3. Trapped on Reno Hill, Custer and his troops likely died quickly due to the overwhelming numbers of the enemy.
Benteen was in receipt of orders from Custer to join him and to “bring packs” but opted to remain on the bluffs with Reno, despite both officers later reporting the sounds of heavy gunfire to the north, in the direction where Custer had led his portion of the command. Around five pm, a company was detached to attempt to reach Custer under the command of Captain Thomas Weir. Weir moved forward roughly a mile before halting when he spotted Natives shooting in the distance at targets on the ground. Eventually, all of Reno and Benteen’s command attempted to move forward, but they were quickly pushed back to the bluffs, where they remained under fire for another day.
By 5:30 Custer and the troops with him were likely already dead, overwhelmed by the number of native warriors in the village and the unexpected firepower they held. When relief troops from Terry’s column arrived they and the survivors of Reno’s and Benteen’s commands went over the battlefield, hurriedly burying the dead in the June heat, and from their observations and notes the myth of Custer’s Last Stand, defiantly fighting to the last on a desolated hill, was born. The decisive defeat would lead to the myth being expanded, largely from the efforts of Custer’s widow Libby, and efforts to disparage the actions of Benteen and to a lesser extent Reno. It was the myth of the battle and not the modern analysis of it which dictated the response of the American public in 1876, and thus the myth must be recalled.