history says Colonel Sturges commented,after the death of his son under Custer at the LBH,if Custer had survived he would have had him Court Marshalled !!
Terrific work. I'm a fifth generation resident of Dakota Territory. My GG Uncle was a very interesting guy named " Buckskin" Johnny Spaulding. He came out in 1876 on foot, trailing his mule from Bad Axe Co, WI to drive his stake and build a cabin for my GG Grandma, Mary Lucinda Davis Spaulding, near what is now Belle Fourche, SD. He wrote daily in his journal. He didn't drink, smoke, gamble or swear. His writings of those times are archived in the Belle Fourche Daily Bee records. He was a civilian Scout, but didn't go on the Ill-fated adventure. He knew all these people. He sold meat to the mining camps, hay camps, railroads, etc. He spoke of the ill logic of Chasing Sitting Bull towards Canada. After the summer of 1876, he said the whole area was a hornets nest of hostile. They killed his best friend, Jimmy Iron near Whitewood, SD. When he didn't show up at their agreed meeting place, the confluence of the Belle Fourche and the Redwater Rivers, my Uncle tracked him to his camp sight and found him dead. He said that in 1875 he used to see lots of Lakota in Harding County, doing the same as him, hunting.
WOW. Now that is an incredible family story!!! Terrible about his friend, Jimmy Iron. It's wonderful that you are so aware of yourhistory, and that your Great Great Uncle's writing is archived and appreciated. "Buckskin" Jonny Spaulding! I love it! Thanks so much for sharing, and for the kind words!
A brilliant and descriptively intelligent letter. Jerusha's bearings were spot on in deeply conveying a mother's sense of these places and in well channeling an emotional tribute to her son. Do we know if she found closure in the experience, one hopes so. Thank you Siobhan for sharing this vital story.
@@brucefournier2391 I think she did find some closure, Bruce. I think this trip helped her in some small way. She was quite a woman. Thanks so much for your kind comment 🙏
Well the story of Jerusha Sturgis is an interesting one. His mother's visit to the battle field was surely very emotional. While her judgement on the battle was common at that time she also reflects the bitterness of a mother who has lost a beloved son
Absolutely. Her insights are fascinating because they reveal both her grief and what must have been the understanding of many in the military at the time (= her social set). Though she seems steely enough that her opinions were very much her own. Thank you for taking the time to comment! 🙏
Why thank you! I thought she had very interesting perspective, and we don't often get to walk the battlefield with someone so soon after the fight like that. Very good of you to comment!
Interesting letter. I have been to the battle field. I found it quite interesting as well as the museum there. Mrs. Libby Custer donated many of the articles that are on display there. Quite interesting. She spent the remainder of her life trying to clear her husband's name. Actually, the entire male side of the Custer family was wiped out in this battle. That included his brother. nephews, and brother-in-law. Custer's Indian scouts warned him that the Indians had assembled too many warriors for his detachment to engage. The various battle sites are a few miles apart and all the soldiers were overwhelmed by superior numbers. I enjoy history and found this visit very informative. Tom Custer, killed at the little Big Horn, is the only American to win TWO Medals of Honor. The history leading up to this event is quite fascinating....
great! it is very interesting to know this perspective about the battle! I think that the females view (mothers, wives, daughters, from both bands) are ALWAYS forgotten, good job Siobhan!
❤ Siobhan, these PPTs keep getting better and better! You were perfect for this one; your reading of Mrs. Sturgis’s eloquent letter hit home hard! It’s emotional impact compares in my mind to Ken Burns’s presentation of Sullivan Ballou’s valedictory to his wife just days before his death at Bull Run. So well done! Thank you! ❤
Do you mean Ella Sturgis? Yes, she was the subject of his final court martial and dismissal from the service! Reno was caught looking in the window at her late at night. That and other charges, after having already been court martialed from conduct unbecoming with another officer's wife, as well as the Reno Court of Inquiry (see my video on that), was his undoing.
Very moving account. Wonderful to hear the mother’ perspective. We hear endless videos about tactics repeating the same points as if they are new. You adopt a fresh perspective and transport us back to the time. Very moving. Many thanks
Siobhan I’m enjoying your articles. Very informative but how things have changed at the battlefield since I visited in 1992. 😢And that rain… Your investigative skills are excellent so how about looking at the two adjutants, Lts. Cooke and Hodgson. Both would have carried notebooks and both would have recorded the plan of battle. While I can understand that Cooke’s book was never recovered I must admit to being puzzled by Hodgson. Even in shock from the battle Reno still spent 30+ minutes searching for and finding the body complete with most personal possessions except his note book..Something I’ve always felt was very strange… So mebbe you might like to look deaper into that relationship. Just what if that message to Reno from Custer..”Was charge the village and I will support you with the whole outfit. “ was incomplete, [ by a flanking attack - you are the anvil to my hammer - at all costs HoLD your position till relieved. Benteen is your mobile reserve - be will escort and act as guard to the pack train. ]??!! Not something you would burn so, if it existed, it was buried close to where Hodgson fell.. Leather bound it could still partially exist.. Just thinking but like Watergate there’s a scoop there..❤️🇦🇺🧸🇺🇸
wow... I never heard of Benny having a notebook. Cooke, yes, of course, and I think it is currently in a private collection. But Benny. Hmmm. That would be an incredible lead. I did just do a Benny Hodgson quik bio video if you want to take a look. Please let me know what you think. Thanks so much for the intriquing comments and hope to hear from you again!
@@SiobhanFallon7 Hi Siobhan. Thank you for your interest in my post . There are so many enigmas regarding the battle and the lives of the commanders. I’m nearly in my eighties now and this battle has been an interest to me for seven decades. But I still remember walking the field with Jim Court..back in 91. Quite a haunting experience with dark clouds and rain forecast.. You could almost feel the ghosts. Benny would have carried a notebook that’s for certain. Where it went to is a puzzle. What it contained more so.. But it would certainly have recorded Custer’s last orders to Reno and ‘possibly’ Benteen. ( who I still think commanded a mobile reserve..). However there’s also another character you have to look into and that’s Captain Weir. The rumour of his romancing Elizabeth Custer when George was absent is very convincing. Apparently George found out and either a thrashing or a tongue lashing ensued.. That was just before he fell out of favour of the Custer clan!! I’ve been wondering if he delayed his response to Martini’s note not just by Benteen’s disregard but by his own touch of jealousy. The fact that he failed to ride to Custer must have weighed on his mind driving him to consuming the alcohol that had him dead by years end. Just what was going to be in his letter to Elizabeth. What truth was on his conscience..that he wanted to tell her?… There, there’s another character for you to study. Now have a great day.. be safe. 🥰👵🇦🇺🇺🇸
@madlenellul3430 Weir is my favorite officer! Yes, so much there. I have been researching his life a great deal and will definitely do a video/ article/ book about him... 🙏
@@SiobhanFallon7 Oops..old fingers. As I was saying there is an enigma over Weir. He could, when Benteen showed him Martini’s note have insisted that they , the three companies, immediately ride to Custer’s aid. He didn’t and if we accept Benteen’s version of events ignored it until after rescuing Reno’s shattered command. I wonder what clouded his vision. Anger?…Jealousy?…Envy?… Then his change of mind starting, initially, on his own before being joined by his own company, towards the sounds of gunfire. Brave..ashamed ?…What was driving the man. Have a great day. Madds 🥰👵🇦🇺🇺🇸
Ooh yes, Charley Reynolds would be great! I recently found some interesting background info on him too. Excellent suggestion! And thank you for you kind words!
We just took that trip just got back two weeks ago. I was there at the anniversary of the Little Bighorn Battlefield what you have done here is remarkable it’s from the eyes of the females. Oh yeah, they everybody was devastated by this on both sides we hardly think of the women and children what they went through you didn’t incredible job incredible.
Yeah, it reminds me another female account related of a famous battle - this time a Battle of Waterloo and the author was a young woman who got married just few days before Napoleon escaped Elba. She followed her husband, who was an officer, to the Belgium - but she spent the battle in Brussels or somwhere like that. After the victorious battle she went to find her husband - first learning he died, then finding him wounded but alive only to watch him die slowly before her eyes and becoming a widow in some three or four months from the wedding. She then wrote it down to a little booklet for the family members (probably it was easier than talking). I would need to think for a while to remember her name, but the booklet was foundable online. Her husband was the officer who was striken by a cannonball next to Wellington and thrown off the horse. The cannonbal was very slowed down at that time, so it didn't even break his skin, but he suffered some internal injuries and died of lung edema, if I remember correctly.
Siobhan, this is one of the best videos you have made. It tells a first hand account of visiting the Battlefield and documents how and when she arrived. It also gives her opinion which her husband shared. It would be really nice to find letters of what the veterans of the battle shared with Col Sturgis.
This letter was so well written, and your reading of it was perfect! This letter best conveyed the depth of sorrow that pervades everyone associated with this battle. Excellent job and thank you for putting this together!
It was so well written!! I wondered whose idea it was to publish it? And it also goes to show how often the military community used the press to air their grievances... Thanks so much for watching and commenting, Thane!
Brilliant episode thankyou , Custer comes under a lot of criticism for dividing his force and unfairly in my view , The Indian agency had stated to the army they would be facing no more than 800 hostiles and this was the view right up until Crook was engaged at the Rosebud by around 1200 hostiles , Crook never sent word to the column's thus by the time Custer reached LBH that force had swollen to at least 1800-2200 Hostiles. Custer was more afraid of not catching the Indians than he was of fighting them and egged on by his Crow scouts who contrary to belief wanted to attack that day and not lose the element of surprise it was only after the battle they changed their stories that they advised Custer to be cautious not wanting to get the blame and rightly so. E Company we think was sent to find the edge of the village while Custer rode down to the river with F Company at this point we think Custer was Shot leading his men in an attempt to cross the river (Painted Shield account) F Company then took Custer probably mortally wounded to Higher ground so the Surgeon could work on him because HQ Company and F company never left the hill. As E Company came back their CO stayed on the hill with Custer and the Company was sent to the lower skirmish line at the same time L, C, I had all been overrun and survivors had made their way to Last Stand Hill , We think the E company was the last Company to fall with some trying to make there way through Deep Ravine but were shot before they could make any last stand because no casings were found in the Ravine itself in the 1984 dig.
history says,after the battle of Rosebud,General Cook stayed on the Rosebud for 3 weeks to supposedly recoup from the battle against 1,200 Sioux,Cheyenne and Arapaho !! sitting there fishing and hunting while the 7th was being destroyed !!
Another excellent account from the Little Bighorn. You bring fresh perspectives that illuminate the history further. Also, I mentioned before my first trip this August. I booked a guided horseback tour. I am beyond excited to ride the area. I hope you keep the content coming!
