17. The legend of the Last Stand
Libbie Custer did not describe the Last Stand in her books. The legend was created by other writers, and the image of a small group of cavalrymen, surrounded by hordes of native warriors, with Custer standing near the American flag fighting to the last became etched into American history. Several eyewitnesses to the Battle of the Little Big Horn – all of them Indians – gave conflicting testimony over how the battle evolved and how Custer died. Numerous warriors claimed to have been the one to kill Custer, others claimed to have seen him fall, but the truth is nobody knows for certain how Custer died. He was found with two bullet wounds, either of which would have been fatal. Unlike the rest of his command, his body was not mutilated by the Indians, though later writers claimed, without evidence, that it had.
One of the earliest depictions of the Last Stand appeared as part of an advertising campaign, in a painting commissioned by Anheuser-Busch for their Budweiser beer. The painting was hung in saloons and taverns throughout the nation. In 1912 Custer was played in film for the first time, a silent short film directed by Francis Ford, whose brother John Ford would become famous for western and war films. Before Libbie Custer died in 1933, only four days short of her 91st birthday, Custer had been portrayed in films nine times. Films added to the legend of the Last Stand, with Custer played by actors including Errol Flynn, Ronald Reagan, Robert Shaw, and Leslie Nielsen.