Custer was an Idiot: Part 5, Benteen

Benteen was livid.  One of the greatest battles of the frontier was about to take place, and Custer had sent him off on what he thought was a fool’s errand.

History has not been kind to Captain Fredrick Benteen.  Immediately following the battle, many investigators and historians laid some of the blame of Custer’s defeat at Benteen’s hands.  Only in the last century have knowledgeable historians recognized that Benteen was more than likely the singular reason that Reno’s forces were not completely annihilated.

A true study of Benteen’s history shows that the man was no coward.  In fact, he was a well decorated and accredited cavalry officer.  His actions and leadership during the civil war, first with the Missouri Militia, and later with the Regular Union Army led to the same brevet nomination as Custer:  Brigadier General.

But on this day, Benteen was a Captain.  Junior to Major Reno.  And sent south west of the column to observe, engage, and stop any attempted escape of the Indians to the south.

There is little doubt that there was animosity between Benteen and Custer.  Benteen had long held Custer responsible for the death of his friend Major Joel Elliot at the Battle of the Washita.  Incidentally, this battle was a result of actions of Benteen in the defense of a wagon train.  Driving off a raiding party, Benteen and his troopers followed their trail back to the Washita, discovering the huge Indian encampment there.  On November 27^th, 1868 Custer and the 7^th Cavalry struck in the pre-dawn hours in what would later be known as the Washita Massacre. 

It was during this attack that Custer, and many of his officers, Benteen included realized they had bitten off more than they could chew.  The small village he observed that early morning was actually an outer encampment of a much larger village.  The troops were outnumbered and on the verge of annihilation.  It was here that Custer developed the tactic of using Indian women and children as shields.  Gathering up the non-combatants, Custer marched them out of the village, with his troopers marching in between, shielded from the braves of the larger village.  Custer survived this way.  But Major Elliot and 16 of his troopers, ordered to attack from a different direction did not.  Their bodies were found in a tight circle when the regiment returned to the battle field on December 11.  From that day on, Benteen fully believed that his friend’s death could have been avoided, had Custer acted to relieve him.  But since the Battle of the Washita was considered a victory for the 7^th, no review of the action or after action was done.

The grudge over Elliot’s death was well known at the time.  And historians have always tried to use it to justify a jaundiced view of Benteen.  That is to say that it affected his performance with the 7^th Cavalry in the months following the Washita.  But they are wrong.  Whatever personal feelings Benteen had towards his superior, he never let it affect his performance as a Cavalry Officer.  This was borne out in his actions on Reno Hill, and in other actions between the Washita and the Little Bighorn.

And so, carrying out his orders as any good Cavalry Officer would, Benteen led his troops further and further southeast, driven further away from the main column with every dispatch from Custer.  Until they stopped coming. 

Topping a large hill to the south of the main trail, Benteen could not see the main column any longer.  But he did observe the pack train slowly working its way west.  Having no further orders from Custer at this point, and no contact or indication that the Indians were retreating to the south, Benteen turned his troopers northwest back towards the trail on Sun Dance Creek.

They stopped at the trail in a soggy mud hole, with enough water to allow the horses a brief rest to drink.  At this point, Benteen seemed in no hurry to move forward.  Some thought he was waiting on Capt. McDougall and the pack train.  At any rate, the first sounds of gun fire from the west could be heard, and the troopers were anxious to get moving. 

Captain Thomas Weir of D Company mounted his horse, and pointed ahead, saying “They should be over there”.  Without waiting for orders, he started down the trail with his company.  Benteen then moved the rest of his column in the direction Weir had trotted off in, just as the pack train and its mules came bolting up to the water.

Benteen made his way to the head of the column, when they came upon Sgt Kanipe, a messenger sent from Custer with orders for McDougall.  After a few more miles, another messenger approached them.  Trumpeter John Martin had a message for Benteen from Custer.

“Benteen, Come on, Big Village, Be quick, Bring Packs, W.W. Cooke.  P.S. Bring Pac(k)s.”

Benteen was a little ahead of Captain Weir, and D Companies Executive Officer Lieutenant Edgerly.  When they caught up,   Benteen showed them the message.  “How does he expect me to be quick, AND bring the packs?”  Benteen decided out loud that the urgency of the message outweighed the need to wait for the pack train.  They would be along at any rate.

Benteen moved the column out at a fast trot.  AS they got close to the Little Bighorn, they came upon the divergence of the trail, where Custer had turned right, and Reno had forged ahead to cross and press his attack.  Benteen didn’t know which trail to take.  At this point, three of the regiment’s Crow scouts appeared from the trail to the right.  Having done their job, Custer had released them to either fight or leave.  In hindsight, they wisely chose to leave. 

They climbed the tall hill to the right, and gazed down at the valley before them.  The first thing they noticed was the smoke.  Lt Godfrey, commanding K Company at first thought that what the two messengers had relayed to them was true:  Custer was burning the village.  The fight must surely be over.

But Benteen was more experienced.  And he knew that something was wrong.  As he looked down at the river, he could see what appeared to be a dozen or so troopers under attack by what he later estimated to be about 800 or 900 warriors.  The actual number is rather immaterial, and he can be forgiven for his exaggerated estimate.  When looking down at a large number of Indians swarming over a few cavalry troopers, anything over 100 looks like a tremendous number.

As Benteen moved away from the column that was now looking down the valley, he came upon Major Reno, an officer that Benteen had never liked.  Reno implored him, almost hysterically to halt his column and help him. 

It’s at this point that many historians say Benteen allowed his personal feelings get in the way of his official duties.  While Benteen disliked Reno, he loved his 7^th Cavalry troopers.  Duty, by way of the message from Custer required him to push on northward, find Custer and assist.  Instead, he stopped.