Oh!! I rode the battlefield on my first trip out there in Sept 2020. It was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. I know that sounds silly, but after studying the fight and the people connected with it for years, to be there in person ON HORSEBACK made it all come to life in a completely different way. Are you riding with one of the Real Birds, do you mind my asking? I'll be out there again this coming June for the anniversary. I just can't wait. Enjoy, James! If I can help with any info about the Hardin area, please message me Facebook at Siobhan Fallon Author (sorry to give my professional account there but as this is a public forum I don't want to reveal my private ones). Thanks again for watching and you very forgiving comments!
You are too kind! I will connect and I totally understand keeping your private info private. The booking is with Go Native America and is a 3 hour ride. Like you said, a tour on horseback of a battle fought on horseback is next level! The connection will be so much greater, and your content is a part of it. Thanks, again for what you do.
Siobhan, another fine presentation. One that I've often thought about as I remembered that Jack's body had never been found. I had wondered what his father, the commander of the 7th, and his mother had thought of their, just commissioned son's death. You have done a wonderful job of representing the mother, how fortuitous of her to have written that detailed letter. I imagine that her thoughts of Custer, being "brash and careless" were probably her husband's thoughts as well. I had read about the finding of Jack's decapitated head and bloodied underclothes with his name sewn on the inside, found in the Indian village. I thought too, that I had read somewhere that some witness accounts said he was killed when the 7th first attempted a crossing at the mouth of the Medicine Tail Coulee, but I might be remembering incorrectly. I remember reading something about Colonel Sturgis being bitter about his son's death but with no detail. Thank you, Siobhan, for a very real and heartfelt story from a grieving mother!
@user-jv8jl3rp2i thank you! I had the same reaction the first time I read her letter, and wanted to share with as many people possible. I appreciate your thoughtful comments!
@AndrewScott-v4d thank you, Andrew! Please let me know if you like any of my other videos! You will find all sorts of topics from 7th Cav family members, to enlisted men, to warriors, to controversies about the fight! So glad you took the time to comment!
Thank you so much for sharing this letter from Jack's mother. I didn'tknow it existed, and it certainly has information i hadn't heard before. Also hadn't heard about where the clothing had been found, or about the heads. I'm a retired Army officer, and distantly related to Jack and visiting the battlefield for the first time 2 weeks from now. This video will help me view the battlefield in a different way than i would have. Thank you!
@gfv5647 oh how wonderful!! I wish I could have gotten there this summer! And thank you for the kind words. You probably know this, but there's some current construction on the battlefield so maybe double check the website or call. And since the visitor center is closed, may I recommend you stop at the Little Bighorn museum in Hardin? It's more of a general museum about Montana but they do have some great exhibits and photos concerning the 7th Cav as well as the Tribes. You could spend a whole day there in itself. I always stop in and check out their awesome books in the shop and walk around and each time I see something new and wonderful. And of course I recommend that you watch more of my videos as you prepare for your journey... 😉🤣📚
Wow.....Mrs. Sturgis's letter...you can almost hear the pain this poor woman felt at walking the field where her son fell in battle and the underlying venom in her tone when speaking of Major Reno's conduct that day. I could not imagine what that poor woman felt looking over the rolling hills and gully's of LBH and not be emotionally impacted by the experience. Wonderful job Siobhan, your narration of her letter gives her a Mother's voice and as I listened, i was deeply moved by it. Awesome job....not to off topic, but what novels have you written? As a writer (as of this comment, unpublished) I would be keenly interested in your work.... Always a pleasure😊
Jerusha's sentiments reminds me of that poignant scene in the 1979 remake of "All Quiet on the Western Front " where Paul Baumer (Richard Thomas) is set upon by Mrs. Kemmerick to explain the circumstances of her son Franz's death.
Great content, I’m a huge history buff and I’m so glad to have run across your channel. Been to the Little Bighorn battlefield multiple times and it always hits you in the feelers, sacred ground for sure. Subscribed!!!
Through the lens of hindsight, it’s hard to imagine what Temporary Additional Duty would have been more pressing for Colonel Sturgis than General Terry’s expedition. I also wonder what combination of gratitude she may have felt that her husband survived because he did not lead the 7th Cavalry into the field in June, 1876, and perhaps wrath at him for not being present on that fateful day to restrain Custer and wait for the other columns. She may have felt he failed their son and others by his absence, even though she might never have spoken such thoughts aloud. Ms. Fallon, this was most interesting. If you have some thoughts or information on my speculation, I hope you’ll share it. C.Devitt
I wondered the same thing about the push and pull of guilt that these two parents must have felt. Their youngest son died in 1875 and I wonder if that played a role somehowin Col Sturgis being in St Louis on detached duty. Great points, Charles, thank you so much for commenting!
Thank you for a very informative and thought provoking presentation, do you think some of the troopers were wounded and captured then taken to the village or what was found were battlefield trophies taken by the Indian's. It could explain why no markers were ever placed in the deep ravine when some accounts say a least 20 or so troopers attempted a break out from last stand hill and headed for deep ravine where the final fight was finished. Needless to say a terrible tragedy what ever happened.
There is an account by the warrior Little Knife that says they took a soldier alive, tied him up, and later killed him. And of course many wonder if any were burned at the stake. Regarding the 20 men in Deep Ravine, personally I think we have not looked hard enough for them, and am hoping that future testing will reveal their remains.
A truly heartbreaking video, it was fascinating to hear that mother's voice! Colonel Sturgis' role has always been a mystery to me. Why were his detached duties considered more important than leading his regiment in the field? Surely one would expect the colonel of a regiment to be present during a campaign as important as the one at Little Big Horn. Perhaps he preferred a job in a comfortable office to campaigning against the Indians (which would be somehow understandable). When he personally led his regiment after Little Big Horn against the Indians, he was criticized for being too cautious (just the opposite of Custer). So it seems not unlikely that if Sturgis had commanded the 7th Cavalry at Little Big Horn, he would not have taken the same risk as Custer, would have avoided battle against overwhelming numbers of enemies, and therefore his son would not have been killed. I think it is not impossible that such thoughts occurred to him after his son's death. Is it known from his correspondence if poor Colonel Sturgis ever felt guilty for his son's death? Or did he only blame Custer?
I wonder the same things! I can only imagine that Col Sturgis felt terribly guilty, and I also wonder if his wife held Jack's death against him. But they were a military family who had survived a very violent and bloody Civil War. Also, a friend working on a book about the Sturgis family told me that after Jack's death, Jack's younger brother was told that he could no longer study to be a laywer, but had to be a soldier, and he immediately went to West Point. So it looks like the familial loyalty to the Army may be more complicated that we can understand today? Thank you for watching and commenting!
@@SiobhanFallon7 Thank you, the story of Jack's brother is really interesting and difficult to understand for people of the 21st century. Was Jack's brother the one who became a general in the First World War?
I am glad your channel showed up on my feed. One can just feel that mothers anguish and the Col never forgave Custer. On a side note I feel it is worth mentioning the Sam Sturgis as a brigadier general in the civil war was soundly defeated at The battle of Brice Crossroads by the great confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest! The Rebs were outnumbered but being lead by the Wizard of the saddle! Maybe you could do a video on him sometime.
I think a fiction better historian Been a traditional historian would be. Fiction writers can humanize otherwise dry facts. Evan S. Connell is a prime example of this. You're doing a fine job of this. keep it up
There's no type of grief then that of a mother. Truly, you captured her essence, her strength, and above all her love for her son. Still, she too, doubted Reno, and the decision just to save themselves. I wonder did Libby knew her? did Libby herself ever go to the actual battle ground? simply amazing story telling!
Libbie never visited the battlefield, but she did know Sam Sturgis and probably Jerusha. Today, as I was wrapping up the slide show a friend told me about a photo with Libbie and Col Sturgis and Custer and some other members of the 7th! I should have gotten it into the video but Jerusha wasn't in it and I was trying to keep this one short. I'll try to post here for you, Hugo, if I can figure out how...
@@SiobhanFallon7 Your amazing, being so mindful of others.. praise God for you 🙏. Not, many people left in this world like you! Don't bring an old Southerner to tears,,now,,, I'll deny it!!!! My Fair Lady,,, not only do I tip my hat to in respect,, but I will remove it thy honor... most gracious Fair Lady.. Now,, I ride into the sunset,, until your next video brings us back..
@@hugonarvaez2944 Hugo, you always manage to say the most perfect things to me about my presentations just when I am feeling doubt. Thank you. You are a very good friend to me here. My highest regards and gratitude! Siobhan
@@hugonarvaez2944 are you on Facebook? If so, send me a message at Siobhan Fallon Author (sorry to give my professional account but as this is a public forum I don't want to reveal my private one!) and then we can continue to be in touch there if you'd like :)
@@SiobhanFallon7 My dearest Fair Lady. I hope me sharing my email address was not offensive in any way... I truly am a novice with technology and the linguo. I would never dare to do anything that would be considered offensive ( never on purpose). Please, forgive me, if in any way offended.
Excellent. I like the photos of these officers and of the Sturgis family. Amazing research. I visited the LBH battlefield in April 1993 at age 38. Memorable. I remember a huge rattlesnake wending its way around the white stone markers on last stand Hill.
A fascinating account which I have not heard before. Her description of the battlefield so soon after it happened, is extremely compelling and interesting. Naturally she sought answers for what happened to her son, and who was responsible. She correctly criticizes Custer for being rash and dividing his forces, but unfortunately her criticism of Major Reno for "not doing more" to come to Custer's aid was a popular misconception of the time. This was publicly promoted by Custer's widow Elizabeth, who spent the rest of her life promoting her husband as a great fallen hero, and Reno as a "coward". This was grossly unfair and wrong, and Reno was eventually exonerated. As to the hasty burials and her criticism of this, we have to remember that nearly 300 dismembered soldier's bodies, Indian bodies, and dead horses had lain scattered around in the hot summer sun for several days. The stench was horrifying and the first priority was to bury the soldiers as quickly as possible. One can only imagine the huge clouds of flies, carrion birds, and other predators. Traditional burial ceremonies weren't possible, and the hasty burials weren't for fear of Indian attack as she states.
We will never how Custer died but it's more important why he died. You divide and maneuver on offense to increase the enemy's lines of expectation so he concentrate at the point of your attack. Reno disobeyed his orders and prematurely began the attack and then immediately went on the defensive. If Reno had remained on the defensive the Indians would have scattered and escape ending the campaign in failure. Reno lost his nerve and ran inviting the Indians to stay and attack his retreating force.
