Custer's Last Stand

In Our Time

BBC

History

4.6 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 19 May 2011

⏱️ 43 minutes

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Battle of the Little Bighorn, also known as Custer's Last Stand.In 1876 a dispute between the American federal government and Native Americans over land rights led to an armed conflict now known as the Great Sioux War. An expeditionary federal force was sent out to coerce the Native Americans into reservations, and away from the gold reserves recently discovered in their traditional homelands.One of the officers in this expeditionary force was a Civil War hero, George Custer. While en route to his arranged rendezvous, Custer unexpectedly encountered a large group of Sioux and Cheyenne warriors. Disobeying orders, he decided to attack. Barely half an hour later, he and all 200 of his men lay dead. Custer's Last Stand has become one of the most famous and closely studied military engagements in American history.With:Kathleen BurkProfessor of Modern and Contemporary History at University College, LondonAdam SmithSenior Lecturer in American History at University College LondonSaul DavidProfessor of War Studies at the University of Buckingham.Producer: Thomas Morris.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.
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0:46.5	the program. Hello on the 10th of July 1876 the New York Daily Tribune printed a new poem by Walt Whitman.
0:56.3	The poet was reacting to a story he'd read in the previous days newspapers.
1:00.8	Federal soldiers had suffered a terrible defeat in the Midwest.
1:04.0	Ambushed by a larger force of Native Americans, more than 200 men led by George Costa had been killed.
1:10.0	In his poem, Whitman paid tribute to the cavalry companies fighting to the last in sternest,
1:16.2	coolest heroism, the fall of Costa and all his officers and men.
1:21.6	This battle which took place on the Little Big Horn River in Dakota
1:24.6	was an important defeat in a continuing conflict between the US government and the
1:28.5	Native American tribes. It remains one of the most celebrated military encounters in the nation's history, and today
1:34.5	Kusta's name is as well known as it was in the immediate aftermath of his death.
1:38.9	But does the celebration of Koster tell anything like the whole story.
1:43.0	With me to discuss Costa's last stand are Kathleen Burke, Professor of Modern and Contemporary
1:48.0	History at University College London.
1:50.3	Adam Smith, Senior Lecture in American History also of University of Orange, London, and Saul David, Professor of War Studies at the University of Buckingham-Catholic.
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