Great Sioux War of 1876 Col. George Armstrong Custer and the Seventh Cavalry were ordered out from the main Dakota Column to scout the Rosebud and Big Horn river valleys. On June 25, 1876, they encountered a large village on the west bank of the Little Bighorn. The US troops were seriously beaten in the Battle of the Little Bighorn and nearly 270 men were killed, including Custer. Custer split his forces just prior to the battle and his immediate command of five cavalry companies was annihilated without any survivors. Two days later, a combined force consisting of Colonel Gibbon's column, along with Terry's headquarters
Little Bighorn River battle by the History Channel. The alternative name usage in the 1800s by the Sioux, Cheyenne and Crow of "Greasy Grass" for the "Little Bighorn" is reflected in current day nomenclature at the Little Bighorn battlefield. A prominent ridge on the Little Bighorn Battlefield that overlooks the eastern banks of the Little Bighorn River has retained the name of Greasy Grass Ridge, and is the site of critical events of the battle. In Lakota, the Little Bighorn River is called . Upstream from the point where the Little Bighorn issues from the Little Horn Canyon canyon, the stream flow is