Deep Ravine

Custer’s command deployed in the area of the current national cemetery and advanced into the basin across the road to the left before withdrawing to Last Stand Hill. Toward the conclusion of the battle, soldiers from Company E moved toward Deep Ravine. Overwhelmed by warriors, including White Bull and He Dog, these soldiers sought refuge in Deep Ravine, but were killed there. Lame White Man, a Southern Cheyenne war leader, fell near here. Sergeant Daniel Kanipe of Company C, 7th Cavalry, recalled riding along the edge of the deep gully about 2,000 feet from where the monument now stands and counting 28 bodies in the gulch. Iron Hawk, a Hunkpapa Lakota, remembered seeing soldiers running downhill toward them, nearly all on foot, so frightened they seemed not to know what they were doing, moving their arms as if running very fast but only walking, with some firing their guns into the air.

Crow Agency, Montana · United States