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The Bullet-Riddled Ground of the Little Bighorn Just Got Even Stranger

The Silent Ruins

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The Battle of Little Bighorn remains one of the most mysterious and debated events in American history. But the story of the bullet-riddled ground where George Armstrong Custer and the 7th Cavalry made their final stand may be even stranger than the history books suggest.

In this video, we take a closer look at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, the battlefield itself, the evidence left behind, and the unanswered questions that continue to surround Custer’s Last Stand. From battlefield archaeology and scattered artifacts to eyewitness accounts, military tactics, and Native American perspectives, the evidence reveals a far more complicated story than the legendary version most people grew up hearing.

What actually happened on the battlefield? How did the fighting unfold? What can the bullets, weapons, terrain, and archaeological discoveries tell us today? And why do some details of the Little Bighorn battlefield continue to puzzle historians?

Join us as we explore the Little Bighorn Battlefield, Custer’s Last Stand, the 7th Cavalry, the Lakota and Cheyenne warriors, and the historical evidence surrounding one of the most famous battles of the American West.

🔎 In this video:
• The Battle of Little Bighorn explained
• Custer’s Last Stand and the 7th Cavalry
• Little Bighorn battlefield archaeology
• Bullet and artifact evidence
• Native American accounts and perspectives
• The terrain and tactics of the battle
• Historical mysteries surrounding Little Bighorn
• What modern archaeology has revealed
• Unanswered questions about the battle

If you enjoy American history, military history, archaeology, historical mysteries, the Old West, Native American history, and unexplained historical discoveries, subscribe for more deep dives into the past.

#LittleBighorn #CustersLastStand #AmericanHistory #History #MilitaryHistory #Archaeology #OldWest #NativeAmericanHistory #HistoricalMystery #Custer

20 Comments

@ElaineWood-k2g 5 days ago

If the Custer battlefield was a "crime scene," it was contaminated and scavenged long before the grass fire and forensic investigation occurred.

@beckyjohnstone1610 5 days ago

Shell casings had been collected for over 100 years by the time if the fire. People probably concentrated their search around what was considered the last stand. The data was skewed. Who knows by how much?

@lowelllarsen5947 5 days ago

Souvenir hunters took away much.....

@chrisbotelho7212 5 days ago

If as seems extremely likely souvenir hunters picked over the battlefield that would skew any research done 100 years later.

@VangoghsDoggo 3 days ago

We visited the battlefield in 1976. Shortly after that, there was a flood and bones were recovered from an embankment that had washed out. They were tangled up in a mass of tree roots. None of them made it, simple as that. I will say, the place is spooky, even during the day when no one is around. There is a feeling of unsettled spirits, some won't rest, some wondering why they are there. Custer and his most of his men were intent on murder, about to conduct a massacre and that is why I felt like they will never find peace in the afterlife. The ones that wonder were there to fight because they were told too, they are the ones that wonder, wanting to go home but never did.

@GlennWebster-d3b 5 days ago

I found an arrow head there in the 70's

@thomasarcher1143 5 days ago

The firing pin of rifles made after the early 1800's were typically formed by stamps in an assembly production line with each stamp making many firing pins. The Army adopted the 1873 Springfield trap door carbine firing a 45-70 caliber cartridge (yes, I have presented the historic documentation of this in comments on other videos) and had equiped all 108 Cavalry companies with this carbine by the end of 1874. With 100 troopers assigned to each company, that means at least 11,000 carbines delivered in one year. If a stamp has a defect in it, what are the chances that same defect will appear on multiple rifles made with that stamp? Do you see why the courts stopped believing the FBI?

@Sgtklark 3 days ago

Another detail that the paintings get wrong is that the 7th Cavalry didn't bring their sabers along on the trip.

@sapulpaorganics5402 3 days ago

I learned several years ago that there was never a "last stand". It was a complete rout and those soldiers never stood a chance.
Can you imagine what it must have been like? Complete chaos and they must have known they were going to die.

It's a shame that the battle field was scavenged for so many years and not protected.

@williampinner1893 5 days ago

The area on last stand hill was picked clean by years of people picking up artifacts. They built a road right through last stand hill. That area was disturbed to the point that to say the lack of shell casings by the soldiers is corrupted by a 150 years of suvanier hunters. There was a hell of a fight there.

@johnslaughter5475 5 days ago

If I remember correctly, not all the suicides were by a soldier killing himself. There was at least one picture on the Native American painting of the battle showing two soldiers aiming at each other. This indicates a mutual murder/suicide. This stands to reason. The men knew what would happen if they were captured.
In another story I heard, a young Native American found a soldier who wasn't yet dead. The boy tried to scalp him. The soldier didn't want that. It happened like 2-3 times. Then, the boy picked up a pistol, shot the soldier and claimed the scalp.

@FREDOGISFUUN 5 days ago

What I know, Reno was to attract the warriors to a fight, while Custer to cross the river to take woman and children hostages. Fight over. The natives did not bite, Reno had to retreat and while they went after Custer. The fight lasted no more than 20 minutes. I been there several times. The last place to be in a gun/arrow fight in my mind.

@gkiferonhs 5 days ago

People chose a quick shot versus being bludgeoned or tortured to death.

@mellongfield9873 4 days ago

The Springfield carbine was 45.70. It was a powerful round and I once owned one. It was the 1873 model and had almost no recoil, and was insanely accurate.

@GaryEtheridge-d5n 5 days ago

I was a young Soldier waiting for a haircut- Stationed in Gelnhausen,Germany when I read the Life Magazine about this archeological investigation- Hooked every since!❤

@manofaction1807 6 days ago

You can't use that method 100 plus years after a battle. You have to look at the grounds with a tactical eye, then generalize the wear and tear over the years.
My recommendation- Look in the draws and valley's. That additional battle refuse is down in there, along with more human remains.

@sluggotinfantryman 3 days ago

There has been an archaeological survey. It has firing positions documented, apparently the Sioux picked up rifles and started shooting at the Troopers. There were eye witness accounts. What else do you need?

Can't remember the name of survey though. If they were all armed with six-shooters that would have been a big difference. Same result in the end though.

@greghardy9476 2 days ago

Something a lot of people do not think about. The cartridge case says as much as the bullet

@David-p2u7k 4 days ago

Thick carpet of brass? One word: souvenirs. For over a hundred years the battle site was picked clean. Could be some people picking up brass and copper cases at 3 cents to five cents apiece for reloading. I was a kid on Saipan Island a few years after the Battle of Saipan, WWII. It was under a quarantine by the U. S. Navy so EOD could not go in and clean up the island. Look up Saipan Island and the CIA training base to better understand (what my parents did is none of your business. Try and guess. I dare you! 🤣). We kids picked that island clean! So, extrapolating the situation, tens of thousands of hands sifted through that grass long before the grass fire. And everybody had to have a case, bullet or button before they left.

@wacojones8062 2 days ago

I walked the entire battle area in summer 1973. The fight on the hill was scattered in small groups as they tried to evade the Indians moving up the hill with some Winchester Rifles.
Ammo allocation for each trooper per Google
• Carbine rounds (100 total): 50 rounds were carried in the soldier's cartridge belt, and another 50 rounds were kept in the saddlebags.
• Revolver rounds (24 total): Carried in their pistol cartridge belts.
Firing rates could be as high as 10 to 15 rounds per minute with carbines with the saddle bag ammo being hard to get in a running retreat.