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
Giovanni Martino assignment to the U.S. Seventh Cavalry Regiment, led by Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer. In 1876, he was attached to Company H but on the morning of June 25, Martin was temporarily assigned to serve as one of Custer’s bugler-orderlies. As Custer and nearly 210 troopers and scouts began their final approach to the massive Indian village located in the Little Big Horn River valley, Martin was dispatched with an urgent note for reinforcements and ammunition. Newspaper accounts of the period referred to him as “Custer massacre survivor” and “the last white man to see Custer alive”. Martin and the