And the Battle of the Washita became the hot topic once again.  Benteen let Reno know that he was Major Elliot all over again.  He opined that Custer had abandoned him and was making his way north along the Little Bighorn to meet up with Terry.

Whether Reno believed this or not, no one knows.  Troopers from Benteen’s column all agree that Reno was shaken.  His men were shaken.  And all they could do was watch from the hill top as Indians hacked away at the dead and dying down at the river.

But not everyone was preoccupied with Reno’s battalion.  McDougal had finally arrived, and came upon what he considered a disorganized and utterly undisciplined scene.  Most of the officers were just sitting around with what he considered a total lack of military bearing.

Captain Weir was another who had not let the sudden appearance of Reno’s broken battalion side track him.  He looked off to the north with his exec, and noticed the rising dust and smoke on the east side of the river.  It was at that time that everyone heard the first thunderous volley of gunfire, followed by sporadic shooting.

Apparently, Reno and Benteen had not heard it.  But Reno did notice something odd.  All of the Indians at the river bank had suddenly disappeared.  He told Benteen to hold his column here while he took a squad down to the river to find his exec.  All he would find were the hacked up remains.  Gathering a few troopers who had hidden, and a few wounded, they made their way back up the hill.

Captain Weir approached Benteen and Reno, and urged them to continue north in support of Custer.  But both men argued that they should stay where they were.  They were surrounded by hostiles, and at any rate, if Custer hadn’t ran north to Terry, he would come back for them.  He needed the pack train, after all.

Weir would not accept this.  He turned his mount and started north.  His exec, assuming he had gotten permission to go to the aid of Custer, moved D Company off the hill at a fast trot after their commanding officer.

It was McDougal who finally convinced Benteen to come back to his Cavalry Officer senses.  Pointing after Weir, he said “We should be moving that way”.  Benteen liked McDougal.  And with his friend prodding him, he mounted the rest of his battalion and headed north, with Reno screaming at him to halt and come back.

Weir, ahead of D company, topped a high peak and stopped.  He could see the village now to the west of the river.  But to the east, he wasn’t sure what he was seeing.  He could tell there was a fight going on.  He could see smoke and dust, but he couldn’t make out if they were Indians or troopers.  When he spotted some guidons fluttering in the wind, he was about to move off in their direction.  He was stopped by Sgt James Flanagan who had climbed the peak with him, and was looking at the skirmish about 3 or 4 miles to the north with his binoculars.  “Wait Captain”, he said.  “You better look at this”, handing the binoculars to Weir.  Weir realized that what he thought was Custer’s men were in fact Indians.  And to make matters worse, they were now turning and heading his way.

Weir signaled Edgerly who was leading D company north along a draw to his right.  Edgerly brought the company up to the peak which would forever be known as Weir’s peak, and had them dismount and form a skirmish line from east to west.

By now Benteen had caught up.  He brought his column of H and K Companies up on the hill, and Weir briefed him on what he knew.  And it was rather dismal.  He didn’t know where Custer was.  Including H and K, the total men on the hill numbered about 113.  And there were about 1000 screaming Indians bearing down on them from the north.

What was left of Reno’s M company, with Captain Thomas French leading arrived at the hill.  Benteen realized that they stood no chance of fighting off the Indians on this low hill, and that they needed to get back to the higher ground they had come from.  But he was determined that this would be an orderly retreat, and not a route.  He planted the guidon of H Company on the hill’s highest point, hoping that it would be seen by Custer and his men.

He ordered French and his M Company to form a skirmish line behind Weir’s company.  He then directed Godfrey to dismount K Company along the bluffs to the south to prevent an envelopment from that direction.  Both company commanders were directed that under no circumstance were they to withdraw until all of Weir’s men had withdrawn.   By this time Weir’s skirmish line was engaging the Indians in an effort to slow them down.  All they needed was a little time.  Using coordinated fire, they should be able to hold the onslaught as they mount up and begin to retreat.

As the troopers began their retreating engagement, Benteen rode back south with H Company to the hill where the pack train and a broken Reno remained.   McDougal told his friend that Reno was pretty much useless, and if they were to survive, Benteen had better see to the defenses.

The retreat didn’t go as planned.  As soon as D Company moved past French and M Company, the skirmish line broke.  M company had already seen action that morning.  More than they had bargained for.  And as this new wall of Indians came screaming at them, with rounds thudding in the ground at their feet and whizzing by their heads, they broke.

Godfrey and K Company did much better.  As the rest of the troopers rushed past them, Godfrey turned his men north, and spread them out at regular intervals.  Behind him he could see Captain Benteen rushing to set up defenses on the hill, and he vowed to give him as much time as he could.  With measured and accurate volley fire, he held the advance off.  Slowly his men retreated.  Firing a volley, stepping back while another line of men fired and they reloaded, they leapfrogged backwards in that manner until they reached the base of the hill.  By this time the troopers on the hill had joined in.  And they covered K Company as they made their way up the hill to relative safety.  Godfrey had every reason to be proud of his men and their action.  He held the line without losing a single trooper.

With little help from Reno, Benteen went about setting up the defense of what would ironically be called Reno Hill.  Running was out of the question.  The horses had been on the move since dark, and it was now getting close to 8 PM.  At any rate, there were more troopers than mounts at this point, so the only thing to do was hole up and wait.

As the troopers hunkered down in their defensive positions, the question that kept running through the entire besieged battalion was the question Benteen had asked when he first rode up on this hill:  “Where was Custer?”  They would have plenty of time to ponder that as night fell on what would become one of the greatest sieges in American history.

“Where was Custer?”