Custer's Last Stand: Myths and Realities of the Battle

Speaker 2
Yeah, it is. And it was written by a man who's first becoming a friend of the show, Frederick Whittaker, who wrote the two-volume biography of Custer within barely weeks of him being killed. Yes. And it's all very stirring, isn't it? And it kind of creates this image of Custer's last stand. The ringleted young hero. Of course, he didn't have ringlets at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Dead our young chieftain. Yeah. I mean, is he a young chieftain? At this point, he's losing his hair. But this is the poem giving voice to the myth of the last stand, Custer's Last Stand. Yeah, the thermopoly, the thermopoly of the plains. And that is the subject of today's episode custer's last stand one of the epic moments in american and world history but what actually happened surely anybody listened to this will have listened to the previous 67
Speaker 1
episodes in this series so you will remember on the 25th of june 1876 custer has found the Sioux, Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne encampments that he was looking for, enormous village of teepees. He divided his forces. He'd sent Captain Bentine, his old enemy, off way to the left, like a sweeping move. He had sent Major Reno down by the river, and Reno had absolutely disgraced himself. As Theo, our producer, pointed out You did a great impersonation of Reno As Shaggy from Scooby-Doo, Tom Which was very moving So incredibly bloody and chaotic retreat And they end up on a hill Now Custer has been up on the bluffs On the eastern side of the river He's been looking down at the scene and at about 3.30, the last glimpse we have of him, he has sent a message. He sent a trumpeter, Giovanni Martini, to fetch Captain Bentine. Bentine, come quickly. There's a big village. Bring the ammunition packs.

453. Custer's Last Stand: The Final Showdown (Part 8)

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