Battle of Slim Buttes on the Little Big Horn." "By June 23, 1876, Sitting Bull's Camp, following the Rosebud Battle, more than doubled in size to over 1000 lodges and 7000 inhabitants. There were an estimated 1500 to 2000 warriors from Northern Cheyenne and five major Sioux tribes. The Indians had no intention of fleeing. They were determined to stand and fight." On June 25 and 26, 1876, George Armstrong Custer and the 7th Cavalry (with 468 fatalities and 55 wounded) were defeated at the Battle of the Little Big Horn by Sioux and Cheyenne warriors. News of the defeat of George Armstrong Custer
Henry Armstrong Reed Custer. Heavily influenced by his military uncles, he followed in their footsteps and left Monroe in May 1876, with his sister Emma, for Fort Abraham Lincoln in the Dakota Territory. There, he was hired on May 10 to serve as a beef herder for the 7th Cavalry Regiment, which was under the command of George Armstrong Custer. Reed joined the 7th Cavalry Regiment shortly after the start of the Great Sioux War of 1876–77 in the Montana Territory, part of the larger American Indian Wars. While Reed was never officially enlisted as a soldier, he volunteered his services as such