Two points in rebuttal to your comments. The Army was deep in the midst of a summer campaign against the "hostiles" on 6.27.76. Although the lack of entrenched (burial) equipment, and the state of the bodies, contributed to the hasty, insufficient burials, the prime reason for the haste was the campaign, which had now become a stern chase of the rapidly scattering hostile force. Jerusha was spot on in putting her finger on Reno's pathetic support of the regiment. I use that adjective because the preponderance of the 7th's surviving officers thought that, notwithstanding latter-day rehabilitation using "modern" sensibilities. They were the 1st hand observers on the scene. They knew of the anti-custer clique, and they witnessed, and commented, at the time, of the clique's passive-aggressive behavior. These officers did very little post-hoc analysis quarterbacking, because, they reasoned, their duty lay in not trying to guess the future, but to follow orders and established & expected military protocols. And, they knew they had numerous, explicit written & verbal orders of what to do. Orders punctuated with the urgency of overheard heavy & volley gunfire. They knew how much ammo Custer's battalion had in their saddlebags. Worse, they knew, that by 7/12's of the regiment sitting on top of that hill, with all the ammo, and not even messaging Custer that they intended to "sit this one out," they left their comrades in a precarious, unsupported predicament. They might have even surmised that Custer's companies' dispositions might well be predicated on expected support--that they'd have no way of knowing was not arriving. Those surviving officers knew this, drawing the correct conclusions. The only reason these attitudes were largely kept within the regiment was their desire not to have the honor of the regiment publicly humiliated by exposing what they reasoned was clear betrayal of their commander. So, the dead Custer takes the blame for being an idiot commander. Only, they knew the real motives for what transpired that day. They made sure that Reno & Benteen knew how they evaluated those actions. That is why those two LBH battalion commanders did not have an easy remaining time in service, or get to assume the mantle of heroes of June 25.
@@josephstabile9154 Don't you find it odd that they didn't, at least, bring back Custer's body, a National hero? The Army kept its mouth shut because of who was behind it, Grant. Grant wanted retribution because of Custer's damaging Congressional testimony. Grant's initial plan was to make the Campaign fail to give him a reason to dismiss Custer from the Army, just like he did to Burnside at the Crater. When Reno lost his nerve and ran, everything changed for the worse. The Army didn't forget and eventually caught up with Reno and Benteen.
Jeep, Monday morning quarterbacking. :( Reno blew it big time, as did Genl. Crook. Yes, I wish GAC had taken his entire force up the valley on the flatland, the same route he sent Reno on. Or even if he had sent the combined force of Benteen and Reno up the valley, together. I really think his splitting off Benteen was a grave mistake.
I can understand her strong feelings towards the Indians , whom were present during the battle that took her sons life . I'm glad she equally blames those who were the true causes her son being killed ! Bad command decision to spit his forces plus a drunken company commander who folded under fire ! The mother of the Crown Prince Napoleon III , went to south Africa in 1879 to see where her son was killed by Zulu warriors , she also talked to those who were present when he died . The sword he carried , his great uncle Emperor Napoleon I , was returned to the Queen by King Catsuwaya , the Zulu King years later. To lose your son or daughter and to see where they passed , is part of the healing process , as hard as it may seem ! They are gone , that was the hardest part !
You've got another subscriber! I've been enjoying your videos for months now and realized i hadn't clicked the bell. Done! You tell stories seemingly not found anywhere else. Three things, 1) you share a name with name with character actress Siobhan Fallon Hogan, who has had a solid career on TV and in movies, and 2) at 20:40 you said "antidotes" instead of "anecdotes". It's a humorous slip-up that takes nothing away from yet another great entry in your series of videos. 3) you said you have written stories, i am planning on writing a Steampunk story based in the 1850s-1880s, where can i find yours?
Oh thank you!! 🙌🙌🙌 Yes, I know of the actress Siobhan Fallon Hogan! She was on Saturday Night Live during my college years ;) I am always mispronouncing things 🤦♀️ thanks for being kind about it. If you only knew how many remakes I have to do putting these presentations together 🤣 My short story collection is called "You Know When the Men Are Gone" and my novel is " The Confusion of Languages." Good luck with your writing-- sounds like you have a great theme 💕
I can’t imagine how The Custer mom and father, felt or began to deal with the loss the suffered. We have lost one child and it is the hardest thing in the world to overcome. I couldn’t imagine how they endured the loss they received that day.
Me neither. I think Maria Custer never did recover. She took to her bed and died a few years later. Their father, Emanual, died a few years after her. There is a heart breaking quote from Emanual, when he read the newspapers and was appalled about what they were saying about his son after the Little Bighorn fight, something along the lines of, "They should not say that of my boy. Why would they say that about my boy?" So much grief. Please know I am thinking about you and yours, and the unimaginable grief you too have survived 🙏
Hi, I’m cleaning out an estate and I found a photo of young soldier. The name on the back of the card is Jack Sturgis!! I thought someone in the family or those writing a book, might want the photo?
@@PennyWarren-e6p old photos vary widely. I have a few randoms, including one of the eldest Sturgis sister, Nina, which I bought on ebay recently that was also an estate find. I have small mass produced pictures of Generals Grant, Sherman, Sheridan and a couple others. Are you able to email me at siobhan@siobhanfallon.com ?
My favorite episode so far it was like Mrs Sturgis was speaking to us . Im more about the people then the movements nobody can ever prove that causes many online battles . Poor Ella also had to survive a peeping Marcus 😂
Siobahn: heartbreaking letter from Mrs. Sturgis. her trip not to find her son's grave but to walk/ride on his last day was the reason she did the trip. Your reading was poignant and relayed her feelings of losing her son and not really knowing where. Thanks for the continuing saga of the 7th Cavalry.🙂
The details of the burials is what surprised me the most. I always thought they were given very proper and orderly internments when they were first found. It does make some sense they were very concerned about the Indians coming back when they were trying to bury their dead. This account puts the reader into the story as few others can do. There were Southern Cheyenne at this battle that had survived what had happened on the Washita. Your vantage point in telling these stories is powerful.
Thank you so much. You are very kind! And I agree with you. Easy for us today to forget the physical burden of having to bury human bodies without shovels, in that hard and dry terrain. Not to mention these are bodies of your closest friends, and they have been mutilated and also begun to rot. I don't know how any soldiers and officers could have walked away from that gory scene without being haunted by it forever.
And yes, again you are right, there were Southern Cheyenne warriors there who had witnessed Washita as well. Incredible to have this sort of connection to dark moments in history. If you haven't seen my Godfrey video yet, he was at Washita, the Little Bighorn, and then Wounded Knee. So he bridged three of the most well-known battles between Plains Indians and the U.S Army.
They were too much gentlemen and didn't want the grieving mother to suffer even more, so they didn't tell her the right reason why they didn't try harder with the identification. It wasn't out of the fear of the Indians returning. They came to the battlefield some three days later - in a hot summer and the decomposition was already quite well started. To make matters worse, most of the bodies were mutilated beyond recognition even without the decomposition. But of course they weren't heartless enough to tell the mother that she herself probably wouldn't have recognized her son, had she been there with the burial detail. So they told her something about lack of time and need to move on - which they had, but not out of fear of Indians, but rather out of fear for the wounded who needed to get to the hospital as soon as possible. The ground was hard, the smell repulsive and they had just few shovels and limited time - they did what they could and moved on. Her son was an officer - so, had he been recognizable, he would have gotten a stake with his name - unlike most of the enlisted mens. Alas, all that was recognizable from him and his possessions was his bloodied underware found in the abandoned Indian village.
Spending three years regular army and having my share of distasteful details, I can think of nothing worse than having to bury or try to hide the butchered remains of my fellow troops after that struggle. No tools and the horror of it all. They found our men still out there a century later as Vincent Charley. Your excellent history lesson brings what war really is and its effects, someting politicians who order battle never learn.
@@Jay_Hall I don't know what I would do. If I could handle being where my child died. I'd like to think I would go and see it to learn what I could. Libbie Custer never went to the battlefield. And she was a tough cookie too 🤷🏼♀️
Love your work, but if I have one critique, it would be the sound effects. I myself find them to constant and distracting. I think you should scale them down to just a very few pertinent moments, if at all. Not trying to be rude just, my opinion trying to be helpful. Continue as you please. 🫠
Darren, thanks so much! I am putting together a video now and was wondering about the sounds. Do you mean the background music or the other details? I can never decide myself what to add or cut. If I don't have music, I miss it, but if I do have music, I feel like I am shouting over it... Though I must keep the neighing horse, that sound effect always makes me smile. I appreciate your feedback!
Very interesting. I don't agree with her assessment that Custer made a mistake by dividing his command. This was a tactic used by him with success in both civil war and Indian fights. If he was slow and sure he would not have ever won or made a difference. Was Patton slow and careful? That just let's the enemy either win or escape to fight again. I do agree with her assessment of Reno however....
I agree with you, Jay, especially your pointing out that dividing the command was a method used with much success in both the Civil War and the Indian Wars. As you know, her assessment does give us insight into the sort of blame that was being parceled out in the military community (who would know more of the ins and outs that say civilians in Boston reading a newspaper). We know her husband very vocally blamed Custer immediately after the fight. Her accusation is very tame in comparison (and perhaps tempered by time). And this accusation of Custer dividing the command was one also made by Reno and Benteen (and others). I like the Patton comparison. I really appreciate your watching and commenting! highest regards, Siobhan
I don't know battlefield tactics that well, but dividing troops for attacks is fairly common. The only one who really knew what was out there was General Crook. Crook got his ass kicked the week prior by the same Natives. From what I can deduce, this was never fully reported. Also, didn't General Terry take a couple days off to go trout fishing instead of hurrying to the planned rendezvous with Custer. 2 days would have made the difference. Benteen & Reno did not operate with glory either. There's enough marks against both that day that they cannot be absolved of guilt.. Custer deserves blame too. Poor, up to date reconnisence, leaving pack train too far back(?), being on the wrong side of river. I would have swung way around to the west & drove the hugh horse herd right through the camp, pinning the Natives against the cliffs & river!!
Great points, Shirley! I touch on a little of that in other videos. Crook was accused of fishing and taking too long nursing his wounds (and not alerting Terry of his loss) and Terry was definitely late arriving. Two factors that many people forget when they talk about the Little Bighorn. Thank you for pointing this out!
@@SiobhanFallon7 The only other time I recall of a photograph being shown was to an allied Indian, Soldier, who was shown a photograph of Lt William Winer Cooke by Walter Mason camp and kissed it. I don't know how contemporary all of Cusyer's nicknames were, for instance, but I think the Indians after perhaps becoming more familiar with him after Little Bighorn began to largely refer to him as the Long Haired Chief (this was what I presume a Chief was to them, btw, in case we have any linguistic issues as to who or what is a chief). Some of them even make note that he had cut his hair short, which is an interesting piece of information for them to acquire if they did not recognize his body on the battlefield. I'm wondering whether or not they recognized different or would have seen pictures of them years afterward.
