Battle of the Little Bighorn organization even while moving from point to point." Red Horse, an Oglala Sioux warrior, commented: "Here [Last Stand Hill] the soldiers made a desperate fight." One Hunkpapa Sioux warrior, Moving Robe, noted that "It was a hotly contested battle", while another, Iron Hawk, stated: "The Indians pressed and crowded right in around Custer Hill. But the soldiers weren't ready to die. We stood there a long time." In a letter from February 21, 1910, Private William Taylor, Company M, 7th Cavalry, wrote: "Reno proved incompetent and Benteen showed his indifference – I will not use the uglier words that have
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