The Battle of Pease Bottom, also called the Battle of the Bighorn River was a conflict between the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

and the

Sioux The Sioux or Oceti Sakowin (; Dakota language, Dakota: Help:IPA, /otʃʰeːtʰi ʃakoːwĩ/) are groups of Native Americans in the United States, Native American tribes and First Nations in Canada, First Nations peoples in North America. The ...

on August 11, 1873 along the

Yellowstone River The Yellowstone River is a tributary of the Missouri River, approximately long, in the Western United States. Considered the principal tributary of upper Missouri, via its own tributaries it drains an area with headwaters across the mountains an ...

opposite the mouth of the

Bighorn River The Bighorn River is a tributary of the Yellowstone, approximately long, in the states of Wyoming and Montana in the western United States. The river was named in 1805 by fur trader François Larocque for the bighorn sheep he saw along its ban ...

near present-day

Custer, Montana Custer is a village in Yellowstone County, Montana, United States. The population was 145 at the 2000 census. This community bears the name of U.S. Army General George Armstrong Custer who was defeated and killed at the Battle of Little Big Horn ...

. The main combatants were units of the 7th U.S. Cavalry under Lieutenant Colonel

George Armstrong Custer George Armstrong Custer (December 5, 1839 – June 25, 1876) was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the American Indian Wars. Custer graduated from West Point in 1861 at the bottom of his class, b ...

, and Native Americans from the village of the

Hunkpapa The Hunkpapa (Lakota: ) are a Native American group, one of the seven council fires of the Lakota tribe. The name ' is a Lakota word, meaning "Head of the Circle" (at one time, the tribe's name was represented in European-American records as ...

medicine man,

Sitting Bull Sitting Bull ( lkt, Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake ; December 15, 1890) was a Hunkpapa Lakota leader who led his people during years of resistance against United States government policies. He was killed by Indian agency police on the Standing Rock I ...

, many of whom would clash with Custer again approximately three years later at the

Battle of the Little Big Horn The Battle of the Little Bighorn, known to the Lakota and other Plains Indians as the Battle of the Greasy Grass, and also commonly referred to as Custer's Last Stand, was an armed engagement between combined forces of the Lakota Sioux, Nort ...

in the

Crow Indian Reservation The Crow Indian Reservation is the homeland of the Crow Tribe. Established 1868, the reservation is located in parts of Big Horn County, Montana, Big Horn, Yellowstone County, Montana, Yellowstone, and Treasure County, Montana, Treasure counties ...

Short history of the battlefield

The site of the future battlefield came to be a locality in a treaty territory for the first time in 1851. The Treaty of Fort Laramie describes the area as Crow Indian country. The Lakota tribe acknowledged this. Nearly all the battles in the mid-1860s and the 1870s "between the army and the Dakota

Lakota, North Dakota Lakota is a city in Nelson County, North Dakota, United States. It is the county seat of Nelson County Lakota is located 63 miles west of Grand Forks and 27 miles east of Devils Lake. The population was 683 at the 2020 census, making Lakota t ...

were on lands those Indians had taken from other tribes since 1851." When the

Crows The Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station (CROWS) is a series of remote weapon stations used by the US military on its armored vehicles and ships. It allows weapon operators to engage targets without leaving the protection of their vehicle. T ...

agreed to settle on a smaller reservation on May 7, 1868, all the 1851 Crow treaty land north of the Yellowstone - including the future Pease Bottom - became U.S. territory.

Participants

U.S. Army forces

Custer and ten companies of the 7th Cavalry were part of the

Yellowstone Expedition of 1873 The Yellowstone Expedition of 1873 was an expedition of the United States Army in the summer of 1873 in Dakota Territory and Montana Territory, to survey a route for the Northern Pacific Railroad along the Yellowstone River. The expedition was unde ...

, a military column commanded by Colonel

David S. Stanley David Sloane Stanley (June 1, 1828 – March 13, 1902) was a Union Army general during the American Civil War. Stanley took part in the Second Battle of Corinth and the Battle of Stones River as a division commander. He was later made a corps co ...

accompanying the Northern Pacific Railway survey party surveying the north side of the Yellowstone River west of the Powder River in eastern Montana. Stanley's column consisted of a 1,300 man force of cavalry, infantry, and two artillery pieces (3" ordnance rifles). It traveled with 275 mule-drawn wagons and 353 civilians involved in the survey. Twenty-seven Indian and mixed-blood scouts supported the column. Just a week before, the army had been under Lakota attack in U.S. territory at Honsinger Bluff. The Battle of Pease Bottom was fought primarily by 8 companies of the 7th Cavalry under command of General Custer, numbering roughly 450 men.

