Underestimating the size of the encampment before him, Custer split his regiment and attacked a village of some 7,000 Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho people. Warriors led by Crazy Horse and Gall encircled Custer's five companies on a dusty ridge, killing all 210 men within roughly an hour. The battle became the Plains Indians' greatest victory over the U.S. Army, though it hastened the very military campaign that would ultimately crush their independence.
Custer had ignored his scouts' warnings that the village ahead was far larger than reported — some estimates put the number of warriors at 1,800 or more. He divided his 7th Cavalry into three battalions to attack from multiple directions, a tactic that had worked at the Washita eight years earlier but proved disastrous here. Major Marcus Reno's column was thrown back almost immediately; Captain Frederick Benteen's men arrived too late to help.
Custer's own five companies, roughly 210 soldiers, were surrounded on a hilltop later called Last Stand Hill. Archaeological digs in the 1980s, using bullet-casing patterns, revealed the fighting lasted less than an hour and that the soldiers' formation collapsed quickly under repeated mounted charges. Not one man in Custer's immediate command survived.
News of the defeat reached the East just as Americans were celebrating the Centennial, producing a wave of public fury that hardened U.S. resolve. Within a year, the Army had forced most of the victorious bands onto reservations, and Crazy Horse himself surrendered the following spring — a bitter irony given the scale of the June victory.
Key people: George Armstrong Custer, Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, Gall