Editing Battle of the Little Bighorn (section)

===Last stand===
In the end, the hilltop to which Custer had moved was probably too small to accommodate all of the survivors and wounded. Fire from the southeast made it impossible for Custer's men to secure a defensive position all around Last Stand Hill where the soldiers put up their most dogged defense. According to Lakota accounts, far more of their casualties occurred in the attack on Last Stand Hill than anywhere else. The extent of the soldiers' resistance indicated they had few doubts about their prospects for survival. According to Cheyenne and Sioux testimony, the command structure rapidly broke down, although smaller "last stands" were apparently made by several groups. Custer's remaining companies (E, F, and half of C) were soon killed.

By almost all accounts, the Lakota annihilated Custer's force within an hour of engagement.<ref>Miller, David Humphreys, ''Custer's Fall'', Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 1985, p. 158</ref><ref>Graham, Benteen letter to Capt. R. E. Thompson, p. 211.</ref><ref>Graham, ''Gall's Narrative'', p. 88.</ref> [[David Humphreys Miller]], who between 1935 and 1955 interviewed the last Lakota survivors of the battle, wrote that the Custer fight lasted less than one-half hour.<ref>Miller, David Humphreys, ''Custer's Fall, the Indian Side of the Story''. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 1985 (reprint of 1957 edition), p. 158.</ref> Other native accounts said the fighting lasted only "as long as it takes a hungry man to eat a meal." The Lakota asserted that Crazy Horse personally led one of the large groups of warriors who overwhelmed the cavalrymen in a surprise charge from the northeast, causing a breakdown in the command structure and panic among the troops. Many of these men threw down their weapons while Cheyenne and Sioux warriors rode them down, "[[counting coup]]" with lances, coup sticks, and [[quirt]]s. Some Native accounts recalled this segment of the fight as a "buffalo run."<ref>Graham, pp. 45–56.</ref>

Captain [[Frederick William Benteen|Frederick Benteen]], battalion leader of Companies D, H and K, on the 18th day of the ''Reno Court of Inquiry''<ref>Nichols, Ronald H. (ed) (2007) p. 417, 419. "Reno Court of Inquiry, ''In The Case of Major Marcus A. Reno'' compiled and edited by Ronald H. Nichols, Custer Battlefield Historical & Museum Assn., Inc. Hardin, MT 59034</ref> gave his observations on the Custer battlefield on June 27, 1876:

{{Blockquote|I went over the battlefield carefully with a view to determine how the battle was fought. I arrived at the conclusion then, as I have now, that it was a [[rout]], a [[panic]], until the last man was killed ...

That there was no line formed on the battlefield. You can take a handful of corn and scatter it over the floor, and make just such lines, there were none. The only approach to a line was where 5 or 6 [dead] horses found at equal distances, like skirmishers [part of Lt. Calhoun's Company L]. Ahead of those 5 or 6 [dead] horses there were 5 or 6 men at about the same distances, showing that the horses were killed and the riders jumped off and were all heading to get where General Custer was. That was the only approach to a line on the field. There were more than 20 [troopers] killed there to the right. There were 4 or 5 at one place, all within a space of 20 to 30 yards. That was the condition all over the field and in the [gorge].<ref>Nicols (2007) p. 417</ref>

I think, in all probability, that the men turned their horses loose without any orders to do so. Many orders might have been given, but few obeyed. I think that they were panic stricken; it was a rout, as I said before.<ref>Nichols (2007) p. 419</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Rice|year=1998|title=Benteen testimony at Reno Court of Inquiry, January 13 – February 11, 1879|url=https://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/Military_Law/Reno_court_inquiry.html|via=The Library of Congress|url-status = live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171007141134/http://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/Military_Law/Reno_court_inquiry.html|archive-date=October 7, 2017|df=mdy-all}}</ref>}}

{{multiple image
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| image1    = Custer's Last Stand, 1877.png
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| caption1  = Looking in the direction of the Indian village and the deep ravine. Photo by Stanley J. Morrow, spring 1877
| image2    = Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument.JPG
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| caption2  = Looking in the direction of the Indian village and the deep ravine. Taken November 2011
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A Brulé Sioux warrior stated: "In fact, Hollow Horn Bear believed that the troops were in good order at the start of the fight, and kept their organization even while moving from point to point."<ref>Gregory Michno, Lakota Noon, Mountain Press, 1997, p. 177</ref> Red Horse, an Oglala Sioux warrior, commented: "Here [Last Stand Hill] the soldiers made a desperate fight."<ref>Gregory Michno, Lakota Noon, Mountain Press, 1997, p. 252</ref> One Hunkpapa Sioux warrior, Moving Robe, noted that "It was a hotly contested battle",<ref>Gregory Michno, Lakota Noon, Mountain Press, 1997, p. 179</ref> while another, Iron Hawk, stated: "The Indians pressed and crowded right in around Custer Hill. But the soldiers weren't ready to die. We stood there a long time."<ref>Gregory Michno, Lakota Noon, Mountain Press, 1997, p. 254</ref> In a letter from February 21, 1910, Private William Taylor, Company M, 7th Cavalry, wrote: "Reno proved incompetent and Benteen showed his indifference—I will not use the uglier words that have often been in my mind. Both failed Custer and he had to fight it out alone."<ref>GSklenar, Larry, To Hell with Honor, p. 260</ref>


