Editing Battle of the Little Bighorn (section)

==Legacy==

===Reconstitution of the 7th Cavalry===
Beginning in July, the 7th Cavalry was assigned new officers<ref name="hils">{{Cite book| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=w-VCAAAAIAAJ&q=record+of+living+officers+of+the+united+states+army| title = Records of Living Officers of the United States Army (1884)| access-date =January 17, 2008| year = 1883| isbn = 978-0722293980| last1 = Hamersly| first1 = Lewis Randolph| publisher = Hamersly}}</ref>{{NoteTag|Major Elmer I. Otis of the [[1st Cavalry Regiment (United States)|1st Cavalry]] was promoted to replace Custer effective June 25, 1876, but did not report until February 1877. Two 1876 West Point graduates designated for the 7th Cavalry were advanced to 1st lieutenant effective 10 days after their graduation. Four others appointed to other regiments, along with eight experienced 2nd lieutenants, were transferred and designated one to each company of the 7th. However, five declined the appointment, replaced by 2nd lieutenants of infantry and unappointed new officers in July and August 1876. Only three replacements were able to report while the 7th was still in the field.}} and recruiting efforts began to fill the depleted ranks. The regiment, reorganized into eight companies, remained in the field as part of the Terry Expedition, now based on the Yellowstone River at the mouth of the Bighorn and reinforced by Gibbon's column. On August 8, 1876, after Terry was further reinforced with the 5th Infantry, the expedition moved up Rosebud Creek in pursuit of the Lakota. It met with Crook's command, similarly reinforced, and the combined force, almost 4,000 strong, followed the Lakota trail northeast toward the [[Little Missouri River (North Dakota)|Little Missouri River]]. Persistent rain and lack of supplies forced the column to dissolve and return to its varying starting points. The 7th Cavalry returned to Fort Abraham Lincoln to reconstitute. The regimental commander, Colonel [[Samuel D. Sturgis]], returned from his detached duty in St. Louis, Missouri. Sturgis led the 7th Cavalry in the campaign against the [[Nez Perce War|Nez Perce]] in 1877.

===Expansion of the U.S. Army===
The [[United States Congress|U.S. Congress]] authorized appropriations to expand the Army by 2,500 men to meet the emergency after the defeat of the 7th Cavalry. For a session, the Democratic Party-controlled House of Representatives abandoned its campaign to reduce the size of the Army. Word of Custer's fate reached the 44th United States Congress as a conference committee was attempting to reconcile opposing appropriations bills approved by the House and the Republican Senate. They approved a measure to increase the size of cavalry companies to 100 enlisted men on July 24. The committee temporarily lifted the ceiling on the size of the Army by 2,500 on August 15.<ref>Utley, Robert M. (1973) ''Frontier Regulars: The United States Army and the Indian 1866–1890'', pp. 64 and 69 note 11.</ref>

==="Sell or Starve"===
{{Main|Seizure of the Black Hills}}

As a result of the defeat in June 1876, Congress responded by attaching what the Sioux call the "sell or starve" rider ({{USStat|19|192}}) to the Indian Appropriations Act of 1876 (enacted August 15, 1876), which cut off all rations for the Sioux until they terminated hostilities and ceded the Black Hills to the United States.<ref>House Report 95-375</ref><ref>''[[United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians]]'' (Ct. Cl. 1979), 601 F.2d 1157, 1161</ref> The Agreement of 1877 ({{USStat|19|254}}, enacted February 28, 1877) officially took away Sioux land and permanently established Indian reservations.