From The Valley To The Bluffs

The Seventh United States Cavalry, under Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer, was composed of twelve companies at the Battle of the Little Big Horn River on June 25, 1876. Custer’s plan of attack required that he divide his regiment by splitting the companies into three separate battalions. These battalions would be commanded by Major Marcus Reno (A,G,M), Captain Fredrick Benteen (D,H,K), and Custer (C,E,F,I,L). Company B, under Captain Thomas McDougall, was detailed to guard the pack train. Reno’s orders were to take his battalion and “Charge the village and you will be supported by the whole outfit.” That didn’t happen. Almost everyone has heard of “Custer’s Last Stand” in one form or another, but are surprised to learn that only five companies of the regiment were actually defeated by the Sioux and Cheyenne warriors. The surviving companies of Reno’s and Benteen’s Battalions, plus, Company B and the pack train, not only survived a three-day siege, but also had a very compelling story to tell. This, then, is the story of one of those surviving companies, Company A, commanded by Captain Myles Moylan. More than that, it is the personal story of the men in that company and their experiences down in the valley and up on the bluffs, along the Little Big Horn River on June 25, 26, and 27, 1876.