NA Accounts of Benteen's 'Charge' to Clear Ravines

[custersd]

Are there many Sioux and Cheyenne accounts of Benteen's 'Charge' to clear ravines at Reno Hill on the 26th? This event seems to me one of the significant things that the 7th did on the 26th and may have been observed by many. Thanks for your thoughts. I appreciate all of the site's info.

[noggy]

Hi

This is a great question, in my opinion. From the top of my head, I can't really remember too many NA accounts of the siege of Reno Hill at all. I know White Cow Bull, as usual, claimed to be involved in the fighting here so he may have mentioned the troopers pushing off the warriors. You could start by looking there. But as I have stated before, personally I struggle a lot with believing much of what he said. If you can find NA accounts about Eagle Hat, who is one the one warrior at least I know was killed during Benteen's charge (I assume this was the man Benteen mentioned shooting personally?), maybe you can find some info there?

Other than that, I can only recall some warriors telling about the US guys coming down to the river to collect water, and little else from the siege. I looked quickly through a couple of books, and while they often are good at using NA accounts, they seem to be largely absent from this part of the battle. One can speculate in if the nature of the fighting, largely long range and without any real possibilities to "show off" their bravery, and the fact that they didn't win like on the rest of the field, led to warriors rather talking about the triumphant fights on LSH, the Valley and on Battle Ridge? Sitting on the top of a ridge for a couple of days taking pot shots at an entrenched enemy is hardly what they liked!
I hope some of the veterans in here can aid you further than I can.

All the best,
Noggy

[Yan Taylor]

Here is a bit about the fight at Reno Hill link

Ian

[tubman13]

Varnum, who was wounded in the Benteen charge talks about it in his writings. The Indians were attempting to creep closer and closer to the troopers lines popping up and shooting. There was even a dirt clod thrown.

Regards,
Tom

[Colt45]

Most likely we don't have much in the way of Indian testimony about the Reno hill fight because no one asked them about that part of the battle. All the interest at the time was in how Custer lost every man that was with him. The survivors on Reno hill (soldiers) told their tale, but the later interviewers were more interested in the Custer portion of the fight. Hence little to no Indian information about the details of the Reno hill action.

[noggy]

May 1, 2022 14:11:19 GMT -6 tubman13 said:

Varnum, who was wounded in the Benteen charge talks about it in his writings. 

Hi Tom

Pretty sure he was wounded in the second charge? One could argue Benteen was the mastermind of both charges that day, but Reno led the second one. Albeit after Benteen suggested he did so.

My memory may be off here,of course.

All the best,
Geir

[tubman13]

Geir,

I defer to you here as it has been a while since I read his book. It's a shame he ended his writing in the middle of a thought or the remainder of the manuscript was lost.

I hope all is well with you. You are truly helping to carry the ball here.

Regards,
Tom

[herosrest]

^Ducemus

There is some comment of the fighting on Reno Hill in Peter Thompson's book which I haven't read in quite a while but if memory serves, he was involved with resupplying company H with ammunition on its exposed mound above the river. It's online somewhere....

It begins at page 132 HERE. An odd thing is that Thompson is not specifically included to the books table of contents which is a quite detailed affair.