This is the only way I can answer you back, but I also tattooed on my leg on the spot were Custer hand of the last letter or dictated the last letter I tattooed that on my thigh at that scene on June 25 this year it was a Sunday also which he fell on Sunday but I wrote a tattooed that letter on my leg that he had dictated about bringing the packs be quick I am a tattoo artist in Lebanon Ohio, so I did that that was a dream of mine to go there
Really? That is incredible!! I have an image of that final order right by my desk and look at it all the time. So many mysteries in a scrap of paper and a handful of words... I bet your tattoo is amazing.
Oh my, ha ha! I know you can see the battlefield from Weir Point, but Reno Hill to Last Stand Hill is quite a distance. But I trust that you have experience here.
jack was identified. The indians took him into the village and put his head on a pole. there were four heads found in the village on pikes and his was one of them.
" A pair of bloodied underdrawers found in the Indian village after the battle were tentatively identified as having belonged to the lieutenant. One of four severed heads found in the village suggested to some officers that 22-year-old Sturgis may have been captured, tortured and mutilated."
@mitchwood6609 yes. I agree with you there. A historian acquaintance just released some further info about Jack being ID-ed, I'll try to find and paste it here. Thanks, Mitch!
Hey there and Happy New Year! If you want to take a look at a series that examines the history of the conflict between the 7th Cavalry and the Southern Cheyenne: ruclips.net/p/PLHfg6vohewsz_5UUQNdUfwYvWa5jP_3Jn
Thanks for stopping in, Patrick! I'd appreciate if you could give me a couple examples of the 7th Cavalry behaving like a "bunch of butchering monsters"? I am confident I can refute that accusation.
Battle of the Washita; Women and children killed. Horses slaughtered. Battle of Wounded Knee; Women and children killed. Battle of the Little Bighorn; Reno opens fire on Women and children. If the shoe fits........
@@nigelsmith2457 Hey there, Nigel. So good of you to leave a comment and allow me to pick up where the above gentleman left off. The Cheyenne women prisoners taken at the Washita stated the Washita death toll was 13 Cheyenne men, 1 Arapaho, with a total of between 29 to 38 people. George Bent, who was half Cheyenne and married to Black Kettle’s niece, had lived in Black Kettle’s village, and actually participated in the very raids along the Saline and Salomon Rivers with the Cheyenne warriors and Dog Men that prompted the U.S Army Washita campaign, consistently claimed the losses were 11 Cheyenne men, 12 women, and 6 children. In regards to deliberate slaughter, Custer himself ordered the Osage scouts to stop killing women and children, and the ONLY accusation of 7th CAV deliberately killing women and children was a redacted statement made by Ben Clark to a newspaper. Ben Clark, who was the interpreter that day, who ended up marrying not one Cheyenne woman but three in the course of his lifetime, living among the Cheyenne and raising their children there at the Darlington Agency, Ben Clark who was so devasted by the death of his third Cheyenne wife that he committed suicide. This Ben Clark said that the journalist got his quote wrong and that the 7th Cav never deliberately shot women and children but it was the work of the Osage scouts, traditional enemies of the Cheyenne, who also scalped Black Kettle. In terms of scale of “slaughter”-From August 10th to Nov 27th 1868, it is estimated that the Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho had been involved in 78 specific acts of aggression, resulting in the deaths of 131 civilians, the rape 15 women, capture of several children. Raiders burned 12 farms, two stage buildings, a range, three wagon trains, captured 735 horses and mules and 931 head of cattle. These violent act instigated the US military retaliatory action that led to the Washita fight. And it was a severe tragedy to both the Cheyenne and the US that Custer followed a raiding party's trail into the village of Black Kettle on that fateful morning, as Black Kettle (and his camp) was the best advocate for peace at that time and did not deserve to die. Regarding the Little Bighorn, Crow scouts were the first to attack and are thought to have gotten the closest to the village, and also to have been the perpetrators who killed Gall's wife and children. And please remember there were 250 plus US soldiers killed, no wounded left alive, though Cheyenne and Sioux witnesses talk of soldiers who were wounded and asked for mercy and were not spared, some scalped while alive, one taken prisoner, tied up, and killed later that night. Whereas the Lakota and Cheyenne losses at the LBH were about 40 warriors over the course of two days of heavy fighting. So perhaps you could rethink your accusations of slaughter? Wounded Knee is outside the purview here, and all of those who supposedly “deserved” their deaths in 1876 had, well, already died at LBH in 1876. Please let me know if you need me to cite any of the above statements and tallies and I can give you Author, Book title, and page number upon request. Thanks again for stopping by.
@@SiobhanFallon7 hi Siobhan, and thanks for the reply. Thanks also for the content you provide, I've picked up quite a few things that I didn't previously know. Firstly, I don't go with blaming these deaths on the Indian scouts. The native Indian regardless of tribe, was known to value both women and children. It's why they captured them and tried to integrate them within their own societies. Nowhere is there any evidence that they indiscriminately killed women and children. Secondly, you cannot justify the actions of the 7th cavalry by comparison to the native Indian. Wrong is wrong. Finally, I don't believe that innocent parties should be forced into war. If people want to fight, let them find a field out of the way and settle their issues there. Leave the rest of us alone. We didn't cause wars and we're not interested in participating.
@@nigelsmith2457 Nigel, your reply is appreciated too. I absolutely agree that wrong is wrong, regardless of who commits it. I did not call either side "butchering monsters" who deserved the tragedy that occured or initially list conflicts that attempted to make this a wholly one-sided equation. And I believe both whites as well as Native Americans value women and children. I point out the list of depredations in response to your list to show that no race is blameless. To illustrate an example of inter-tribal warfare you might want to take a quick look at the Massacre Canyon fight to see that noncombatants often fell during Plains tribes conflicts just as they unfortunately did throughout the bloody history of our violent human kind. Thanks for having a civil and thoughtful conversation here, Nigel. I'm grateful to hear your point of view.
A wonderful heartfelt narrative by Mrs. Sturges of her trip to the battlefield soon after the event
Thank you. I am amazed at her resilience too.
history says Colonel Sturges commented,after the death of his son under Custer at the LBH,if Custer had survived he would have had him Court Marshalled !!
Terrific work. I'm a fifth generation resident of Dakota Territory. My GG Uncle was a very interesting guy named " Buckskin" Johnny Spaulding. He came out in 1876 on foot, trailing his mule from Bad Axe Co, WI to drive his stake and build a cabin for my GG Grandma, Mary Lucinda Davis Spaulding, near what is now Belle Fourche, SD. He wrote daily in his journal. He didn't drink, smoke, gamble or swear. His writings of those times are archived in the Belle Fourche Daily Bee records. He was a civilian Scout, but didn't go on the Ill-fated adventure. He knew all these people. He sold meat to the mining camps, hay camps, railroads, etc. He spoke of the ill logic of Chasing Sitting Bull towards Canada. After the summer of 1876, he said the whole area was a hornets nest of hostile. They killed his best friend, Jimmy Iron near Whitewood, SD. When he didn't show up at their agreed meeting place, the confluence of the Belle Fourche and the Redwater Rivers, my Uncle tracked him to his camp sight and found him dead. He said that in 1875 he used to see lots of Lakota in Harding County, doing the same as him, hunting.
WOW. Now that is an incredible family story!!! Terrible about his friend, Jimmy Iron. It's wonderful that you are so aware of yourhistory, and that your Great Great Uncle's writing is archived and appreciated. "Buckskin" Jonny Spaulding! I love it!
Thanks so much for sharing, and for the kind words!
A brilliant and descriptively intelligent letter. Jerusha's bearings were spot on in deeply conveying a mother's sense of these places and in well channeling an emotional tribute to her son. Do we know if she found closure in the experience, one hopes so. Thank you Siobhan for sharing this vital story.
@@brucefournier2391 I think she did find some closure, Bruce. I think this trip helped her in some small way. She was quite a woman.
Thanks so much for your kind comment 🙏
What a lovely letter and I think very observant of topography and the way the men fell and gracious in her feelings towards other people!
Yes, I agree, Jerusha, in her grief, still managed to recognize the goodness in others.
Thanks so much for your comments and for watching!
Well the story of Jerusha Sturgis is an interesting one. His mother's visit to the battle field was surely very emotional. While her judgement on the battle was common at that time she also reflects the bitterness of a mother who has lost a beloved son
Absolutely.
Her insights are fascinating because they reveal both her grief and what must have been the understanding of many in the military at the time (= her social set). Though she seems steely enough that her opinions were very much her own.
Thank you for taking the time to comment! 🙏
I also took Custer's route to the LBH some 30 years ago and it was Indeed a beautiful trek. Haunting too.
Thank you so much for Mrs. Sturgis' letter! Deep sorrow read by you in a most touching way.
Why thank you! I thought she had very interesting perspective, and we don't often get to walk the battlefield with someone so soon after the fight like that. Very good of you to comment!
Although she was wrong on a few points. But she wasn't an army officer.
Excellent as always! Your Videos couldn't be long enough. Thank you very much!
Thank YOU so very very much!! 🙏
Another wonderful video, thank you Siobhan.
Thank you, Simon! So good of you to leave comment 🙏📚💕
Interesting letter. I have been to the battle field. I found it quite interesting as well as the museum there. Mrs. Libby Custer donated many of the articles that are on display there. Quite interesting. She spent the remainder of her life trying to clear her husband's name. Actually, the entire male side of the Custer family was wiped out in this battle. That included his brother. nephews, and brother-in-law.
Custer's Indian scouts warned him that the Indians had assembled too many warriors for his detachment to engage. The various battle sites are a few miles apart and all the soldiers were overwhelmed by superior numbers. I enjoy history and found this visit very informative.
Tom Custer, killed at the little Big Horn, is the only American to win TWO Medals of Honor. The history leading up to this event is quite fascinating....
Thank you! This is very interesting information, and really adds another face to the tragedy. The suffering went way beyond the battlefield.
Thank you so much!
great! it is very interesting to know this perspective about the battle! I think that the females view (mothers, wives, daughters, from both bands) are ALWAYS forgotten, good job Siobhan!
Thank you so much!!
As a mother, this brought me to tears. Thank you for sharing this letter.❤
Thank you! I couldn't believe how strong she was through the whole thing-- and then to be able to write so lucidly about it all. Wow.
Well done from a different perspective. You get better all the time, Ms Fallon.
Thank you so very much! I am always trying to change things up a little bit. So good of you to leave a comment!
❤ Siobhan, these PPTs keep getting better and better! You were perfect for this one; your reading of Mrs. Sturgis’s eloquent letter hit home hard! It’s emotional impact compares in my mind to Ken Burns’s presentation of Sullivan Ballou’s valedictory to his wife just days before his death at Bull Run. So well done! Thank you! ❤
Thank you!!
Sad and amazing story, well presented.May they rest in peace.🙏✝️
Yes, it is quite sad. I admire her strength in both visiting the battlefield and then being able to write about it.
Thank you for this well done video!
Thank you so much for watching and commenting!
I don't even know what to say!
Your post is really magnificent and deeply moving!
I can't thank you enough❤❤❤!!!
Thank you!!
My mother is a Sturgis and directly related to Colonel Sturgis; his daughter was pursued by Major Reno, if stories are to be believed.
Do you mean Ella Sturgis? Yes, she was the subject of his final court martial and dismissal from the service! Reno was caught looking in the window at her late at night. That and other charges, after having already been court martialed from conduct unbecoming with another officer's wife, as well as the Reno Court of Inquiry (see my video on that), was his undoing.
@@SiobhanFallon7 Precisely, right on the. money! I'd heard about that but wasn't sure if that was ever substantiated. Thanks, sis.
Very moving account. Wonderful to hear the mother’ perspective. We hear endless videos about tactics repeating the same points as if they are new. You adopt a fresh perspective and transport us back to the time. Very moving. Many thanks
Thank you so much. 🙏
Siobhan I’m enjoying your articles. Very informative but how things have changed at the battlefield since I visited in 1992. 😢And that rain…
Your investigative skills are excellent so how about looking at the two adjutants, Lts. Cooke and Hodgson.
Both would have carried notebooks and both would have recorded the plan of battle.
While I can understand that Cooke’s book was never recovered I must admit to being puzzled by Hodgson. Even in shock from the battle Reno still spent 30+ minutes searching for and finding the body complete with most personal possessions except his note book..Something I’ve always felt was very strange…
So mebbe you might like to look deaper into that relationship.
Just what if that message to Reno from Custer..”Was charge the village and I will support you with the whole outfit. “ was incomplete,
[ by a flanking attack - you are the anvil to my hammer - at all costs HoLD your position till relieved.
Benteen is your mobile reserve - be will escort and act as guard to the pack train. ]??!!
Not something you would burn so, if it existed, it was buried close to where Hodgson fell..
Leather bound it could still partially exist..
Just thinking but like Watergate there’s a scoop there..❤️🇦🇺🧸🇺🇸
wow... I never heard of Benny having a notebook. Cooke, yes, of course, and I think it is currently in a private collection. But Benny. Hmmm. That would be an incredible lead. I did just do a Benny Hodgson quik bio video if you want to take a look. Please let me know what you think. Thanks so much for the intriquing comments and hope to hear from you again!
@@SiobhanFallon7 Hi Siobhan. Thank you for your interest in my post . There are so many enigmas regarding the battle and the lives of the commanders. I’m nearly in my eighties now and this battle has been an interest to me for seven decades.
But I still remember walking the field with Jim Court..back in 91.
Quite a haunting experience with dark clouds and rain forecast..
You could almost feel the ghosts.
Benny would have carried a notebook that’s for certain. Where it went to is a puzzle. What it contained more so..
But it would certainly have recorded Custer’s last orders to Reno and ‘possibly’ Benteen.
( who I still think commanded a mobile reserve..).
However there’s also another character you have to look into and that’s Captain Weir.
The rumour of his romancing Elizabeth Custer when George was absent is very convincing.
Apparently George found out and either a thrashing or a tongue lashing ensued..
That was just before he fell out of favour of the Custer clan!!
I’ve been wondering if he delayed his response to Martini’s note not just by Benteen’s disregard but by his own touch of jealousy.
The fact that he failed to ride to Custer must have weighed on his mind driving him to consuming the alcohol that had him dead by years end. Just what was going to be in his letter to Elizabeth.
What truth was on his conscience..that he wanted to tell her?…
There, there’s another character for you to study.
Now have a great day.. be safe.
🥰👵🇦🇺🇺🇸
@madlenellul3430 Weir is my favorite officer! Yes, so much there. I have been researching his life a great deal and will definitely do a video/ article/ book about him... 🙏
@@SiobhanFallon7 Siobhan thanks for such a quick reply. I’ll look forward to reading your research on Weir. My own thoughts
@@SiobhanFallon7 Oops..old fingers. As I was saying there is an enigma over Weir. He could, when Benteen showed him Martini’s note have insisted that they , the three companies, immediately ride to Custer’s aid. He didn’t and if we accept Benteen’s version of events ignored it until after rescuing Reno’s shattered command.
I wonder what clouded his vision. Anger?…Jealousy?…Envy?…
Then his change of mind starting, initially, on his own before being joined by his own company, towards the sounds of gunfire.
Brave..ashamed ?…What was driving the man.
Have a great day.
Madds
🥰👵🇦🇺🇺🇸
Keep up the great work. You have a perspective that is needed. I was on the Custer dig in 1983, and this brings back memories. Thank you!
Oh the stories you could tell, Robert! Wow! And thank you for the kind words. I'll finally be getting another presentation up this weekend!
Such an insightful letter.
Another superb video!
I'd also love to see one about "Lonesome Charley" Reynolds.
Ooh yes, Charley Reynolds would be great! I recently found some interesting background info on him too. Excellent suggestion! And thank you for you kind words!
Thank you for sharing Mrs. Sturgis letter and for once again personalizing the battle that happened on that fateful day in June of 1876.
Thank you, Ron! 🙏
Listening to her letter I felt like I was transported to that time and place. Thank you for the wonderful videos you put out on this subject.
Wow, that is the loveliest comment. I needed a kind word today. Thank you so much.
We just took that trip just got back two weeks ago. I was there at the anniversary of the Little Bighorn Battlefield what you have done here is remarkable it’s from the eyes of the females. Oh yeah, they everybody was devastated by this on both sides we hardly think of the women and children what they went through you didn’t incredible job incredible.
Wow, thank you so much 🙏
Yeah, it reminds me another female account related of a famous battle - this time a Battle of Waterloo and the author was a young woman who got married just few days before Napoleon escaped Elba. She followed her husband, who was an officer, to the Belgium - but she spent the battle in Brussels or somwhere like that. After the victorious battle she went to find her husband - first learning he died, then finding him wounded but alive only to watch him die slowly before her eyes and becoming a widow in some three or four months from the wedding.
She then wrote it down to a little booklet for the family members (probably it was easier than talking). I would need to think for a while to remember her name, but the booklet was foundable online. Her husband was the officer who was striken by a cannonball next to Wellington and thrown off the horse. The cannonbal was very slowed down at that time, so it didn't even break his skin, but he suffered some internal injuries and died of lung edema, if I remember correctly.
Siobhan, this is one of the best videos you have made. It tells a first hand account of visiting the Battlefield and documents how and when she arrived. It also gives her opinion which her husband shared. It would be really nice to find letters of what the veterans of the battle shared with Col Sturgis.
Thank you!!!!
This letter was so well written, and your reading of it was perfect! This letter best conveyed the depth of sorrow that pervades everyone associated with this battle. Excellent job and thank you for putting this together!
It was so well written!! I wondered whose idea it was to publish it? And it also goes to show how often the military community used the press to air their grievances...
Thanks so much for watching and commenting, Thane!
Very interesting perspective. Thanks for sharing with us.👋
Thank you for watching and for the kind words 🙏
Brilliant episode thankyou , Custer comes under a lot of criticism for dividing his force and unfairly in my view , The Indian agency had stated to the army they would be facing no more than 800 hostiles and this was the view right up until Crook was engaged at the Rosebud by around 1200 hostiles , Crook never sent word to the column's thus by the time Custer reached LBH that force had swollen to at least 1800-2200 Hostiles.
Custer was more afraid of not catching the Indians than he was of fighting them and egged on by his Crow scouts who contrary to belief wanted to attack that day and not lose the element of surprise it was only after the battle they changed their stories that they advised Custer to be cautious not wanting to get the blame and rightly so.
E Company we think was sent to find the edge of the village while Custer rode down to the river with F Company at this point we think Custer was Shot leading his men in an attempt to cross the river (Painted Shield account) F Company then took Custer probably mortally wounded to Higher ground so the Surgeon could work on him because HQ Company and F company never left the hill.
As E Company came back their CO stayed on the hill with Custer and the Company was sent to the lower skirmish line at the same time L, C, I had all been overrun and survivors had made their way to Last Stand Hill , We think the E company was the last Company to fall with some trying to make there way through Deep Ravine but were shot before they could make any last stand because no casings were found in the Ravine itself in the 1984 dig.
Or...the Indians were native to America and fighting the intruders hostlies who also broke the land treaty. 😆
history says,after the battle of Rosebud,General Cook stayed on the Rosebud for 3 weeks to supposedly recoup from the battle against 1,200 Sioux,Cheyenne and Arapaho !! sitting there fishing and hunting while the 7th was being destroyed !!
Another excellent account from the Little Bighorn. You bring fresh perspectives that illuminate the history further. Also, I mentioned before my first trip this August. I booked a guided horseback tour. I am beyond excited to ride the area. I hope you keep the content coming!
Oh!! I rode the battlefield on my first trip out there in Sept 2020. It was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. I know that sounds silly, but after studying the fight and the people connected with it for years, to be there in person ON HORSEBACK made it all come to life in a completely different way. Are you riding with one of the Real Birds, do you mind my asking? I'll be out there again this coming June for the anniversary. I just can't wait. Enjoy, James! If I can help with any info about the Hardin area, please message me Facebook at Siobhan Fallon Author (sorry to give my professional account there but as this is a public forum I don't want to reveal my private ones). Thanks again for watching and you very forgiving comments!
You are too kind! I will connect and I totally understand keeping your private info private. The booking is with Go Native America and is a 3 hour ride. Like you said, a tour on horseback of a battle fought on horseback is next level! The connection will be so much greater, and your content is a part of it. Thanks, again for what you do.
@@jamesnix729 Three hours sounds fantastic! Well done!!
Siobhan, another fine presentation. One that I've often thought about as I remembered that Jack's body had never been found. I had wondered what his father, the commander of the 7th, and his mother had thought of their, just commissioned son's death. You have done a wonderful job of representing the mother, how fortuitous of her to have written that detailed letter. I imagine that her thoughts of Custer, being "brash and careless" were probably her husband's thoughts as well. I had read about the finding of Jack's decapitated head and bloodied underclothes with his name sewn on the inside, found in the Indian village. I thought too, that I had read somewhere that some witness accounts said he was killed when the 7th first attempted a crossing at the mouth of the Medicine Tail Coulee, but I might be remembering incorrectly. I remember reading something about Colonel Sturgis being bitter about his son's death but with no detail. Thank you, Siobhan, for a very real and heartfelt story from a grieving mother!
