The battle popularly known as "Custer's Last Stand," and now also recognized as the last stand of the Plains Indians (who called it the Battle of the Greasy Grass), was fought in southeastern Montana on June 25-26, 1876. Here are some highlight statistics for Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument and the battle it commemorates.
320,959
Recreational visits in 2010. This tally reflects a slight increase over the previous year, but is far short of the 425,995 recorded in the peak year of 2002. Visitation is strongly seasonal, with two-thirds occurring in June-July-August.
149,000
Objects in the park's museum and archival collections, which have been temporarily relocated to the National Park Service’s Western Archeological and Conservation Center in Tucson, Arizona, for preservation and conservation.
900-2,000?
Estimated number of warriors, including the renowned war chiefs Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, among the roughly 7,000 Lakota (Sioux), Northern Cheyenne, and Arapahos (small contingent) encamped along the Little Bighorn River in June 1876. This immense encampment, possibly the largest-ever gathering of Plains Indians, stretched for several miles along the river valley and had a pony herd of some 15,000 animals.
765
The park's acreage, all federal. Actually, the park's two widely separated units -- the Custer Battlefield and the Reno-Benteen Battlefield -- preserve only a small fraction of the sprawling area encompassing the 1876 Indian encampment and the ground on which fighting, movements of the combatants, and other battle-related activities occurred. The great majority of this land is located on the Crow Indian Reservation. The several miles-long stretch of Battlefield Road connecting the park's two units is on an Indian-granted right of way easement.
About 647
Total size of the U.S. Army Seventh Cavalry, including attached personnel, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel (brevet Major General) George Armstrong Custer as of June 22, 1876. This count included 31 officers, 566 enlisted personnel (+/- a few), a dozen or so mule packers and quartermaster employees, and 35 Indian scouts (six Crows, the rest mostly Arikaras). Custer's command was organized into twelve companies, one of which was assigned to guard the pack train.
268
Soldiers and attached personnel of the Seventh Cavalry killed in the Battle of the Little Bighorn. The Seventh Cavalry lost 16 officers, 242 troopers, and 10 scouts. Included among the dead were Custer, all of the personnel in the five-company battalion under his immediate command, and 18 men who fought in the southern part of the battlefield (valley and hilltop engagements in the Reno-Benteen Battlefield).
The body counts made on and near Last Stand Hill are unreliable and conflicting. The first was 197, the second was 214, and neither is considered indisputable.
About 100?
Indians killed in the Little Bighorn fight. Historical accounts are ambiguous and conflicting, with estimates ranging from as few as 36 to more than 130. Since Plains Indians customarily minimized their battle losses, usually scattering when hard pressed, it was unusual to have such a large number of warriors killed in a single battle.
Less than 60 minutes
Duration of the engagement at Last Stand Hill in which Custer and the remainder of his battalion were wiped out. Some Indian witnesses insisted that this final stage of the fighting in Custer's area of the battlefield lasted no more than half an hour.
55
Seventh Cavalry troops wounded at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. These were men in the battalions commanded by Major Reno and Captain Benteen. Engaged in fierce fighting about three miles to the south of Last Stand Hill, an area now lying mostly within the park's Reno-Benteen Battlefield unit, these troops were immobilized in a defensive perimeter and rendered no help to Custer's doomed detachment.
After burial details finished their grim work, wounded soldiers were transported to the Yellowstone River, placed aboard the riverboat Far West, and evacuated some 700 miles to the post hospital at Fort Abraham Lincoln on the Missouri River near Mandan, North Dakota. When the Far West arrived in Bismarck during the night of July 5, the news of Custer's defeat was quickly telegraphed to the public at large, stunning a nation engaged in its Centennial celebration.
24
Medals of Honor awarded for bravery above and beyond the call of duty during the Little Bighorn fight. Fifteen were awarded to troopers of the Reno-Benteen force who volunteered to fetch river water for the thirsty defenders of Reno Hill. Four sharpshooters who provided covering fire also received medals. (Ironically, a 16th water carrier, the only trooper wounded during the successful foray, was not awarded a medal even though his leg was amputated.)
