On this day 142 years ago - Custer's Last Stand

The Battle of the Little Bighorn, known to the Lakota and other Plains Indians as the Battle of the Greasy Grass

George Armstrong Custer and 265 men under his command lost their lives in the Battle of the Little Big Horn. The battle came to be known as Custer's Last Stand.

Combined forces of Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes battled the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army. The battle, the most significant action of the Great Sioux War of 1876, took place on June 25–26, 1876, along the Little Bighorn River in the Crow Indian Reservation in southeastern Montana Territory.

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After education at West Point, the famed US military academy, George Custer was appointed to the position of brigadier general in charge of a Michigan cavalry brigade, at the age of just twenty-three, by Major General George McClellan. The appointment arrived less than a week before the Battle of Gettysburg, where Custer personally led cavalry charges that prevented Confederate cavalry from attacking the Union rear.

In 1864, Custer was awarded another star and brevetted to major general rank. Later in the same year, Custer led the Third Cavalry Division in General Philip Sheridan's Shenandoah Valley campaign. The autumn of 1864 saw the Union Army proceeding across the valley, waging terror on the native people. The army left burned homes, mills, and fields of crops in their wake.

Custer was present at General Robert E. Lee's surrender to General Ulysses S. Grant, on April 9, 1865.

In the Black Hills, the discovery of gold in 1874 saw white miners flocking into territory ceded to the Sioux less than ten years earlier.

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The second Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868) granted the tribe exclusive use of the Black Hills. In the winter of 1875, the U.S. ordered the Sioux to return to their reservation by the end of January. With many Indians out of the range of communication, and many others hostile to the order, the U.S. Army prepared for battle.

Led by several major war leaders, including Crazy Horse and Chief Gall, and inspired by the visions of Sitting Bull (Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake), the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes went on to a significant victory.

The US 7th Cavalry suffered a major defeat. A force of 700 men led by Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer went into battle. Of the 7th Cavalry's 12 companies, five were annihilated and Custer was killed, alongside two of his brothers, a nephew, and a brother-in-law. The US casualty count numbered 268 dead and 55 severely wounded (six died later from their wounds).

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