Native American forces

The Native American forces were from the

's village, estimated at anywhere from 400 to 500 lodges. It included

Sioux under

Gall Galls (from the Latin , 'oak-apple') or ''cecidia'' (from the Greek , anything gushing out) are a kind of swelling growth on the external tissues of plants, fungi, or animals. Plant galls are abnormal outgrowths of plant tissues, similar to be ...

accompanied by the warchief

Rain in the Face Rain-in-the-Face (Lakota: Ité Omáǧažu in Standard Lakota Orthography) (c. 1835 – September 15, 1905) was a warchief of the Lakota tribe of Native Americans. His mother was a Dakota related to the band of famous Chief Inkpaduta. He ...

Oglala Sioux The Oglala (pronounced , meaning "to scatter one's own" in Lakota language) are one of the seven subtribes of the Lakota people who, along with the Dakota, make up the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Seven Council Fires). A majority of the Oglala live o ...

under

Crazy Horse Crazy Horse ( lkt, Tȟašúŋke Witkó, italic=no, , ; 1840 – September 5, 1877) was a Lakota war leader of the Oglala band in the 19th century. He took up arms against the United States federal government to fight against encroachment by wh ...

, and

Miniconjou The Miniconjou (Lakota: Mnikowoju, Hokwoju – ‘Plants by the Water’) are a Native American people constituting a subdivision of the Lakota people, who formerly inhabited an area in western present-day South Dakota from the Black Hills i ...

and

Cheyenne The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. Their Cheyenne language belongs to the Algonquian language family. Today, the Cheyenne people are split into two federally recognized nations: the Southern Cheyenne, who are enroll ...

. The warrior force was estimated at between 800 and 1000 warriors.

Battle

On the morning of August 11, 1873, Custer was encamped with a portion of the 1873 Yellowstone Expedition (Eight companies of the 7th Cavalry) along the north side of the Yellowstone River at what was later known as Pease Bottom near present-day

. In the early morning hours warriors from the village of Sitting Bull started firing at Custer's camp from across the river, and by dawn skirmishing had broken out in several locations. After shooting at least 3 warriors across the river, Private John Tuttle of Company E, 7th Cavalry was killed in the morning fighting, warriors then crossed the Yellowstone River above and below the camp of the 7th Cavalry and attacked Custer's troops. The 7th Cavalry successfully defended their rear, front and center from this attack, then counter-attacked with a charge, breaking the warrior positions and driving the warriors eight or more miles from the battlefield. At about the same time, Colonel Stanley's column appeared in the distance several miles away and hurried to support the engagement. During the battle Second Lieutenant Charles Braden of the 7th Cavalry was critically wounded, along with three other Privates of the same regiment. Braden's thigh was shattered by an Indian bullet and he remained on permanent sick leave until his retirement from the Army in 1878. He would posthumously be awarded the Distinguished Service Cross in 1925 for his actions during the battle. At least one army horse was wounded during the engagement. Indian losses were unknown, however, estimates from Custer's post-battle report claim "their losses in killed and wounded were beyond all proportion to that which they were enabled to inflict on us, our losses being one officer badly wounded, four men killed, and three wounded. Careful investigation justifies the statement that including both day's battles, the Indian losses will number forty warriors, while their wounded on the opposite bank of the river may increase this number."Custer, George A., Official Report, Aug. 15, 1873

Order of battle

United States Army

United States Army, Lieutenant Colonel

George A. Custer George Armstrong Custer (December 5, 1839 – June 25, 1876) was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the American Indian Wars. Custer graduated from West Point in 1861 at the bottom of his class, b ...

, 7th United States Cavalry Regiment, Commanding. * 7th U. S. Cavalry, Companies A, B, C, E, F, G, H, K, L and M: Lieutenant Colonel

* Artillery Section of (two) 3-inch ordnance rifles (Cannons): Second Lieutenant John McA. Webster, 22nd Infantry

Native Americans

* Lakota Sioux: