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Mistakes That Helped Shape U.S. into What it Is Today

Khalid Elhassan October 16, 2019 34 min

31. Custer Gets Himself And Everybody Around Him Killed

In 1876, the US government sought to seize the Black Hills in the Dakotas, where gold had recently been discovered, from the Sioux and Cheyenne tribes. However, the Native Americans refused to give way. So the Army was despatched, with Custer and his 7^th Cavalry Regiment sent out on a scouting sweep. On June 25^th, 1876, her came across a large Sioux village on the Little Bighorn River, and he saw it as a golden opportunity to gain military glory.

Failing to adequately scout, Custer catastrophically underestimated the strength of his enemy and divided his men in the hopes of surrounding the Natives. He might have imagined his force as wolves falling on a flock of sheep, but given the disparity in numbers, it was more like mice charging a buffalo. The Sioux and their allies, led by Crazy Horse and Chief Gall, counter-charged, chased Custer and his contingent, then surrounded and annihilated them. It was the worst defeat ever dealt the US Army by Native Americans.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.