@user-jv8jl3rp2i thank you! I had the same reaction the first time I read her letter, and wanted to share with as many people possible.
I appreciate your thoughtful comments!
Very informative, well presented as always
Very kind of you, Steve!
Hi from the UK. Thank you for your story, so much information out there. I hope more research uncovers more interesting facts. thank you.
@AndrewScott-v4d thank you, Andrew! Please let me know if you like any of my other videos! You will find all sorts of topics from 7th Cav family members, to enlisted men, to warriors, to controversies about the fight!
So glad you took the time to comment!
Your discription of the events come across in colour, very well told Siobhan.
@@FinbarrAnderson thank you, Finbarr! 🍀💕
@@SiobhanFallon7 your welcome Siobhan.
You do a great job bringing your subjects back to life. I like the research you do on these individuals. Thank You!
Thanks so much, Mark!!
It's always great to hear from you.
Thank you so much for sharing this letter from Jack's mother. I didn'tknow it existed, and it certainly has information i hadn't heard before. Also hadn't heard about where the clothing had been found, or about the heads. I'm a retired Army officer, and distantly related to Jack and visiting the battlefield for the first time 2 weeks from now. This video will help me view the battlefield in a different way than i would have. Thank you!
@gfv5647 oh how wonderful!! I wish I could have gotten there this summer!
And thank you for the kind words.
You probably know this, but there's some current construction on the battlefield so maybe double check the website or call.
And since the visitor center is closed, may I recommend you stop at the Little Bighorn museum in Hardin? It's more of a general museum about Montana but they do have some great exhibits and photos concerning the 7th Cav as well as the Tribes. You could spend a whole day there in itself. I always stop in and check out their awesome books in the shop and walk around and each time I see something new and wonderful.
And of course I recommend that you watch more of my videos as you prepare for your journey... 😉🤣📚
Thank you for giving a voice to her words
Thank you!! 🙏
This was fascinating. Been there again in July and I can totally see everything she describes but the bones. Chilling
@dunbar555 thank you! I had the same reaction when I first read the letter, which is why I wanted to share it. Thank you for the kind words!
Wow.....Mrs. Sturgis's letter...you can almost hear the pain this poor woman felt at walking the field where her son fell in battle and the underlying venom in her tone when speaking of Major Reno's conduct that day. I could not imagine what that poor woman felt looking over the rolling hills and gully's of LBH and not be emotionally impacted by the experience. Wonderful job Siobhan, your narration of her letter gives her a Mother's voice and as I listened, i was deeply moved by it.
Awesome job....not to off topic, but what novels have you written? As a writer (as of this comment, unpublished) I would be keenly interested in your work....
Always a pleasure😊
😁
Jerusha's sentiments reminds me of that poignant scene in the 1979 remake of "All Quiet on the Western Front " where Paul Baumer (Richard Thomas) is set upon by Mrs. Kemmerick to explain the circumstances of her son Franz's death.
I must look that up. Thank you for the recommendation 🙏
@@SiobhanFallon7 Pack a handkerchief .
Great content, I’m a huge history buff and I’m so glad to have run across your channel. Been to the Little Bighorn battlefield multiple times and it always hits you in the feelers, sacred ground for sure. Subscribed!!!
I will hopefully be there TOMORROW!!! Flights are delayed so cross your fingers for me...
And thank you for the kind words :) I feel the same way about the battlefield.
Best of luck and safe travels! We are going back through there in august.
Through the lens of hindsight, it’s hard to imagine what Temporary Additional Duty would have been more pressing for Colonel Sturgis than General Terry’s expedition. I also wonder what combination of gratitude she may have felt that her husband survived because he did not lead the 7th Cavalry into the field in June, 1876, and perhaps wrath at him for not being present on that fateful day to restrain Custer and wait for the other columns. She may have felt he failed their son and others by his absence, even though she might never have spoken such thoughts aloud. Ms. Fallon, this was most interesting. If you have some thoughts or information on my speculation, I hope you’ll share it.
C.Devitt
I wondered the same thing about the push and pull of guilt that these two parents must have felt. Their youngest son died in 1875 and I wonder if that played a role somehowin Col Sturgis being in St Louis on detached duty. Great points, Charles, thank you so much for commenting!
Thank you for a very informative and thought provoking presentation, do you think some of the troopers were wounded and captured then taken to the village or what was found were battlefield trophies taken by the Indian's. It could explain why no markers were ever placed in the deep ravine when some accounts say a least 20 or so troopers attempted a break out from last stand hill and headed for deep ravine where the final fight was finished. Needless to say a terrible tragedy what ever happened.
There is an account by the warrior Little Knife that says they took a soldier alive, tied him up, and later killed him. And of course many wonder if any were burned at the stake.
Regarding the 20 men in Deep Ravine, personally I think we have not looked hard enough for them, and am hoping that future testing will reveal their remains.
A truly heartbreaking video, it was fascinating to hear that mother's voice!
Colonel Sturgis' role has always been a mystery to me. Why were his detached duties considered more important than leading his regiment in the field?
Surely one would expect the colonel of a regiment to be present during a campaign as important as the one at Little Big Horn. Perhaps he preferred a job in a comfortable office to campaigning against the Indians (which would be somehow understandable).
When he personally led his regiment after Little Big Horn against the Indians, he was criticized for being too cautious (just the opposite of Custer). So it seems not unlikely that if Sturgis had commanded the 7th Cavalry at Little Big Horn, he would not have taken the same risk as Custer, would have avoided battle against overwhelming numbers of enemies, and therefore his son would not have been killed. I think it is not impossible that such thoughts occurred to him after his son's death.
Is it known from his correspondence if poor Colonel Sturgis ever felt guilty for his son's death? Or did he only blame Custer?
I wonder the same things! I can only imagine that Col Sturgis felt terribly guilty, and I also wonder if his wife held Jack's death against him. But they were a military family who had survived a very violent and bloody Civil War. Also, a friend working on a book about the Sturgis family told me that after Jack's death, Jack's younger brother was told that he could no longer study to be a laywer, but had to be a soldier, and he immediately went to West Point. So it looks like the familial loyalty to the Army may be more complicated that we can understand today?
Thank you for watching and commenting!
@@SiobhanFallon7 Thank you, the story of Jack's brother is really interesting and difficult to understand for people of the 21st century. Was Jack's brother the one who became a general in the First World War?
@@donaustadt Sam Sturgis Jr?
@@SiobhanFallon7 yes
@@donaustadt that's the one!
I am glad your channel showed up on my feed.
One can just feel that mothers anguish and the Col never forgave Custer.
On a side note I feel it is worth mentioning the Sam Sturgis as a brigadier general in the civil war was soundly defeated at The battle of Brice Crossroads by the great confederate general
Nathan Bedford Forrest!
The Rebs were outnumbered but being lead by the Wizard of the saddle! Maybe you could do a video on him sometime.
Great idea, thank you!
And thanks so much for watching and taking the time to comment! 🙏
A fantastic piece of research!
@@gezh2379 thank you so much!!
Siobhan, I'm glad I subscribed! You really have some fantastic videos. Will watch them all!
Wow, thank you!!
Thanks for the good video.
Thank you!!
I think a fiction better historian Been a traditional historian would be. Fiction writers can humanize otherwise dry facts. Evan S. Connell is a prime example of this. You're doing a fine job of this. keep it up
Terrific! I love everything about this. I hope you continue doing these AMAZING videos
Thank you, dearest Evelyn 😘💕
Fabulous presentation as always!
Thank you!!
Excellent presentation. It was almost as if that mother was speaking through you .
Thank you so very much! I have read so many letters about Little Bighorn but this one really stayed with me.
There's no type of grief then that of a mother. Truly, you captured her essence, her strength, and above all her love for her son.
Still, she too, doubted Reno, and the decision just to save themselves. I wonder did Libby knew her? did Libby herself ever go to the actual battle ground? simply amazing story telling!
Libbie never visited the battlefield, but she did know Sam Sturgis and probably Jerusha. Today, as I was wrapping up the slide show a friend told me about a photo with Libbie and Col Sturgis and Custer and some other members of the 7th! I should have gotten it into the video but Jerusha wasn't in it and I was trying to keep this one short. I'll try to post here for you, Hugo, if I can figure out how...
@@SiobhanFallon7
Your amazing, being so mindful of others.. praise God for you 🙏. Not, many people left in this world like you!
Don't bring an old Southerner to tears,,now,,, I'll deny it!!!!
My Fair Lady,,, not only do I tip my hat to in respect,, but I will remove it thy honor... most gracious Fair Lady..
Now,, I ride into the sunset,, until your next video brings us back..
@@hugonarvaez2944 Hugo, you always manage to say the most perfect things to me about my presentations just when I am feeling doubt. Thank you. You are a very good friend to me here. My highest regards and gratitude! Siobhan
@@hugonarvaez2944 are you on Facebook? If so, send me a message at Siobhan Fallon Author (sorry to give my professional account but as this is a public forum I don't want to reveal my private one!) and then we can continue to be in touch there if you'd like :)
@@SiobhanFallon7
My dearest Fair Lady.
I hope me sharing my email address was not offensive in any way... I truly am a novice with technology and the linguo. I would never dare to do anything that would be considered offensive ( never on purpose). Please, forgive me, if in any way offended.
Excellent. I like the photos of these officers and of the Sturgis family. Amazing research. I visited the LBH battlefield in April 1993 at age 38. Memorable. I remember a huge rattlesnake wending its way around the white stone markers on last stand Hill.
Thank you!
And I have fortunately not seen a rattlesnake there... yet... 😬🙏🐍
A fascinating account which I have not heard before. Her description of the battlefield so soon after it happened, is extremely compelling and interesting. Naturally she sought answers for what happened to her son, and who was responsible. She correctly criticizes Custer for being rash and dividing his forces, but unfortunately her criticism of Major Reno for "not doing more" to come to Custer's aid was a popular misconception of the time. This was publicly promoted by Custer's widow Elizabeth, who spent the rest of her life promoting her husband as a great fallen hero, and Reno as a "coward". This was grossly unfair and wrong, and Reno was eventually exonerated. As to the hasty burials and her criticism of this, we have to remember that nearly 300 dismembered soldier's bodies, Indian bodies, and dead horses had lain scattered around in the hot summer sun for several days. The stench was horrifying and the first priority was to bury the soldiers as quickly as possible. One can only imagine the huge clouds of flies, carrion birds, and other predators. Traditional burial ceremonies weren't possible, and the hasty burials weren't for fear of Indian attack as she states.