<gallery mode="packed" heights="150px" style="text-align:left" class="center">
File:Edgar Samuel Paxson - Custer's Last Stand.jpg|Custer's Last Stand by Edgar Samuel Paxson 
File:Keogh Memorial - Little Big Horn Battlefield.jpg|Keogh Battlefield Marker 1879 
</gallery>

====Custer's final resistance====
Recent archaeological work at the battlefield indicates that officers on Custer Hill restored some tactical control.<ref name="Fox1993"/>{{rp|255–259}} E Company rushed off Custer Hill toward the Little Bighorn River but failed to reach it, which resulted in the destruction of that company. This left about 50–60 men, mostly from F Company and the staff, on Last Stand Hill. The remainder of the battle took on the nature of a running fight. Modern archaeology and historical Indian accounts indicate that Custer's force may have been divided into three groups, with the Indians attempting to prevent them from effectively reuniting. Indian accounts describe warriors (including women) running up from the village to wave blankets in order to scare off the soldiers' horses. One 7th Cavalry trooper claimed to have found several stone ''mallets'' consisting of a round cobble weighing 8–10 pounds (about 4&nbsp;kg) with a rawhide handle, which he believed had been used by the Indian women to finish off the wounded.<ref name=Scott-TheyDied>{{cite book |title=They Died With Custer: Soldiers' Bones from the Battle of the Little Bighorn |first1=Douglas D. |last1=Scott |first2=P. |last2=Willey |first3=Melissa A. |last3=Connor |location=Norman |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |year=2013 |orig-year=1998 |url={{GBurl|id=KO-9A4b2t4IC}} |isbn=((978-0-8061-3507-7))}}</ref>{{rp|314}} Fighting dismounted, the soldiers' skirmish lines were overwhelmed. Army doctrine would have called for one man in four to be a horseholder behind the skirmish lines and, in extreme cases, one man in eight. Later, the troops would have bunched together in defensive positions and are alleged to have shot their remaining horses as cover. As individual troopers were wounded or killed, initial defensive positions would have been abandoned as untenable.<ref name="ReferenceB">Gray, John C. "Custer's Last Campaign"</ref>

Under threat of attack, the first U.S. soldiers on the battlefield three days later hurriedly buried the troopers in shallow graves, more or less where they had fallen. A couple of years after the battle, markers were placed where men were believed to have fallen, so the placement of troops has been roughly construed. The troops evidently died in several groups, including on Custer Hill, around Captain [[Myles Keogh]], and strung out towards the Little Bighorn River.<ref name="ReferenceB" />

====Last break-out attempt====
According to Indian accounts, about forty men on Custer Hill made a desperate stand around Custer, delivering [[volley fire]].<ref name="michno1997" /> The great majority of the Indian casualties were probably suffered during this closing segment of the battle, as the soldiers and Indians on Calhoun Ridge were more widely separated and traded fire at greater distances for most of their portion of the battle than did the soldiers and Indians on Custer Hill.<ref name="michno1997" />{{rp|282}}

{{multiple image
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| image1    = Mitch Boyer.jpg
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| caption1  = This c. 1895–1899 portrait of A-ca-po-re, a Ute musician, by Charles A. Nast has been misidentified as Mitch Bouyer for nearly 100 years.
| image2    = 2008 0909Battlefield0026.JPG|
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| caption2  = [[Mitch Bouyer]] marker on Deep Ravine trail. Deep Ravine is to the right of this picture (south/southwest) and about {{convert|65|yard|m|round=5}} distant.
}}

Modern documentaries suggest that there may not have been a "Last Stand", as traditionally portrayed in popular culture. Instead, archaeologists suggest that in the end, Custer's troops were not surrounded but rather overwhelmed by a single charge. This scenario corresponds to several Indian accounts stating Crazy Horse's charge swarmed the resistance, with the surviving soldiers fleeing in panic.<ref name="michno1997" />{{NoteTag|Testimony of Yellow Nose.}} Many of these troopers may have ended up in a deep ravine {{convert|300|to|400|yard|m}} away from what is known today as Custer Hill. At least 28 bodies (the most common number associated with burial witness testimony), including that of scout [[Mitch Bouyer]], were discovered in or near that gulch, their deaths possibly the battle's final actions.

Although the marker for Mitch Bouyer was found accurate through archaeological and forensic testing of remains, it is some 65 yards away from Deep Ravine.<ref name=Scott-Arch/>{{rp|82}} Historian Douglas Scott theorized that the "Deep Gulch" or "Deep Ravine" might have included not only the steep-sided portion of the coulee, but the entire drainage including its tributaries, in which case the bodies of Bouyer and others were found where eyewitnesses had said they were seen.<ref name=Scott-TheyDied/>

Other archaeological explorations done in Deep Ravine found no human remains associated with the battle.<ref name=Scott-TheyDied/>{{rp|39–48}} Over the years since the battle, skeletal remains that were reportedly recovered from the mouth of the Deep Ravine by various sources have been repatriated to the Little Big Horn National Monument. According to Scott, it is likely that in the 108 years between the battle and Scott's excavation efforts in the ravine, geological processes caused many of the remains to become unrecoverable. For example, near the town of Garryowen, portions of the skeleton of a trooper killed in the Reno Retreat were recovered from an eroding bank of the Little Big Horn, while the rest of the remains had apparently been washed away by the river.<ref name=Scott-TheyDied/>