Scout reports suggested Indians were moving toward the Little Bighorn River. Brig. Gen. Alfred Terry, leading Custer -who had extreme difficulty in keeping command of the Seventh Cavalry- polished plans with Col. John Gibbon aboard the steamboat Far West, unaware that Brig. Gen. George Crook’s column had battled Cheyenne and Sioux warriors at Rosebud Creek and fallen back.

On June 22, Terry ordered Custer to take his men -about 600 soldiers plus packers and Indian scouts- up Rosebud Creek to the northern end of the Little Bighorn Valley. Terry and Gibbon hoped to reach the northern end by June 26. ‘Don’t be greedy, Custer, but wait for us’, Gibbon told the younger officer. Custer replied enigmatically: ‘I won’t’. Citing Custer’s ‘zeal, energy, and ability’ they gave him leeway to depart from his written orders for ‘sufficient reasons’.

When trail signs and scout reports indicated a major Indian village, Custer detoured, and at midday Sunday, June 25, he prepared to attack in spite of the fact that scouts had warned him of the existence of overwhelming forces (2,000 or more warriors). In a decision still debated, Custer divided his command. Capt. Frederick W. Benteen was sent to scout for Indians to the southwest. Major Marcus A. Reno took about 140 men with orders to attack the southern end of the village. Custer continued north along the bluff, sending a messenger back to bring the packtrain with 26,000 rounds of ammunition. Each soldier carried 100 rounds for his Springfield 1873 carbine and 24 for his Colt revolver. In this last communiqué, Custer sent a courier to locate Benteen with the message ‘Benteen. Come on. Big village -be quick- bring packs.’ The messenger, trumpeter Giovanni Martini, was the last white man to see him alive.

Reno charged about three o’clock, catching the village by surprise, but a fierce counterattack drove him back to the trees. Combat was hand-to-hand on Last Stand Hill, where the famed Sioux warrior Crazy Horse may have helped deliver the final blow. The battle lasted perhaps an hour and a half; Custer and all the men with him -about 210- perished. The warriors then intensified their attack on Reno’s troops, who were frantically digging in on the bluff after a chaotic retreat. Benteen’s return about 4:15 had strengthened Reno’s forces.

Warriors turned back Capt. Thomas Weir’s attempt to join Custer’s battle, visible only as a smoky, dusty cloud. Besieged until the Indians broke camp, the surviving men on the Reno-Benteen site learned of Custer’s fate only when Terry and Gibbon arrived on June 27 to a ‘scene of sickening, ghastly horror’. George Custer was found there, shot through the temple and left side and stripped naked -as most of the soldiers were.