20
Years since "Custer" was deleted from the park's official name. Much to the disgust of Plains Indians who fought to save their families and way of life, "Custer's Last Stand" became a cultural icon portraying the 7th Cavalry troopers as heroes and the Indians as bloodthirsty savages. The battlefield property, which was transferred from the War Department to the National Park Service in 1940, was redesignated Custer Battlefield National Monument in 1946. It wasn't until December 10, 1991, that the park was finally renamed Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument via legislation that also called for an Indian Memorial to be built near Last Stand Hill.
17 minutes
Duration of the orientation video show at the park's visitor center, which is located in the Custer Battlefield unit not far from Last Stand Hill.
17 stops
Organization of the Park Tour, a self-guided driving tour on the park's Battlefield Road. Understandably, Last Stand Hill is the Park Tour's star attraction.
1 hour
Duration of an Apsaalooke tour (aka native guide tour). Scheduled five times daily from June through Labor Day, these Native American-guided bus tours of the battlefield are offered with the support of Little Bighorn College and the Apsaalooke (Crow Indian) Nation.
Comments
It's just wrong to put the filter of today's morality on the actions of past generations. "Civilization" is a thin vaneer even today- and the Crusades exposed Western Euorope to Middle Eastern thinking
and vis versa: "Westerners" learned in a general sense they were the barbarians. Now, our world is partitioned into units called countries, the violence of how that happened is, yes,
discouraging.
i'm a Black Man and couldn't agree with you more, the history of Europeans treatment of the indigenous and all people of color on your original lands has been horrendous and ongoing.
Your ignorance of the history of the battle is astonishing. The survivirs and wounded you refer to were from a seperate engagement miles distant known as the Reno-Benteen engagement. Custers group (three miles to the North and surrounded) were killed to the last man while Benteen and Reno were pinned down after their thwarted attack on the south end of the Indian encampment, unable to reinforce Custer, The Indians broke off their attack on Benteen and Reno eventually because they had mounted an effective defense driving off their attackers. Later the soldiers withdrew and made their escape. The soldiers returned days later to discover the aftermath of the Custer massacre days later. So to reiterate there were survivors and wounded from the battle, but there were none from Custer's detachment.
Michael Field, The Indians were just as happy to commit genocide against the newcomers in this land as they were to each other. The only difference is they weren't capable of winning. A big reason for that is they were not united and pre-occupied with warring against each other. They weren't a nation, they were tribes warring over the land that supposedly nobody could own. The 'forcing them from their home lands' probably had more to do with their unwillingness to coexist. Both sides did what they had to do to ensure the safety of their own, both sides perpretrated atrocities on the other and in the end the Indians lost.
I don't blame Indians for the Custer massacre. One Indian Chief said of the battle "White men came to kill us and we killed them." Fair enough. But I get tired of the Indians being portrayed as Original Hippies smoking loco weed and living peacefully and in harmony with mother earth and the white man as the Ohio National Guard at Kent State killing students walking between classes for sport. The loser of any conflict will always portray the winner as a monster and vice versa. The truth is always somewhere in the middle.
Hear, hear!
Not just a park...not just a tourist stop...This was a somber and humbling experience. I know now... I knew nothing of what really happened during this time period...98% if the visitors have it wrong...guaranteed...I thought I was educated...read the book "Lakota Noon".
The true significance of this land and the lands surrounding it are beyond our European understanding which is why so many Americans will never understand the true meaning if what was taken from the real Americans who were and are one with the land.
Amen thank to Rick B - and of course this was not our only shame in history (think about it). We need to be more "human" and compassionate and accepting.
First of all: The Bering Strait theory is offensive. We have our creation stories that tell about our origins. Second: Our grandparents were not simply pawns who had no agency during colonization. We are still here.