Joe's Daily U.S. History Lesson -- June 25

JUNE 25 -- 1876 Custer's Last "Stand"; 1950 North Korea invades South; 1867 Lucen Smith patents barbed wire.

JUNE 25

1876 – Battle of Little Bighorn, a.k.a. Battle of Greasy Grass, a.k.a., Custer’s Last Stand.

Lakota, Dakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Sapaho led by Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and Chief Gall v 7th Cavalry of the US Army, led by General George Custer. The result: Result: Indian Victory. By 1875, the Sioux and Cheyenne tribes were getting fed up with white man disrespecting and ignoring borderlines and further encroaching in their territories. And that was before gold was discovered in the sacred Black Hills of the Dakota area. Once that happened in 1875, the U.S. Army would ignore previously agreed treaties and, again they were forced out of their homes. They gathered in Montana to join great Warrior Sitting Bull, whose tribesmen would exceed 10,000.

The 7th Cavalry was created after the Civil War and contained many veteran officers. By springtime, the forces would soon be ready to meet. In early June, during a Sun Dance, Sitting Bull had a vision of soldiers falling into his camp like grasshoppers from the sky. The Army sent in three columns, and on June 17th, the first was repulsed. On the 22nd, General Alfred Terry sent Custer’s 7th Cavalry. George Custer, Civil War hero and one of the youngest generals at age 23, now age 37, was had an army of about 200, and had no idea he was about to be fighting an army of more than three times that amount, in a rough terrain that was far from being very maneuverable. But boy did he look cool in his buckskin outfit this day.

Ignoring orders to wait for reinforcements, Custer went on the offensive. He divided his army between Captain Frederick Benteen to block any Indian retreats from the Upper Little Bighorn River, and Major Marcus Reno coming in from the south. Reno’s fight lasted about 10 minutes until he withdrew, not knowing how to fight in that terrain. Custer went in. Word amongst the tribesmen spread quickly and Sitting Bull rallied his troops and gathered the women and children to safety, while Crazy Horse led a team of Cheyenne and Sioux to defend the camp. As soon as Reno’s men retreated, they turned to Custer’s battalion of 210 and faced them head on.

Within minutes, parts of Custer’s men were trapped by the high terrain. Then, the Indian gunfire and arrow charge came, and Custer had made his last stand.  Since there were no survivors amongst Custer’s men, accounts are unclear as to the actual details, as stories between the tribesmen are often contradictory. The defeat would be the worst ever against the Indians during the Great Plains War. The victory amongst the Lakotas, Cheyenne, Sioux and Dakotas would be short. When the news of the death of General George Custer, American Civil War great reached the east coast, retribution against the Indians would be swift and thorough.

But now for the time being, by the time General Terry would come in to see the damage, he found that Custer’s troops were stripped, scalped and mutilated. The Indians believed that the soul of a mutilated body would be forced to walk the earth eternally looking for his soul. However, Custer had two bulletsholes, one in the head and one in the chest. The most plausible theory for him not being scalped was due to the buckskin he was wearing instead of the blue uniform. It’s likely the Indians didn’t believe he was even a solder. Or it could be due to the fact that Custer had just cut his hair before the battle, which makes a head tough to scalped just doesn’t look as cool when it’s all cut up. Others believe, they knew exactly who he was and respected him enough to leave his body intact.

Within five years, the US Government saw to it that the Sioux and Cheyenne were confined to reservations.

1950 – The Americans beat the British …in the World open the show with a sports topic, there’s more important things like the Battle of Little Bighorn, but…in the late 1770 and early 1780s the British lost possession of thirteen North American colonies to a bunch of undisciplined, sloppy, and drunk ragtag group of Americans put into shape by George Washington.

In 1950, it happened again.

The English were known as the Kings of Football, even though they meant to say soccer. It’s okay, I know it’s confusing. The different between football and soccer is that football is fun to watch.

Anyway, the British were disciplined, hardened and battle ready.

The Americans had part time jobs playing soccer. We had a high school teacher, a hearse driver for a funeral parlor, mail carriers and dishwashers. In fact one of them had to withdraw from the tournament because he couldn’t get time off from work. They were assembled virtually overnight, only practiced one time. The Americans didn’t stand a chance. Odds were 500-1 against the Americans. The English Daily Express newspaper wrote” It would be fair to give the Americans three goals of a start.

Oh really now.

The American goalkeeper, Frank Borghi, the hearse driver, turned out to be pretty good, though, tipping shot after shot after shot. With less than 10 minutes left in the first half forward Joe Gaetjens spike the ball in using his head for the only score of the entire game. The British couldn’t believe it, and the Americans didn’t care.

Still don’t. Don’t even know how to play this stupid game and we still won. Soccer is just something we take our kids to after school to make sure they get some exercise. Of course there’s a much more important reason the American’s didn’t care, there was a conflict in Korea that had just started.

1950 – Korea for many centuries …has dealt with interference from China, then later the Japanese, until the end of WWII. Korea was part of the territory Japan had to concede as unconditional surrender, and, and much like Germany, it was split up. The USSR took the north of the 38th parallel, and the US took the South.

The United Nations in 1947 attempted to reunify the two, but the Soviets blocked the election and supported Kim Il Sung as leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. For the next few years, there were brief skirmishes along the 38th parallel. On June 25, 1950, North Korea crossed the line and attacked the South. The United States called on the United Nations, Security Council, minus the Soviet Union who was boycotting the UN at the time, and war was on.

Truman felt he had no choice. For the next three years, a very bloody and brutal war was fought. Over 55,000 American troops were killed in the conflict. Communism was alive and well in Asia, except for South Korea. The French were losing in Indo-China, in other communist Asian news, which of course led to American military involvement to prevent the fall of Vietnam to communism.

1867 – Lucen B Smith from Ohio patents barbed wire. And Stay out!