Gall (Native American leader) Gall served with Sitting Bull during several battles, including the famous Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876. Since the early 1980s, archaeological researchers conducted battlefield excavations after a major grass fire. Historians have been studying accounts by participating Indians and tribal oral histories. Based on these elements, a contemporary reassessment of the Battle of the Little Bighorn has given Gall greater credit for several crucial tactical decisions that contributed to the Sioux and Cheyenne's overpowering defeat of the five companies of cavalry led by Custer of the 7th Cavalry. Major Marcus Reno's initial attack on the southeast end of
Presidency of Ulysses S. Grant the committee's demands and signed the agreement. During the Great Sioux War, Grant came into conflict with Col. George Armstrong Custer after he testified in 1876 about corruption in the War Department under Secretary William W. Belknap (see below). Grant had Custer arrested for breach of military protocol in Chicago and barred him from leading an upcoming campaign against the Sioux. Grant finally relented and let Custer fight under Brig. Gen. Alfred Terry. Two months after Custer's death Grant castigated him in the press, saying "I regard Custer's massacre as a sacrifice of troops, brought on by Custer himself, that