Little Bighorn Campaign

Little Bighorn Campaign
Name	Little Bighorn Campaign
Partof	Indian Wars
Date	June 1876
Place	Montana and Wyoming
Result	Decisive Lakota and Northern Cheyenne victory at the Battle of the Little Bighorn

Little Bighorn Campaign The Little Bighorn Campaign was an 1876 United States Army offensive against bands of Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho resisting United States expansion following the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868), culminating in the Battle of the Little Bighorn. The campaign intersected with contemporaneous events involving the Department of the Platte, the Department of Dakota, and federal policy under the Grant administration, shaping relations between Plains tribes, territorial governors, and frontier settlers.

Background and Causes

Pressure from gold rushes in the Black Hills after the Custer Expedition and violations of the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868) spurred the Indian agents and Bureau of Indian Affairs to demand removal of non-treaty bands to reservations administered from Fort Laramie and Fort Keogh. Rising tensions involved proponents like Secretary of War George W. McCrary and opponents such as advocates in the Peace Commission (1867–1868), while figures including General Philip Sheridan and Brigadier General Alfred Terry pressed for military action coordinated with Brigadier General George Crook and Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer. Prominent Lakota leaders such as Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Gall, and Spotted Tail refused reservation confinement, joined by Northern Cheyenne chiefs like Dull Knife and Two Moon, leading to a federal campaign intended to force compliance after winter campaigns and seasonal hunting pressures.

Forces and Commanders

Federal forces included elements of the 7th Cavalry, detachments of the 3rd Cavalry, and units under commanders George Armstrong Custer, Alfred Terry, and John Gibbon in a three-pronged advance. Native combatants comprised warriors led by Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Gall, Rain in the Face, Two Moon, and High Backbone (He Dog), drawn from Oglala Lakota, Hunkpapa Lakota, Blackfoot Sioux, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho (Northern) bands. Political authorities such as President Ulysses S. Grant and Army leaders like Winfield Scott Hancock influenced strategic choices, while scouts including Frederick Benteen and civilian guides like Marcus Reno played controversial roles during engagements.

Timeline of the Campaign

In May and June 1876, the Bighorn River basin became the focal point of converging columns: General Alfred Terry's headquarters advanced from Fort Rice, Brigadier General George Crook moved through Powder River, and Lieutenant Colonel Custer led the 7th Cavalry toward the Little Bighorn River. Intelligence from army scouts and reports by Indian agents and civilian correspondents indicated a large encampment of Lakota and Cheyenne near the Little Bighorn River in late June. On June 25–26 the 7th Cavalry engaged the encampment; subsequent movements involved retreats, counterattacks, and rendezvous attempts by columns under John Gibbon and Alfred Terry, culminating in burial details, investigations by Congressional committees, and public inquiries through the War Department and the House Committee on Military Affairs.

Battles and Engagements

The principal engagement occurred at what federal reports termed the Battle of the Little Bighorn on June 25–26, 1876, where detachments of the 7th Cavalry under George Armstrong Custer and subordinate officers such as Marcus Reno and Frederick Benteen encountered coordinated resistance by warriors led by Crazy Horse, Gall, and Sitting Bull's council. Other skirmishes and operations in the broader campaign involved clashes near Rosebud Creek—where George Crook fought Crazy Horse at the Battle of the Rosebud—and actions around Tongue River and Powder River during Powder River Expedition elements. Reports from participants like John Bourke and Nelson A. Miles and analyses by historians drawing on archaeology and eyewitness testimony chronicled troop dispositions, tactical decisions, and the fatal dispersal of Custer's companies, resulting in near-annihilation of several cavalry companies and significant Native casualties and captures among noncombatants.

Aftermath and Consequences

News of the annihilation of Custer's immediate command triggered national reactions from political figures including President Ulysses S. Grant, and military responses organized by commanders such as Nelson A. Miles and John Gibbon. The campaign precipitated intensified military campaigns across the Northern Plains, the surrender and incarceration of many Lakota and Northern Cheyenne on reservations and at facilities like Fort Keogh and Fort Marion (for other tribes), and diplomatic shifts reflected in subsequent amendments to the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868) settlement terms. Congressional hearings and published memoirs by officers including Frederick Benteen and critics like Marcus Reno influenced public memory, while legal and policy measures taken by the War Department and the Bureau of Indian Affairs tightened enforcement of reservation confinement and relocation to agencies such as Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and Standing Rock Indian Reservation.

Cultural and Historical Legacy

The campaign and its culminating engagement became emblematic in American culture through artworks by Frederic Remington and Charles Marion Russell, literature by George Bird Grinnell and E. A. Brininstool, and monuments such as the Custer Battlefield National Monument and the later Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, which stimulated debates among historians like Elliot West, Patricia Limerick, and CMP? over interpretation. Media portrayals in films including They Died with Their Boots On and Little Big Man and scholarly works by Richard G. Hardorff and James Donovan have alternately emphasized heroism, tragedy, indigenous resistance, and revisionist perspectives advanced by scholars such as E. A. Brininstool and Paul Andrew Hutton. Ongoing archaeological studies by institutions like the Smithsonian Institution and debates in public history settings continue to reassess battlefield narratives, repatriation issues under legislation such as the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act and commemorations involving tribal representatives from the Oglala Sioux Tribe and Northern Cheyenne Tribe.

Category:1876 in the United States Category:Indian Wars