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From: "Sandy & Jerry Childs" <>
Subject: Re: [IOWA] Indian Wars/Custer
Date: Wed, 1 Oct 2003 16:47:07 -0700
References: <1aa.1a89128c.2cacb53c@aol.com>


Yes, Marcus Reno is the one that I was thinking about. What a sad story -
for anyone to survive with his men during that battle and then have this
follow him all his life was sad. He died a pauper and it was, as you said,
only in 1967 that he was recognized. An interesting man. Looks like you
found some wonderful websites for the woman who placed the query to look at.
Good move! Sandy in Calif.
----- Original Message -----
From: <>
To: <>
Sent: Wednesday, October 01, 2003 3:54 PM
Subject: [IOWA] Indian Wars/Custer


> Are you by any chance referring to Marcus Reno? This info comes from PBS
>
> Marcus A. Reno
>
> (1834-1889)
>
> As the officer in charge of the only unit to survive the Battle of the
Little
> Bighorn, Marcus Reno has remained a subject of controversy for more than a
> century. Born in Illinois in 1834, Reno attended West Point and served as
a
> cavalry officer in the Civil War. In 1871 he was made a major in the
Seventh
> Cavalry under the command of <A
HREF="http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/a_c/custer.htm">George
Armstrong Custer</A>, and took part in Custer's <A
HREF="http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/events/1870_1880.htm#1874">;
> 1874</A> expedition through the Black Hills.
>
> Two years later, when General <A
HREF="http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/s_z/terry.htm">Alfred Terry</A>
was planning the campaign against <A
HREF="http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/s_z/sittingbull.htm">;
> Sitting Bull</A> and his followers in the <A
HREF="http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/places/states/montana/mt_powder.htm">P
owder River</A> country of Montana, Reno
> was dispatched on a scouting mission through the region and reported back
with
> evidence that a large Indian encampment had recently moved upstream along
<A
HREF="http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/places/states/montana/mt_rosebud.htm">;
> Rosebud Creek</A>. This intelligence led Terry to order a
"hammer-and-anvil" operation,
> with Colonel <A
HREF="http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/d_h/gibbon.htm">John
Gibbon's</A> infantry taking the part of the anvil against
> which the hammer of Custer's Seventh Cavalry would drive the enemy and
smash them.
>
> Picking up the trail Reno had discovered on the Rosebud, Custer, however,
> moved too quickly and located Sitting Bull's huge encampment along the <A
HREF="http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/places/states/montana/mt_littlebighorn
.htm">Little
> Bighorn River</A> on June 25, before Gibbon's troops had reached their
position.
> Nonetheless, rather than risk losing the opportunity, Custer ordered an
attack. As
> he rode toward the encampment, he saw a group of warriors racing ahead of
> him, and fearing that they would alert the others, and that the whole
encampment
> would flee before he could reach it, Custer ordered Reno to pursue the
> warriors and bring them to battle, promising that he and the rest of the
command
> would soon follow.
>
> As Reno led his troops toward the encampment, however, a rapidly growing
band
> of warriors rode out to meet him. He ordered his men to dismount and fight
on
> foot, but the number of warriors continued to grow and Reno found himself
> driven back into a defensive position within a stand of timber. Still the
number
> of warriors increased, and with no sign of the promised support from
Custer,
> Reno ordered a retreat to a more defensible position on the high bluffs
along
> the Little Bighorn River. In the confusion of battle, this retreat became
a
> rout in which one third of Reno's battalion was lost, but he and his men
did
> manage to reach the bluffs, where they were joined by a second battalion
that
> Custer had sent to scout the area.
>
> While Custer and his troops suffered annihilation, some of Reno's men
tried
> to move downstream along the river, where they hoped to break free of the
> battle. Eventually, the entire battalion joined in this attempt, but they
were soon
> driven back when warriors returning from the fight with Custer mounted a
> fresh attack against them. Finally, Reno and his men retreated once more
to the
> bluffs, where they took up entrenched positions and fought off successive
> attacks for nearly thirty-six hours, until the approach of Gibbon's troops
caused
> Sitting Bull and his followers to withdraw on the evening of June 26. The
next
> day, Gibbon himself, accompanied by General Terry, arrived on the
battlefield
> and rescued Reno and the other survivors.
>
> Many in the army and in the general public refused to believe that mere
> Indians could destroy a commander like Custer unaided by American
blunders, and
> they sought to blame Reno for the defeat at the Little Bighorn. They
pointed to
> Reno's defensive reaction when his assault on Sitting Bull's encampment
was met
> with unexpected resistance, to his evident loss of command at several
points
> during the course of the battle and to the fact that he had clung to his
> defensive position even while Custer's forces were being surrounded and
destroyed.
>
> In 1879, a military court of inquiry officially cleared Reno of charges of
> cowardice, but the following year he was court-martialed on several
unrelated
> charges by an officer whose son had died at the Little Bighorn. By the
time of
> his death in 1889, Marcus Reno had become the antithesis of the gallant
Custer
> in the popular imagination, a disgrace to the noble code of the United
States
> cavalry who was unworthy to lie buried beside the brave men who had died
at
> "Custer's Last Stand." In 1967, however, a military Board of Review
re-examined
> Reno's court-martial and reversed history's judgment against him by
changing
> the status of his discharge to honorable and ordering the reinternment of
his
> remains in the sacred ground of the Little Bighorn cemetery.
>
> Judy Neu
> Springwater, NY
>
>
>
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