Almost sixty one years to the day from Blog 48, (25th June 1876) on a different continent entirely another military event takes place. It would be rated a tiny affair by Napoleonic standards, had that still been the norm. Its losses trivial by headcount. It was a tiny affair even by American Civil War standards which were much closer in time. And yet it has intrigued and captivated historians, novelists and film-makers alike. George Armstrong Custer takes his immediate command and most, but not all of his cavalry regiment on a ride into history, modern mythology and legend.
Why so "a tiny affair?"
He has a mere two hundred and sixteen men directly at his side. His sub-commanders Major Reno has one hundred and fifty five men, and Captain Benteen has one hundred and forty five men. They are about to poke a metaphorical stick into an encampment of circa fifteen hundred highly motivated warriors and it does not end well.
So much for numbers. Waterloo effectively sounds the protracted death knell for Napoleon. The Little Big Horn does the same for Sitting Bull (and Crazy Horse). One of them the victor and the other the loser, they share a strange symmetry. Either way their respective battle becomes the beginning of the end. Interestingly the name Sitting Bull is a lazy corruption of his true name which is something more akin to "Bull who is sitting," or "Bull who sits down."
To call the Little Big Horn a 'battle' is perhaps a reflection of the times and society in which it occurred. There must have been many small skirmish encounters that failed to trouble the quills of contemporary Napoleonic historians. Despite that, on very nearly the same day of the same month, sixty one years apart, two men of of very different cultures carved their names into history.
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