| Custer's report to Sheridan also made light reference to casualties, failing to note that he had abandoned Major Joel Elliot and 16 others on the battlefield. According to Benteen, Custer made no attempt to locate the bodies. The bodies were found together, in a tight circle, when the regiment returned to the battlefield on December 11. At Fort Harker in mid-December, Kate Benteen gave birth to a daughter, Kate Norman Benteen, but the child lived less than a week. The completion of the Kansas-Pacific Railroad and the rise of racial organizations saw the 7th Cavalry dispatched to the South in 1871. Ultimately, Benteen's H Company was assigned to Nashville over the objections of Custer. On April 2,1872, Kate had another daughter, Fannie Gibson Benteen. In April 1873, the regiment was transferred to the Department of the Dakota; in late June, Benteen and his family reported to Fort Rice in Dakota Territory.  From the valley floor this view is of the bluffs climbed by the survivors of Reno's battalion. On June 20, Colonel David S. Stanley departed with the 7th Cavalry on a surveying expedition of the Yellowstone River, known to historians as the Yellowstone Expedition of 1873. On July 31, Custer ordered Benteen to remain behind at what became known as Stanley's Stockade, a supply point on the Yellowstone some 20 miles upriver from the mouth of Glendive Creek. As winter descended upon the expedition, Benteen received word that baby "Fan" was very ill at Fort Rice. He immediately requested leave to return to the post, a leave that Custer promptly denied. Before Benteen could resolve the issue, his daughter was dead. In April 1875, the Benteens produced a second son, Theodore Norman Benteen; the following winter, little Theodore was laid to rest at Fort Rice. Of the Benteen children, only Freddie would grow to adulthood. On May 5, 1876, Benteen departed for Fort Abraham Lincoln with Companies H and M; his rendezvous with history was but two months distant. Custer and Brig. Gen. Alfred Terry arrived soon after. For the first time in the regiment's history, all 12 companies were assembled together. On May 17, the regiment marched from Fort Lincoln as the regimental band played "The Girl I Left Behind Me." On June 22, as the regiment drew nearer the native encampment for which the expedition was searching, Custer's demeanor noticeably changed. Survivors later noted that he lacked his usual confident swagger, casting a pall over the evening's officers call. After the meeting, Lieutenant George D. Wallace commented to Lieutenant Edward Godfrey, "I believe General Custer is going to be killed."  The monument atop the point known as Reno Hill, site of the Reno-Benteen entrenchments. The Valley Fight occurred below on the open ground. The following day, Custer made the fateful decision that would forever be remembered as the turning point in his short life: disregarding Terry's orders to continue to scout the Rosebud, he followed the growing Indian trail into the Valley of the Little Bighorn. Upon arriving at the native encampment, Custer split his command much as he had at Washita years earlier. In the Washita Valley, the 7th Cavalry had converged on a village of perhaps 50 teepees; at Little Bighorn, at least 1,000 lodges were present in the valley. Custer barely escaped the Washita Valley. He would not leave the Valley of the Little Bighorn alive. At the Washita, Custer's attack had been synchronized for a simultaneous assault from four directions. But at the Little Bighorn, he committed his forces piecemeal, in an uncoordinated attack ill conceived for a village of such immense proportions. First, Major Marcus Reno's charge was repulsed with disastrous results. Then, Custer's own charge through Medicine Tail Coulee was met by Chief Gall at the cost of his entire battalion. Benteen, dispatched by Custer along the south fork of the Little Bighorn River, arrived in time to regroup Reno's shattered battalion and probably save the remains of the regiment. In this role, Benteen will forever be remembered. Nearly 125 years later, historians continue to debate Benteen's role in Custer's Last Stand. While some assert that he allowed his personal prejudice in his relationship with Custer to influence his response to Custer's call for his advance, no evidence exists to substantiate such a claim. Instead, much evidence exists to suggest that Benteen was responsible for preventing further death and destruction resulting from Custer's ill-advised attack. Benteen's arrival on Reno's besieged position northeast of the village signaled a turning point in what could well have resulted in the destruction of the entire regiment. Reno was visibly shaken and disoriented and his battalion was on the verge of total collapse. Benteen quickly organized defenses for the two battalions. He personally directed construction of breastworks, "in full view of the Indians, making no effort whatever to seek shelter."  