Custer's Last Stand

After being on the road for almost two months, we finally arrived at the spot I was looking forward to the most - The Little Bighorn.  After all, my man cave room at home is named, "PWICK'S LAST STAND" and also one of my favorite movies is "They Died With Their Boots On" starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland as General and Mrs. Custer.  .I must have watched it 50 times or so.

When we arrived, we watched a short film and then toured the battlefield.  As you may or may not know, when Custer spotted a large gathering of Indians on  the other side of the Little Bighorn River,  he unexplicably split his force in three and sent Captain Benteen a few miles to the left and Major Reno to the right while he stayed in the middle with his 210 men facing a force of thousands of Lakota and Cheyenne.  Whether he had underestimated the enemy strength, overestimated his own skills, or just had a bad day, we will never know.  What we do know is that Benteen and Reno were both thwarted in their flanking attempts and retreated to defensive positions.  That left General Custer and his men alone on Last Stand Hill against thousands.  And, as we know, they all perished.

All over the battlefield are little headstones placed where each body was found, including Custer.  But later all the bodies were dug up and reburied right around the large obelisk at the top of the hill.  Custer's body was sent to West Point for burial there.

As I was walking around the battlefield, I got a strange feeling that I had been there before and was one of Custer's men.  You can laugh, but I got the same feeling walking the Gettysburg battlefield in Pennsylvania feeling I was one of Picket's men.  Joan thinks I have just been in the sun too long.....but who's to know?

In line with our run ins with animals lately, here are some wild horses we encountered on the battlefield.