terry, out of respect for the widely regarded wife, Libbey, Custer's Civil War hero status, and anticipated exhumation & reinterrment to west point.

@@josephstabile9154 There were few shovels or pickaxes available to bury the dead. They used plates and broken canteens to scoop out graves. The men, most of them, died on the 25th and were buried on the 28th. Records from the time say that the stench was terrible. The bodies had not been left alone. The Indians chopped them up and dismembered them, so it was a gruesome mess. For years after people would visit the site and pick up bones. I read that most bars around those parts had a skull on display found at the site of the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

Bluke Blue. As I watched the video and considered the points made, I too came to the same (very possible) conclusion you did.

This is my conclusion as well.

What about coyotes, wild dogs and maybe wolves. After 3 days of decomposing bodies could be easily torn apart. Also as Burke Blue wrote a couple of heavy rains and the remains of the bodies could have been washed further down the creek, and in wet conditions for 150 years they would have al but disappeared.

On a follow up and personal note about the battle especially regarding Co. E, a possible relative of mine, Private Stella, was one of Co. E's casualties.

@@RLee-zs1ds …ALL the above. Wind, rain…predation and erosion. I for one don’t believe that IF they were buried IN the ravine..they were NOT buried deep.

Agree.

Lotta fat cayotes running around soon after the Battle.

Mostly horse bones in those photos

.....been a drummer all my life....when I saw the bloodied field drum behind the glass at the Gettysburg museum, I had chills...

I have stood in the general area where my great grandfather and his brother fought at Sharpsburg and Gettysburg. That was eerie

If you are receptive, or ‘tuned in’ those places speak to you…The scene in Apocalypse Now, at the Do Long Bridge, when the guys were trying to swim to the boats to leave, was based directly on Pittsburg Landing on the evening of the first day at Shiloh…if you stand there at twilight and overlay that scene you can actually see it….

roaming around in Donner national Park will definjitely bring feelings of eerie visitors too

My money is on that too

or over the last 100 year the remains have 1 washed way or decomposed . fact human remains decompose faster in the open air or water or wet soil than if there in dry soil

Yes probably used ropes to pull them up out of there

@@danielblackburn1241 That's an interesting thought. I've had another one though. Is it possible that, at some later time, possibly over a period of time, the bodies were simply washed out of the ravine and down into the river? EDIT: And I see that daniellastuart has anticipated me in that thought.

The original claim has been discredited because actual excavations of some sites revealed no bodies or signs of bodies.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that multiple eye witnesses can or will give similar accounts which vary in slight detail. Case in point....when I was in college I was taking a few Journalism courses and one dealt with reporting, witnesses, how to question them and then write as factual an article as you might be able to construct from so many sources. One morning I was in class and the instructor was lecturing and during the first 5-10 minutes of his lecture a furious student jerked open the door, screamed a few choice words at the prof and the fired a revolver at him several times. The professor grabbed his chest and hit the floor and his shooter ran out and slammed the door. Women screamed and some began to wail, the males were shocked and only a couple of people began to move toward the downed instructor but the were terrified too and didn't know what to do. After about a minute the instructor stood up and looked at the class and told us to write exactly what we saw.....what was he discussing, what did the perp look like and what was he wearing, what did he say or did not say, what kind of gun did he use, how many shots did he fire, did he point his gun at the class, which way did he run when he left, etc. Absolutely less than 10% of that 40-50 student class were 90% correct and in agreement with what had occurred and I believe that those budding writers received the best lesson in paying attention to everything around them and remembering what they heard and saw and to confirm it, the prof and his shooter handed out an exact copy of everything that they had planned for us that morning....verbatim. The rule is pay careful attention, watch and listen......

By all accounts, Mitch Bouyer was shot crossing the river along with Custer when they were attempting to capture women and children to use to stop the hostilities. It was well over 100 degrees those days so they all fought in shirt sleeves. Bouyer was killed by the Indians and Custer, shot through the chest was dragged from the river by his men.

@@bobwallace9814 By all accounts? Where did you get that from ?

@@markcrampton5873 A number of warriors who were on the west side of the river when Custer tried to cross have said the same thing. You'll need to conduct your own searches but that testimony does exist and I think it's reputable. And, if it is, then Custer was probably out of the fight early and was hauled up the hills in stages by his men, to find the highest point that from which, they might defend themselves. It is also surmised by several that his brother Tom may have shot him in the head to prevent him from falling into the hands of these Indians while still alive.