Thank you, Joe!
We will never how Custer died but it's more important why he died. You divide and maneuver on offense to increase the enemy's lines of expectation so he concentrate at the point of your attack. Reno disobeyed his orders and prematurely began the attack and then immediately went on the defensive. If Reno had remained on the defensive the Indians would have scattered and escape ending the campaign in failure. Reno lost his nerve and ran inviting the Indians to stay and attack his retreating force.
Two points in rebuttal to your comments.
The Army was deep in the midst of a summer campaign against the "hostiles" on 6.27.76. Although the lack of entrenched (burial) equipment, and the state of the bodies, contributed to the hasty, insufficient burials, the prime reason for the haste was the campaign, which had now become a stern chase of the rapidly scattering hostile force.
Jerusha was spot on in putting her finger on Reno's pathetic support of the regiment. I use that adjective because the preponderance of the 7th's surviving officers thought that, notwithstanding latter-day rehabilitation using "modern" sensibilities.
They were the 1st hand observers on the scene. They knew of the anti-custer clique, and they witnessed, and commented, at the time, of the clique's passive-aggressive behavior. These officers did very little post-hoc analysis quarterbacking, because, they reasoned, their duty lay in not trying to guess the future, but to follow orders and established & expected military protocols. And, they knew they had numerous, explicit written & verbal orders of what to do. Orders punctuated with the urgency of overheard heavy & volley gunfire. They knew how much ammo Custer's battalion had in their saddlebags. Worse, they knew, that by 7/12's of the regiment sitting on top of that hill, with all the ammo, and not even messaging Custer that they intended to "sit this one out," they left their comrades in a precarious, unsupported predicament. They might have even surmised that Custer's companies' dispositions might well be predicated on expected support--that they'd have no way of knowing was not arriving. Those surviving officers knew this, drawing the correct conclusions.
The only reason these attitudes were largely kept within the regiment was their desire not to have the honor of the regiment publicly humiliated by exposing what they reasoned was clear betrayal of their commander. So, the dead Custer takes the blame for being an idiot commander.
Only, they knew the real motives for what transpired that day. They made sure that Reno & Benteen knew how they evaluated those actions. That is why those two LBH battalion commanders did not have an easy remaining time in service, or get to assume the mantle of heroes of June 25.
@@josephstabile9154 Don't you find it odd that they didn't, at least, bring back Custer's body, a National hero? The Army kept its mouth shut because of who was behind it, Grant. Grant wanted retribution because of Custer's damaging Congressional testimony. Grant's initial plan was to make the Campaign fail to give him a reason to dismiss Custer from the Army, just like he did to Burnside at the Crater. When Reno lost his nerve and ran, everything changed for the worse. The Army didn't forget and eventually caught up with Reno and Benteen.
Jeep, Monday morning quarterbacking. :( Reno blew it big time, as did Genl. Crook. Yes, I wish GAC had taken his entire force up the valley on the flatland, the same route he sent Reno on. Or even if he had sent the combined force of Benteen and Reno up the valley, together. I really think his splitting off Benteen was a grave mistake.
Good job. thank you.
Thank you for watching and commenting!
It took a very strong and brave woman to make that trip.
Indeed! Libbie Custer never would 😥
Very informative and interesting - thanks!
Thank you!
I can understand her strong feelings towards the Indians , whom were present during the battle that took her sons life . I'm glad she equally blames those who were the true causes her son being killed ! Bad command decision to spit his forces plus a drunken company commander who folded under fire ! The mother of the Crown Prince Napoleon III , went to south Africa in 1879 to see where her son was killed by Zulu warriors , she also talked to those who were present when he died . The sword he carried , his great uncle Emperor Napoleon I , was returned to the Queen by King Catsuwaya , the Zulu King years later. To lose your son or daughter and to see where they passed , is part of the healing process , as hard as it may seem ! They are gone , that was the hardest part !
Yes, it's very brave of a mother to face such a battlefield.
Thanks so much for your comments and for watching!
Great Job. So informative.
Thank you so much!! I'm finishing another today and hope to have it up this evening.
So good of you to watch and comment! 🙏
very interesting
Thank you!
You've got another subscriber! I've been enjoying your videos for months now and realized i hadn't clicked the bell. Done! You tell stories seemingly not found anywhere else.
Three things,
1) you share a name with name with character actress Siobhan Fallon Hogan, who has had a solid career on TV and in movies, and
2) at 20:40 you said "antidotes" instead of "anecdotes". It's a humorous slip-up that takes nothing away from yet another great entry in your series of videos.
3) you said you have written stories, i am planning on writing a Steampunk story based in the 1850s-1880s, where can i find yours?
Oh thank you!! 🙌🙌🙌
Yes, I know of the actress Siobhan Fallon Hogan! She was on Saturday Night Live during my college years ;)
I am always mispronouncing things 🤦♀️ thanks for being kind about it. If you only knew how many remakes I have to do putting these presentations together 🤣
My short story collection is called "You Know When the Men Are Gone" and my novel is " The Confusion of Languages." Good luck with your writing-- sounds like you have a great theme 💕
P.s. I'm finishing up a new presentation as I type... (glad you clicked the bell 😉)
I can’t imagine how The Custer mom and father, felt or began to deal with the loss the suffered. We have lost one child and it is the hardest thing in the world to overcome. I couldn’t imagine how they endured the loss they received that day.
Me neither. I think Maria Custer never did recover. She took to her bed and died a few years later. Their father, Emanual, died a few years after her.
There is a heart breaking quote from Emanual, when he read the newspapers and was appalled about what they were saying about his son after the Little Bighorn fight, something along the lines of, "They should not say that of my boy. Why would they say that about my boy?"
So much grief.
Please know I am thinking about you and yours, and the unimaginable grief you too have survived 🙏
Hi, I’m cleaning out an estate and I found a photo of young soldier. The name on the back of the card is Jack Sturgis!! I thought someone in the family or those writing a book, might want the photo?
I WANT THAT PHOTO 😉
@@SiobhanFallon7 I don’t know what antique photos go for?
@@PennyWarren-e6p old photos vary widely. I have a few randoms, including one of the eldest Sturgis sister, Nina, which I bought on ebay recently that was also an estate find. I have small mass produced pictures of Generals Grant, Sherman, Sheridan and a couple others. Are you able to email me at siobhan@siobhanfallon.com ?
I want that photo!
If it is a real photo I will pay 500.00
Thank you very much for this informative video! Looking forward to more content. Greetings from Germany.
You are lovely! Thanks for encouragement!!! 🙌
@@SiobhanFallon7 always a pleasure.
You did a GREAT job. Keep going. Love you Benteen Series! So much details i may never have heared
My favorite episode so far it was like Mrs Sturgis was speaking to us . Im more about the people then the movements nobody can ever prove that causes many online battles . Poor Ella also had to survive a peeping Marcus 😂
Thank you!! Good to know. I'll try to do a few more like that soon!
Siobahn: heartbreaking letter from Mrs. Sturgis. her trip not to find her son's grave but to walk/ride on his last day was the reason she did the trip. Your reading was poignant and relayed her feelings of losing her son and not really knowing where. Thanks for the continuing saga of the 7th Cavalry.🙂
@joesphmurphy4013 thank you so much, Joe. I was astounded by her strength and dignity myself.
ITS GOOD TO HEAR ABOUT THE OTHER PEOPLE WHO DIED AT THE LBH. ITS GIVES THE REST OF THE STORY, SO WE CAN LEARN THE WHOLE TRAGEDY!!!!
Thank you 🙏
The details of the burials is what surprised me the most. I always thought they were given very proper and orderly internments when they were first found. It does make some sense they were very concerned about the Indians coming back when they were trying to bury their dead. This account puts the reader into the story as few others can do. There were Southern Cheyenne at this battle that had survived what had happened on the Washita. Your vantage point in telling these stories is powerful.
Thank you so much. You are very kind!
And I agree with you. Easy for us today to forget the physical burden of having to bury human bodies without shovels, in that hard and dry terrain. Not to mention these are bodies of your closest friends, and they have been mutilated and also begun to rot.
I don't know how any soldiers and officers could have walked away from that gory scene without being haunted by it forever.
And yes, again you are right, there were Southern Cheyenne warriors there who had witnessed Washita as well. Incredible to have this sort of connection to dark moments in history.
If you haven't seen my Godfrey video yet, he was at Washita, the Little Bighorn, and then Wounded Knee. So he bridged three of the most well-known battles between Plains Indians and the U.S Army.
Here's the Godfrey bio link:
ruclips.net/video/mOx64lGHgcU/видео.htmlsi=H1xRFNj3JG3Fan-r
🎉
They were too much gentlemen and didn't want the grieving mother to suffer even more, so they didn't tell her the right reason why they didn't try harder with the identification. It wasn't out of the fear of the Indians returning.
They came to the battlefield some three days later - in a hot summer and the decomposition was already quite well started. To make matters worse, most of the bodies were mutilated beyond recognition even without the decomposition. But of course they weren't heartless enough to tell the mother that she herself probably wouldn't have recognized her son, had she been there with the burial detail. So they told her something about lack of time and need to move on - which they had, but not out of fear of Indians, but rather out of fear for the wounded who needed to get to the hospital as soon as possible. The ground was hard, the smell repulsive and they had just few shovels and limited time - they did what they could and moved on. Her son was an officer - so, had he been recognizable, he would have gotten a stake with his name - unlike most of the enlisted mens. Alas, all that was recognizable from him and his possessions was his bloodied underware found in the abandoned Indian village.
@@Eltanin25 You are absolutely right! Thank you for taking the time to write such an insightful and informative comment!!
Super storytelling,
Thank you so much!!
Excellent
Thank you!!
I have a book on signals of the army owned by Jack sturgis!
What?? Oh how wonderful!!! 💕📚💕
Excellent!
Thank you!
Spending three years regular army and having my share of distasteful details, I can think of nothing worse than having to bury or try to hide the butchered remains of my fellow troops after that struggle. No tools and the horror of it all. They found our men still out there a century later as Vincent Charley. Your excellent history lesson brings what war really is and its effects, someting politicians who order battle never learn.
Thank you so much. And I agree. The horror of that hasty mass burial must have stayed with them all forever.
Must've been hard to see where her Son Jack Died!! Strong Woman!!
I agree. Fearless.
@@SiobhanFallon7 As a Father and Grandfather, I would have wanted to do the same.
