Originally Posted by Hastings
Originally Posted by shrapnel
Then there is General Crook, who was supposed to be another attachment of the Bighorn campaign, ran into Crazy Horse down on the Rosebud and in that engagement, shot 25,000 rounds of ammunition and hit about 12 Indians. Feeling tired and out of ammo, Crook decided to go back to Fort Fetterman, lick his wounds and go fishing. No one has ever considered his malfeasance in this particular lack of engagement...
Crook it seems should have sent messengers in an arc around to the east of the Indians to warn the others coming in from the north as part of their three pronged attack. But not a word of condemnation of Crook is ever heard much less a court martial.

Some of the accounts I've read said the Indians thought Reno's attack was Crook returning.

If Custer would have just continued up the Rosebud he would have encountered evidence of the Rosebud battle. But as my old uncle liked to say "if ifs and buts were candy and nuts what a different world it would be".

I guess the burning tepee and the dead Indian Custer's troops found on the Indian trail should have been a hint that something bad had happened to the south. Like a battle.


The lone teepee was not burning, Custer’s scouts did that. Finding a dead Indian in a teepee that was still set up in an area that indicated a camp movement, would not indicate any previous conflict, certainly not with Crook.

Custer would not have gone far enough down the Rosebud to detect the lack of Crook or his conflict with Crazy Horse. I am sure Custer still expected Crook’s assistance, but his focus on the Indian encampment was his priority. Remember, that by this time his scouts had found that Indians had already discovered Custer’s presence when they found the Indians going through a lost pack on the trail.

These circumstances all contributed to Custer’s decision to attack the village on the 25th instead of the 26th as originally planned.

This picture is of the bluffs above the site of the lone teepee. I consider this the real beginning of the battle. It is at this site where Gerard first saw about 20 Indians that came out of a coulee mounted and heading towards the Little Bighorn River.

It is here that Custer sent Reno down Reno Creek to the Little Bighorn to strike the village from the south. It is argued as to the location of the lone teepee, and our conclusion is this is the correct location. The Park places the site at the location where the North Fork of Reno Creek meets the Middle Fork. Why, I don’t understand, because the testimonials of the participants of the battle describe the area near the white bluffs over 20 minutes or several miles from the Little Bighorn River…


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