@@58landman According to what I read, the head wound appeared to be post-mortem, so it's possible it was one of the hostiles making sure he was dead, rather than any of his men.

@@58landman I also think its very plausible Custer was sidelined early on. If that was the case then I'm mulling over the idea Cuater's companies may have had time to retreat back up the hill and head for Reno's position. BUT as we know communication was nonexistent except for "Bring Packs"note. Custer was well known by the tribes he was chasing and with his flamboyant "uniform" he'd be Target #1 to pick off.

Awesome I live in spearfish I love this tidbit historical fact

@@westt9030 Nice post, West. It's true as far as I know, check it out sometime.

@@eagleman1542 I just saw on a video where they put together a makeshift grave for 2 lieutenant Sturgis so his mom could have a place to mourn at.

Fort Meade is right outside Sturgis. Named after Gen Meade of Civil War fame. He was overshadowed by Custer's ego out west so I don't know much of his western work.

Wasn’t Stugis the one who was court martialed and drummed out for voyeurism against this young lady???

What’s interesting about the book you mentioned is that Gregory Michno, the author, concludes the exact opposite- that there were never any bodies in Deep Ravine. It’s a fantastic book.

@@TheStoryOutWest usually the most obvious and simplest answer is the correct one.

Scavengers could have scattered the bones too.

@@huntclanhunt9697 Good point and good possibility!

The pictures of carved up soldiers show some of the viciousness of the fight. They were getting the hell out of Dodge.

If you read the account of how George Custer's remains were recovered, it is very unlikely that the remains at West Point were George's. George Custer is still at The Little Big Horn with his men, as it should be.

@@JAG312 RIP, GAC if you can

I've read that too. It was detailed at the time of burial that Custer and his brother were buried together, wrapped in a blanket. When the detail went back to dig up their bodies to bring back east no remains recovered had been found to be buried in that way.

Not all remains of Custer are buried at "Worst Point" there is an story of an tobacco bag made out of his....

@@steffenrosmus9177 I think that story comes from one of the chiefs killed at Sand Creek

I do not know where these men are buried. With all the controversies, more research is definitely needed. There is still hostility between the Souix and whites. Perhaps, further careful digging and study will end the cotroversies and the anger and hostility in part.

@@glenmartin2437 The actual battle site is Federal Parks. I know the Crow have a small rez across the road to the north and west. The Sioux/Lakota are mostly in South Dakota with Pine Ridge being the worst for many things.

And we don't actually know WHERE it was fought despite there being a Battle Abbey.

@@williamclifford4441 agree. Article I saw suggested the Abbey was there for simple convenience rather than anything to do with the actual battle lol

@@williamclifford4441 My maternal family name is on the Battle Abbey Roll. Gammage.

@@lindaterrell5535 First name Sam? 😉

Same applies to Agincourt, no bodies ever found despite thousands of casualties.

Interesting 🤔

Im whistling

Fascinating.

One decision impacting history like that...

butterfly effect

The Park Service wants to wash away the hard realities of battlefields, once the survivors have passed on. Case in point, Punchbowl Cemetery in Honolulu in 70 had hand drawn maps under plastic of Island battles in WWII. Ten years later, only mosaics, of ceramic beads are left. Today it may take DNA to prove Custer is entombed at West Point. Even his mutilated remains could have been another trooper’s. Wars leave messes, and coverups make those messes much worse.

From the hard-pressed, fleeing E co. survivors point of view, Deep Ravine's entrance was closest, most easily accessible way to escape Indian fire, by virtue of its deep walls that cut off Indian line of sight/fire. But, as I've explained elsewhere in this thread, it was a mistake for the troopers, because there's no way out (except the way they came), and as soon as the Indians reached both sides of the top of the ravine, it was like shooting fish in a barrel.

@@davekoenig9935 This has been going on since the '80's, likely with the progressive takeover of all gov't bureaucracies. I saw the shift 40 yrs ago to a heap big over representation (by population %) of ethnic Americans at CBNM (and other western battle/fort sites), and by some coincidence the narrative started to change, and a big push to show/uphold/explain native American traditions was put into place, displacing much of the battle focus. And history revision, with the view to make the native Americans from that period more sympathetic, occurred on a wide scale. An example: the Cody Museum had a necklace on display that consisted of 7th Cav trooper trigger finger bones (in the manner of a bear claw necklace). This was also shown in the museum's artfact catalog. Next year, 1981, it wasn't on display or in catalog. When I questioned the staff (also mucho native American), I was informed straight out that this was a political correctness move to change "Anglos" perceptions of native Americans. See how this works? The revision of history wheels were in motion decades before CRT & 1619 projects.