@@Jay_Hall I don't know what I would do. If I could handle being where my child died. I'd like to think I would go and see it to learn what I could.
Libbie Custer never went to the battlefield. And she was a tough cookie too 🤷🏼♀️
@@SiobhanFallon7 The Spirits are heavy there, maybe too much to bear for some, maybe many. :)
Love your work, but if I have one critique, it would be the sound effects. I myself find them to constant and distracting. I think you should scale them down to just a very few pertinent moments, if at all. Not trying to be rude just, my opinion trying to be helpful. Continue as you please. 🫠
Darren, thanks so much! I am putting together a video now and was wondering about the sounds. Do you mean the background music or the other details? I can never decide myself what to add or cut. If I don't have music, I miss it, but if I do have music, I feel like I am shouting over it... Though I must keep the neighing horse, that sound effect always makes me smile. I appreciate your feedback!
Very interesting. I don't agree with her assessment that Custer made a mistake by dividing his command. This was a tactic used by him with success in both civil war and Indian fights. If he was slow and sure he would not have ever won or made a difference. Was Patton slow and careful? That just let's the enemy either win or escape to fight again. I do agree with her assessment of Reno however....
I agree with you, Jay, especially your pointing out that dividing the command was a method used with much success in both the Civil War and the Indian Wars.
As you know, her assessment does give us insight into the sort of blame that was being parceled out in the military community (who would know more of the ins and outs that say civilians in Boston reading a newspaper). We know her husband very vocally blamed Custer immediately after the fight. Her accusation is very tame in comparison (and perhaps tempered by time). And this accusation of Custer dividing the command was one also made by Reno and Benteen (and others).
I like the Patton comparison.
I really appreciate your watching and commenting!
highest regards,
Siobhan
I don't know battlefield tactics that well, but dividing troops for attacks is fairly common. The only one who really knew what was out there was General Crook. Crook got his ass kicked the week prior by the same Natives. From what I can deduce, this was never fully reported. Also, didn't General Terry take a couple days off to go trout fishing instead of hurrying to the planned rendezvous with Custer. 2 days would have made the difference. Benteen & Reno did not operate with glory either. There's enough marks against both that day that they cannot be absolved of guilt.. Custer deserves blame too. Poor, up to date reconnisence, leaving pack train too far back(?), being on the wrong side of river. I would have swung way around to the west & drove the hugh horse herd right through the camp, pinning the Natives against the cliffs & river!!
Great points, Shirley! I touch on a little of that in other videos. Crook was accused of fishing and taking too long nursing his wounds (and not alerting Terry of his loss) and Terry was definitely late arriving. Two factors that many people forget when they talk about the Little Bighorn.
Thank you for pointing this out!
Notice that we at last have an example of a photograph being shown to the hostile Indians.
Interesting point.
Libbie speaks of a photograph being shown to the Washita captives in 1869...
You mean in a request for the ID of 7th cav officer? Very true!
@@SiobhanFallon7 The only other time I recall of a photograph being shown was to an allied Indian, Soldier, who was shown a photograph of Lt William Winer Cooke by Walter Mason camp and kissed it. I don't know how contemporary all of Cusyer's nicknames were, for instance, but I think the Indians after perhaps becoming more familiar with him after Little Bighorn began to largely refer to him as the Long Haired Chief (this was what I presume a Chief was to them, btw, in case we have any linguistic issues as to who or what is a chief). Some of them even make note that he had cut his hair short, which is an interesting piece of information for them to acquire if they did not recognize his body on the battlefield. I'm wondering whether or not they recognized different or would have seen pictures of them years afterward.
@@SiobhanFallon7 of whom?
This is the only way I can answer you back, but I also tattooed on my leg on the spot were Custer hand of the last letter or dictated the last letter I tattooed that on my thigh at that scene on June 25 this year it was a Sunday also which he fell on Sunday but I wrote a tattooed that letter on my leg that he had dictated about bringing the packs be quick I am a tattoo artist in Lebanon Ohio, so I did that that was a dream of mine to go there
Really? That is incredible!! I have an image of that final order right by my desk and look at it all the time. So many mysteries in a scrap of paper and a handful of words... I bet your tattoo is amazing.
From Reno's hill you'd have to be a blind midget to not be able to see Custers fight.
Ps, I'm a veteran and a former combat engineer. I know how to pick out ground and sight lines.
Oh my, ha ha! I know you can see the battlefield from Weir Point, but Reno Hill to Last Stand Hill is quite a distance. But I trust that you have experience here.
@@mellongfield9873 really interesting, Mel! Thank you for commenting!
jack was identified. The indians took him into the village and put his head on a pole. there were four heads found in the village on pikes and his was one of them.
" A pair of bloodied underdrawers found in the Indian village after the battle were tentatively identified as having belonged to the lieutenant. One of four severed heads found in the village suggested to some officers that 22-year-old Sturgis may have been captured, tortured and mutilated."
@mitchwood6609 yes. I agree with you there.
A historian acquaintance just released some further info about Jack being ID-ed, I'll try to find and paste it here.
Thanks, Mitch!
Sometimes Im more proud of my Cherokee blood than my white blood.
Hey there and Happy New Year!
If you want to take a look at a series that examines the history of the conflict between the 7th Cavalry and the Southern Cheyenne:
ruclips.net/p/PLHfg6vohewsz_5UUQNdUfwYvWa5jP_3Jn
They didnt have nothing to dig with. Learn your history. I
The ground was hard etc. It was very hot that day.
Custer was going after the women and children plus elderly. Same as Washita. Like I said learn your history.
Don't have nothing to say huh. I'm not being smart its something I have to say.
I've read everything about custer so I know as much as I can. I'm not being smart.😅
sam sturgis hunted down the nez perce, they just couldnt leave them indians alone for heck
Yes. I'll be going into that in one of my upcoming Benteen presentations. Poor Chief Joseph. He was admired by so many.
@@SiobhanFallon7 but one thing is for sure, sam sturgis did love motorcycles.
@@spacecatboy2962 🤣🤣🤣
the way I see it, they got exactly what they deserved
They were a bunch of butchering monsters. Period
Thanks for stopping in, Patrick! I'd appreciate if you could give me a couple examples of the 7th Cavalry behaving like a "bunch of butchering monsters"? I am confident I can refute that accusation.
Battle of the Washita; Women and children killed. Horses slaughtered.
Battle of Wounded Knee; Women and children killed.
Battle of the Little Bighorn; Reno opens fire on Women and children.
If the shoe fits........
@@nigelsmith2457 Hey there, Nigel. So good of you to leave a comment and allow me to pick up where the above gentleman left off.
The Cheyenne women prisoners taken at the Washita stated the Washita death toll was 13 Cheyenne men, 1 Arapaho, with a total of between 29 to 38 people. George Bent, who was half Cheyenne and married to Black Kettle’s niece, had lived in Black Kettle’s village, and actually participated in the very raids along the Saline and Salomon Rivers with the Cheyenne warriors and Dog Men that prompted the U.S Army Washita campaign, consistently claimed the losses were 11 Cheyenne men, 12 women, and 6 children.
In regards to deliberate slaughter, Custer himself ordered the Osage scouts to stop killing women and children, and the ONLY accusation of 7th CAV deliberately killing women and children was a redacted statement made by Ben Clark to a newspaper. Ben Clark, who was the interpreter that day, who ended up marrying not one Cheyenne woman but three in the course of his lifetime, living among the Cheyenne and raising their children there at the Darlington Agency, Ben Clark who was so devasted by the death of his third Cheyenne wife that he committed suicide. This Ben Clark said that the journalist got his quote wrong and that the 7th Cav never deliberately shot women and children but it was the work of the Osage scouts, traditional enemies of the Cheyenne, who also scalped Black Kettle.
In terms of scale of “slaughter”-From August 10th to Nov 27th 1868, it is estimated that the Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho had been involved in 78 specific acts of aggression, resulting in the deaths of 131 civilians, the rape 15 women, capture of several children. Raiders burned 12 farms, two stage buildings, a range, three wagon trains, captured 735 horses and mules and 931 head of cattle. These violent act instigated the US military retaliatory action that led to the Washita fight. And it was a severe tragedy to both the Cheyenne and the US that Custer followed a raiding party's trail into the village of Black Kettle on that fateful morning, as Black Kettle (and his camp) was the best advocate for peace at that time and did not deserve to die.
Regarding the Little Bighorn, Crow scouts were the first to attack and are thought to have gotten the closest to the village, and also to have been the perpetrators who killed Gall's wife and children.
And please remember there were 250 plus US soldiers killed, no wounded left alive, though Cheyenne and Sioux witnesses talk of soldiers who were wounded and asked for mercy and were not spared, some scalped while alive, one taken prisoner, tied up, and killed later that night. Whereas the Lakota and Cheyenne losses at the LBH were about 40 warriors over the course of two days of heavy fighting.
So perhaps you could rethink your accusations of slaughter?
Wounded Knee is outside the purview here, and all of those who supposedly “deserved” their deaths in 1876 had, well, already died at LBH in 1876.
Please let me know if you need me to cite any of the above statements and tallies and I can give you Author, Book title, and page number upon request.
Thanks again for stopping by.
@@SiobhanFallon7 hi Siobhan, and thanks for the reply. Thanks also for the content you provide, I've picked up quite a few things that I didn't previously know.
Firstly, I don't go with blaming these deaths on the Indian scouts. The native Indian regardless of tribe, was known to value both women and children. It's why they captured them and tried to integrate them within their own societies. Nowhere is there any evidence that they indiscriminately killed women and children.
Secondly, you cannot justify the actions of the 7th cavalry by comparison to the native Indian. Wrong is wrong.
Finally, I don't believe that innocent parties should be forced into war. If people want to fight, let them find a field out of the way and settle their issues there. Leave the rest of us alone. We didn't cause wars and we're not interested in participating.
@@nigelsmith2457 Nigel, your reply is appreciated too. I absolutely agree that wrong is wrong, regardless of who commits it. I did not call either side "butchering monsters" who deserved the tragedy that occured or initially list conflicts that attempted to make this a wholly one-sided equation.
And I believe both whites as well as Native Americans value women and children. I point out the list of depredations in response to your list to show that no race is blameless.
To illustrate an example of inter-tribal warfare you might want to take a quick look at the Massacre Canyon fight to see that noncombatants often fell during Plains tribes conflicts just as they unfortunately did throughout the bloody history of our violent human kind.
Thanks for having a civil and thoughtful conversation here, Nigel. I'm grateful to hear your point of view.
Thanks for your time and effort putting this together! Very moving indeed.
Thank you so much! I'm wrapping up a new one now so please stay tuned! 🙏💕
Excellent video.