Surrounded



On this date in eighteen hundred seventy-six

Custer, Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull mixed ...

Meeting at Little Bighorn in Montana Territory

Where the United States Cavalry fought bravely



But were outnumbered ten to one by the Sioux

Who annihilated the soldiers and Custer, too

Killing all but one* of the two hundred sixty men

A hopeless engagement, and one not forgotten



Caused by Custer's own miscalculation of strength

And a certain willfullness, for he'd been directed to blend

... His regiment of six hundred and fifty-five troops

With General Terry's forces at the river's loop ...



Where the Bighorn and Little Bighorn Rivers met

In order to prepare a much sounder attack, yet ...

But Custer advanced his troops in three columns

Without knowing the Sioux and Cheyenne were mulling



Encamped together in a mass of thousands ...

Splitting apart in order to surround them ...

Cutting off both of Custer's protective flanks 

Destroying the center column and all the ranks



- Tristram



© Christopher W. Thomas

written 4pm Sat. 6/26/99

for Friday June 25th, 1999



* The one survivor was a Crow scout.



NB

Crazy Horse was captured on May 6th, 1877

He was killed by a soldier whilst resisting ...



Sitting Bull surrendered after being promised

amnesty in 1881, but spent two years in prison,

before being settled on a reservation. In 1885, 

he was allowed to leave in order to tour with

Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show, but was

later arrested for instigating unrest on December

15th, 1890. After an attempt was made to rescue

him, he was shot and killed by his captors.



Along with Custer, also killed were four of his family:

Tom and Boston Custer, his two brothers

Colonel Calhoun, his brother-in-law

Colonel Yates, his nephew.



The site of Custer's Last Stand was established

as a National Monument in 1896, initially named 

the Custer Battlefield National Monument, renamed 

the Little Bighorn National Monument in 1991.