What Eyewitness Accounts Revealed About the Lies of Custer’s Last Stand

In January 1879, Captain Frederick Bentine testified under oath about the final hours of Kuster's command. Three years earlier, he had received Kuster's last written order, telling him to come quickly and bring the ammunition packs. Yet, when the military court asked whether he later heard gunfire from Kuster's direction, Bentine gave a simple answer. I heard no volleys. Major

Marcus Reno also claimed that he heard no firing from down river. Other survivors contradicted them. Lieutenant Luther Hair remembered two distinct volleys. Captain Thomas McDougall testified that he heard two volleys and reported them to Reno. Lieutenant Charles Deruddio described immense volleys coming from the far end of the village. This disagreement carried serious consequences. If Reno and

Bentine heard Kuster's guns, they may have known that his command was still fighting while they remained on the bluffs. Denying the sound made their failure to advance appear less like a decision and more like a tragic lack of information. 2 years after the court cleared Reno, a Lakota warrior named Red Horse described

the same period from the other side of the battlefield. According to Red Horse, a report spread through the village that Kuster soldiers had captured native women and children. Like a whirlwind, he said the warning passed among the warriors. Many of them immediately left Reno's position and rushed north to confront Kuster. Red Horse added one disturbing detail.

The warriors expected Reno's soldiers to attack them from behind while they were moving toward Kuster. When no attack came, they concluded that the soldiers on the hill must have run out of ammunition. From the native side, Reno's inactivity was visible, unexpected, and difficult to explain. Red Horse could not know what Reno and Bentine were