Who Killed Custer?

 

One of the most debated issues of the Battle of the Little Bighorn is the exact nature of George Armstrong Custer’s death.  Who killed Custer, where was he killed, and when did he die? 

One popular theory says that Custer was seriously wounded (or even killed) early in the battle.  Custer advanced with several companies down Medicine Tail Coulee in an attempt to ford the river.  Supposedly, Custer was shot in the middle of the stream and the cavalry retreated after placing the dying man back on his horse.  White Cow Bull claimed to have fired the shot that felled a buckskin clad soldier.  Was it Custer?  None of the other warriors who were actually present at the ford ever mentioned the incident.  The only corroboration comes from two of Custer’s own Crow scouts, who were not actually there.  The scout White Man Runs Him heard later that Custer was hit in the chest by a bullet and fell into the water.  The account of the scout Goes Ahead, comes to us second hand from his wife Pretty Shield, to whom he supposedly told the story that Custer was killed at the river and that he was drunk at the time.

Historians have suggested that the attempt to ford the river at Medicine Tail Coulee was abandoned not because Custer was shot but because he realized that this was the middle of the village not the end.  In any event, the Crow scout Curly, reported Custer in robust health, after he had supposedly been shot, galloping north in an attempt to find another crossing point.

There are many other candidates for who killed Custer, including Custer himself.  According to this theory, Custer killed himself because he feared capture.  Custer’s body had two wounds, a chest wound and a head wound in the left temple.  It would have been difficult for the right handed Custer to shoot himself in the left temple, but theoretically this could have been an “assisted” suicide.

Among those claiming to have killed Custer were:  Red Horse, a Miniconjou warrior; Flat Hip, a Hunkpapa warrior, and Walks-Under-the-Ground, a Santee warrior who wound up in possession of Custer's horse after killing somebody.  Little Knife, a Hunkpapa warrior, said Brown Back killed Custer to avenge his brother.  Two sons of Scarlet Tip, chief of the Santee, claimed they jointly killed Custer. 

Cheyenne oral tradition passed down since 1876 says that Custer may have been killed by a woman warrior, Buffalo Calf Road Woman.  Minimally, she is said to have knocked Custer off his horse with a club and made off with his saber.

In 1905 Rain-in-the-Face made a deathbed confession that he thought it was he who had killed Custer having been “so close to him that the powder from my gun blackened his face.”

The mystery of who killed Custer was probably never known. The dust, smoke and chaos of the battle made it impossible to distinguish one soldier from another.  When asked, Sitting Bull said that nobody knew who killed Custer — nor even knew that he was present until days later.

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