The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Big Horn

in his second narrative of the battle, in John Carroll, Benteen-Goldin Letters, p. 182. According to Charles Roe, “Custer’s object in sending Benteen to [the] left from [the] divide was to keep Benteen out of the fight. . . . [T]his is the opinion of Benteen’s friends.” Camp added in his transcript of his interview with Roe, “I think their view will bear criticism,” in Hammer, Custer in ’76, p. 249. Camp also thought that Custer’s decision to send Benteen left was influenced by Terry’s written orders to stay to the left of the Indian trail by remaining on the Rosebud: “In my way of thinking this suggestion of Terry’s was what, more than anything else, was the cause of Custer’s fatal mistake in dividing his command too minutely. . . . I regard Terry’s suggestions in the order as very unfortunate for Custer, for had he not been hampered with a desire to follow these, he would undoubtedly have had his command better in hand when he found the village,” in Hammer, Custer in ’76, p. 261. Charley Reynolds’s claim that the valley contained “the biggest bunch of Indians he’d ever seen” is in Windolph, I Fought with Custer, as is Windolph’s account of how Benteen suggested that they “keep the regiment together, General,” p. 76. Private Fremont Kipp of D Company told Walter Camp of Benteen’s insistence that he have D Company in his battalion, in Hardorff’s On the Little Bighorn with Walter Camp, p. 184.
    Reno testified that “I was not consulted about anything,” in W. A. Graham’s The Reno Court of Inquiry (subsequently referred to as RCI ), p. 211. On the dress of Custer and the other officers, see Godfrey’s “Mounts, Uniforms and Equipment” in W. A. Graham, The Custer Myth, pp. 345–46. As to the hats the soldiers wore, Varnum said, “The shapes were most irregular, some were rolled up on both sides; others just flat and others turned the brim up, in Napoleonic appearance,” in Coughlan’s “Varnum: The Last of Custer’s Lieutenants,” p. 31. Reno testified, “I had some whiskey in a flask that I carried in the inside pocket of my uniform,” in W. A. Graham, RCI, p. 221; several witnesses, including Gerard, DeRudio, and Private William Taylor, saw Reno with a bottle of whiskey; he may have had both a bottle and a flask and was certainly not the only officer carrying alcohol. Reno testified that he had “no confidence in [Custer’s] ability as a soldier,” in W. A. Graham, RCI, p. 225. Libbie recounted how the officers’ wives gathered together in her house on the afternoon of June 25, 1876, in Boots and Saddles, pp. 221–22; she also told of how Custer and the other officers virtually abandoned the women of Fort Lincoln in the spring of 1874, pp. 130–36. My thanks to Susan Beegel for first bringing the 1874 incident to my attention. Frost in General Custer’s Libbie cites Sheridan’s claim that Custer was “the only man whom matrimony has not spoiled for a charge,” p. 132.
    Benteen recounted how Custer sent two messengers, both with the order to keep marching to the left until he gained a view of the LBH valley, in his narrative in John Carroll, Benteen-Goldin Letters, p. 168. Martin told of how after receiving reports from the scouts Custer “sometimes [would] gallop away a short distance to look around,” in W. A. Graham, The Custer Myth, p. 289. Hare told Walter Camp that Custer “seemed . . . very impatient,” in Hammer, Custer in ’76, p. 64. Benteen wrote of seeing “the grayhorse troop in rapid motion,” in his narrative in John Carroll, Benteen-Goldin Letters, p. 168. Young Hawk told how he cut open the Lone Tepee with his knife and found “a dead body wrapped in a buffalo robe,” in Libby , p. 94; Red Bear told how the scout One Feather drank “soup left for the dead Dakota and ate some of the meat,” Libby , p. 121. Daniel Kanipe wrote that Custer “ordered the tepee fired,” in W. A. Graham, The Custer Myth, p. 249. According to Peter Thompson, all signs pointed to the intermediate village having departed in a great rush: “[N]umerous articles were left behind, such as coffee pots, tin plates, cups, axes, hatchets, and other articles . . . scattered about from one end of the camp to the other,” in his Account, pp. 15–16.
    Reno testified, “I had had trouble with Gerard, and discharged him because I thought he was stealing from the Government,” in W. A. Graham, RCI, p. 223. Gerard told Walter Camp of his personal