Which U.S. Army officer commanded the 7th Cavalry at the Battle of the Little Bighorn?

George Armstrong Custer commanded the 7th Cavalry at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

Custer was a former Union general who had become a lieutenant colonel in the post–Civil War U.S. Army. In June 1876, he led the 7th Cavalry Regiment during the Great Sioux War, after the U.S. government ordered Lakota and Northern Cheyenne people onto reservations.

At the Little Bighorn, Custer’s battalion attacked a large Indigenous encampment. Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors defeated his force and killed Custer and every soldier under his immediate command. Other 7th Cavalry units survived nearby under different officers.

Popular culture often calls the event “Custer’s Last Stand.” The phrase focuses on Custer, but the battle was a larger conflict involving several cavalry battalions and Indigenous resistance to federal policies and military pressure.