The most defensible place on the entire battlefield was the "timber", located on the valley floor, roughly 200 yards from the south end of the village. The "timber" was replete with plenty of bracken and bramble, thick trees, fallen logs, boulders, a dry creek bed, and small ravines. It was an ideal spot for cover and concealment. When Reno's men withdrew into the timber, the warriors became concerned; they knew extricating Reno's men out of those woods would come at a costly price, so they tried to set it all on fire and burn the Bluecoats out. Unfortunately, the verdure was too green and heavy with dew; nothing would burn. The Sioux were about to commit themselves to suffering some heavy casualties when, quite suddenly, Major Reno gave them a gift by retreating out of the best protective position on the battlefield. What might have been a fiercely-contested battle quickly became a deadly buffalo hunt.

@@Eadbhard I agree with your assessment of the timber''s defensibility, but more importantly, surviving troopers/scouts/ officers held the same view. The downside was that it probably would have required several more cos. to hold INDEFINITELY against the entire village (village likely would have started moving, rather than have the women & children so near to the gunfire), but probably could have held LONG ENOUGH for Custer's strategy to unfold. The real point is that Reno's precipitous withdrawal, not only from the immediate battlefield, but from any sort of threatening pressure to the village, completely undid Custer's plan to support Reno by hitting the village from the other direction, leaving the full weight of the aroused village to fall on Custer's 5 cos. I know that the 7th, for the regiment's reputation, closed ranks after LBH, but privately their was much acrimony. Reno was judged a sub par officer, addicted to alcohol to the extent his service judgement was impaired. Benteen hated Custer--never forgave him for Elliot's death at the Washita ("Here goes for a brevet or a coffin!")--his behavior towards Custer's DIRECT orders at LBH ("Benteen, Come on. Big village. Be quick! Bring packs. p.s. Bring Pacs!") Is completely passive-aggressive/insubordinate. His excuse that he had to help Reno on the hill was insufficient, many of the other officers knowing the orders and the military necessity of marching to the sound of gunfire, esp.timed volleys. None of this is to suggest Custer wasn't a flawed character--he most certainly was. One can be very brave & astute in combat, and have major character flaws. A recent, excellent eye opener on this is "Custer's Trials" by T.J. Stiles. But , on THAT day in June, others' character flaws, who had been tasked with leading the supporting battalions, allowed a debacle to occur.

If my memory serves that's what I recall too. As for moving a body decomposing in the Montana summer sun for three days, well harder jobs have been routinely done in war. I remember someone who had to remove the rotting corpses of his fellow Marines in the islands off New Guinea after several weeks. He did it though he ended up climbing into a chimney after the war. The fire department had to demolish the chimney (it was my grandmother's) to get him out and he spent several years in VA psych wards before being released on a full disability pension. I was told he was never the same man again after the war, but he told me as an old man that he did move all the bodies respectfully to a proper military cemetary. Later all these battlefield cemetaries were emptied and the remains removed to proper military cemetaries on American soil like the Punchbowl in Diamond Head in Oahu or the Marine cemetary in San Diego where some of my kin are buried. The troopers probably put the remains into a blanket, moved them up to the ridge and buried them there with the others. Then they went down with the blanket and moved another one. It would take a few hours. I suspect that, given the new burial practices for battlefield dead since the Civil War, they wanted most of them in a common area if possible given the dangerous circumstances. At least if they were on open ground later recovery teams could locate the graves and do a proper burial. The ravine would clearly not be a good place for a grave. It's steep with vegetation and the sides are eroding. I'm sure some water runs down it in the spring from the ridge and the sides of the draw for both snow melt and rains. It's been a very long time since we were allowed to walk down it in the late 1960's, when I was a boy with my father.

I have links in my video descriptions for my main social media accounts. I just got a Community tab for this channel too, so check back for updates. Thank you for the motivation!

@@TheStoryOutWest Perfect, thank you!

ola, compadre. I see we share interests.

@@wynnanderson2630 Yes amigo! I just found this channel and enjoy how he presents the history. I'll be watching more. And hunting more history myself!