Battle of the Little Bighorn Battle of the Little Bighorn The Battle of the Little Bighorn, known to the Lakota and other Plains Indians as the Battle of the Greasy Grass and also commonly referred to as Custer's Last Stand, was an armed engagement between combined forces of the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes and the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army. The battle, which resulted in the defeat of US forces, was the most significant action of the Great Sioux War of 1876. It took place on June 25–26, 1876, along the Little Bighorn River in the Crow Indian Reservation in
Last stand due to the pull on popular imagination. Historian Nathaniel Philbrick argues: During World War I, the expression to fight "with one's back to the wall" became a widely-known way to refer to making a last stand. The London "Times" reported on April 13, 1918 that General Douglas Haig ordered British troops that "Every position must be held to the last man...With our backs to the wall...each one of us must fight on to the end". Last stand A last stand is a military situation in which a body of troops holds a defensive position in the face of overwhelming odds.