The Death of Isaiah Dorman: Battle of the Little Bighorn

 

Video : The Death of Isaiah Dorman: Battle of the Little Bighorn

On June 25, 1876, at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, five companies of the U.S. Seventh Cavalry, under the direct command of George Armstrong Custer were wiped out. 

Amid the chaos of that day, one figure often overlooked emerges: Isaiah Dorman, the only African American killed in the battle. As a skilled interpreter for the U.S. Army, Dorman's life bridged worlds—Black, White, and Native.  His death encapsulated the brutal ironies of the Indian Wars.

Isaiah Dorman's early life remains shrouded in mystery. Born around 1832 in Pennsylvania, he was likely freeborn, with a father of African-Jamaican descent and a mother of mixed African and Native American heritage. By the 1850s, Dorman was in the Dakota Territory working as a trapper, trader, and laborer. He married Celeste St. Pierre, a young woman from the Santee Sioux band led by Inkpaduta, and integrated deeply into Native life. Dorman was described as a large, dark-skinned man. There are no authenticated surviving photographs of Dorman

In spring 1876, Dorman joined Custer's 7th Cavalry expedition against the Lakota and Cheyenne, hired as a civilian Sioux interpreter at a premium rate due to his expertise and connections, including friendships with figures like Chief Sitting Bull. The campaign aimed to force non-reservation tribes onto designated lands amid gold rush tensions in the Black Hills. Departing from Fort Abraham Lincoln, the force marched toward the Little Bighorn River, unaware of the massive Native encampment ahead—estimated at 7,000 people, including 1,500-2,000 warriors.

On June 25, 1876 when Custer divided his 600 men into battalions, Dorman rode with Major Marcus Reno's detachment of about 140 troops, tasked with attacking the village from the south. As Reno's men charged into the valley, they met fierce resistance from Lakota and Cheyenne warriors. Reno ordered a retreat across the river to defensive bluffs, but Dorman fell behind. Eyewitness Private Roman Rutten recalled seeing Dorman on one knee, methodically firing a non-regulation sporting rifle at advancing Indian warriors, shouting, "Goodbye, Rutten!" as the soldier galloped past. An Indian account described: "We passed a black man in a soldier's uniform... He turned on his horse and shot an Indian right through the heart. Then the Indians fired... and riddled his horse with bullets. His horse fell over on his back and the black man could not get up."

Accounts of his final moments vary but paint a grim picture. One narrative claims Sitting Bull, recognizing his old acquaintance, dismounted, offered water from a buffalo horn cup, and said, "Don't kill that man, he is a friend of mine," before riding on. However, many are skeptical of this story. Moving Robe Woman (Eagle Robe), shot him in revenge for her brother's death, after which a group of Lakota women tortured him with stone hammers and knives.  His body was mutilated—arrows embedded, slashes across the face and body, and a 16-by-2-inch strip of skin removed as a war trophy by his wife's niece, Iron Antelope, later preserved in a North Dakota museum. Private William Slaper described finding the corpse "with many arrows shot into his body and head, badly cut and slashed." These acts reflected Native beliefs that wounds would carry into the afterlife, punishing Dorman for siding with the "bluecoats" against his adopted people.

Free Blacks in Prince William County Virginia in 1860

 The Robinson Farm

Although only about one tenth the size of the slave population, Virginia had the largest free black population in the Union (some 30,000 plus).  Freedom was the greatest gift a master could bestow upon a slave, but the situation of the free black was only a little better than that of the slave.

Free blacks could not vote in Virginia, they were required to register every three years, and to pay for certificates of freedom.  It was unlawful for free blacks to organize their own schools.  Free blacks were feared and mistrusted.  They were accused of being unwilling to work, of spreading discontent among the slaves, and of causing a disproportionate amount of crime.  Several Virginia governors advocated that all free blacks be forcibly expelled from the state.  The Assembly did not enact this legislation but did pass laws providing for voluntary re-enslavement.

Despite stifling restrictions, many free blacks managed to improve their lot.  A freed slave named Jim Robinson, the illegitimate son of Landon Carter of Pittsylvania, operated a drover’s tavern along the Alexandria and Warrenton Turnpike, near Manassas Junction.  Eventually he was able to purchase his wife and three of his five children as well as buy several hundred acres of land.  He was unable to purchase his sons Alfred and James, both of whom were talented stonemasons, who had been sold south and eventually ended up in New Orleans.  James’ fate is unknown, but Alfred returned to Northern Virginia in 1888.

The Robinson family continued to work their farm after the Civil War.  The farm was sold to the Department of the Interior in 1934 to become part of the Manassas National Battlefield.  Prior to selling their farm, the Robinson family acted as informal stewards of their part of the battlefield, taking Confederate remains to a small cemetery to join an estimated 500 unknown soldiers. The family philosophy was summed up in the phrase, “Just remember, these remains belonged to someone’s son who did not want to die in this manner.”

Hidden History of Northern Virginia 

Runaway Slaves in Virginia

White Virginians wanted to believe that their slaves were basically happy, to the point that they would prefer to serve their masters rather than to choose their own freedom.  

Slave flight, “running away,” the most common form of slave resistance, called into question the notion of benevolent paternalism and struck particularly hard at the idea that slaves were basically happy.