Historical Marker
Garryowen
Big Horn County · Montana
The board counts Reno's soldiers but not the twenty-two Arikara scouts on his left. Among them rode Bloody Knife, son of a Hunkpapa Lakota father and an Arikara mother, raised among the Hunkpapa whose camp this charge struck. In the timber a bullet hit him in the head beside Reno; the scout George Herendeen testified in 1879 that Reno then ordered dismount, then mount, and the command fled. Arikara scouts Bob-tailed Bull and Little Brave also died. The tomb beside the board holds a soldier of Reno's command found near the river in 1926.
What the plaque says
Garryowen Garryowen, the old Irish tune, was the regimental marching song of the 7th U.S. Cavalry, General Custer's command. The Battle of the Little Big Horn commenced in the valley just east of here June 25, 1876, after Custer had ordered Major Marcus A. Reno to move his battalion into action against the Tribes of Sioux and Cheyennes, led by Chiefs Gall, Crazy Horse, Two Moons and the Medicine Man, Sitting Bull. Reno, with 112 men, came out of the hills about 2½ miles southeast of here and rode within ¼ mile of the Indian camp where he was met by the Indians who outnumbered the soldiers ten to one. Dismounting his men Reno formed a thin skirmish line west across the valley from the timber along the river. After severe losses he was forced to retreat to high ground east of the Little Big Horn where he was joined by Major Benteen's command. The combined force stood off the Indians until the approach of Gibbon's column from the north on the following day caused the Indians to pull out. Reno and Benteen were not aware of Custers fate until the morning of the 27th.
Where it stands
45.52658, -107.41703 · Directions
Worth the stop nearby
- Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument — 3.1 miA battlefield you can read by its stones: white marble where soldiers fell since 1890, red granite where warriors fell since 1999.
- Rosebud Battlefield State Park — 29 miThe ridges where Crook's column was stopped eight days before the Little Bighorn, remembered by the Cheyenne for one woman's ride.