Benteen at his retirement from active duty Given the size and scope of the native force encamped along the Little Bighorn, it is doubtful that Benteen could have successfully relieved Custer's battalion. Unwittingly caught between the pincers of Gall and Crazy Horse, Custer's command fell in much the same manner as Elliot's much smaller command had at Washita -- separated, isolated, and with unmitigated violence. The miracle of the Little Bighorn is that any portion of the regiment survived, and that mainly due to the timely and heroic intervention of Captain Frederick W. Benteen. The following year, during the Nez Perce War of 1877, Colonel Samuel D. Sturgis led the 7th Cavalry deeper into Montana Territory in pursuit of the fleeing Indians. On September 13, 1877, Benteen distinguished himself the Battle of Canyon Creek, an engagement remembered for the resulting allegations of Sturgis' cowardice under fire. As the native threat receded with each coming spring, the need for the 7th to take to the trail diminished. Benteen's service on the frontier all but ended after Canyon Creek. He testified before Reno's court of inquiry in 1879, served duty as a cavalry recruiter officer in 1880, and supervised the Army Board on Magazine Guns through 1882. On January 27, 1883, Benteen received official notification of his promotion to major, effective December 17, 1882, in the 9th Cavalry. Benteen joined the regiment on July 20, 1883 at Fort Riley, Kansas. But, unlike the regiment he had spurned 16 years earlier, the 9th Cavalry of 1883 had an excellent reputation. Not only had the regiment performed with distinction in Texas and New Mexico, the unit had fewer desertions, incidents of drunkenness, and reports of criminal behavior than any of the white regiments. But the Benteen who served with the 9th Cavalry was also not the same Benteen who joined the 7th 16 years earlier, either. Aged by years in the saddle and his share of battle, Benteen was no longer capable of extensive campaigning. When the regiment took to saddle, Benteen usually remained behind to command the post in Colonel Edward Hatch's absence. On May 16, 1884, Benteen was assigned as the post commander of Fort Sill, Indian Territory. In 1885, the 9th was posted to the Wyoming Territory and Benteen commanded the 2nd Squadron (the new "official" name for a cavalry battalion) upon departure for Fort McKinney on June 12,1865.  Captain Frederick Benteen's grave at Arlington National Cemetery Chronic ill health caused Benteen to consider retirement by 1886, but on July 5, he became the senior major of the 9th Cavalry and prepared to march two companies into Utah Territory to establish a new post. General George Crook, commander of the Department of the Platte, needed to establish a presence in the territory to counter the unsettling influence of the Utes. On August 20, after an especially difficult and tiring march, Crook designated a point roughly three miles north of the confluence of the Duchesne and Uintah rivers as the site for Fort Duchesne. There, an ailing Benteen found himself embroiled in controversy between the post sutler (and Crook's building contractor for the new post) and General Crook. Benteen settled the problem with natives with ease, dispatching a company of infantry to secure the agency. Building the new post, however, proved a daunting, if impossible, task. In January 1887, the troops remained in tents; building material, forage, food and other essential supplies were slow to arrive. The troops of the 9th, accustomed to such treatment, were not nearly as upset as Benteen. As Benteen's relationship with the sutler continued to erode, he found himself on the wrong side of Crook. Crook dispatched his inspector general, Major Robert H. Hall, to investigate and report on the progress at Fort Duchesne. With nary a word to Benteen, Hall's scathing report implicated the old major as unfit for duty and the principal cause behind the lack of progress at the post. The report made six, largely unsubstantiated, allegations of Benteen's repeated drunkenness. Crook, angered by a Kansas City Times article criticizing his mismanagement of Fort DuChesne, ordered Benteen to face a military court martial on January 7, 1887. The board found Benteen guilty of three charges of drunkenness, largely due to the questionable testimony of the sutler and another civilian, and recommended his dismissal from service. On April 20, at the recommendation of General Sheridan, President Grover Cleveland approved the findings, but mitigated the dismissal to suspension from rank and duty for one year at half pay.  On July 7, 1888, Benteen received a medical discharge for maladies incident to service. He and Kate retired to Atlanta, where they enjoyed the amenities of life denied them for so many years on the frontier. On February 27, 1890, the Senate approved awards of brevets for gallantry in action against natives; the Army submitted only 144 names, one of which was Frederick Benteen. In April 1892, he was nominated for a brevet as Brigadier General for gallant and meritorious service at the Little Bighorn and Canyon Creek. On Wednesday, 22 June 1898, Frederick William Benteen died. The funeral was well attended, and the pallbearers included the governor of Georgia, the mayor of Atlanta, and several other prominent figures. Charles K. Mills summarized the life of a forgotten warrior at the conclusion of his biography of Benteen: "There are no monuments to Frederick William Benteen today. He remains as he lived: a rather obscure supporting actor who appeared briefly on center stage in a well-known American history drama and then quietly faded away. It was his misfortune to live largely unknown and to die largely misunderstood." Often misunderstood himself, Custer overshadowed everyone else who ever served in the 7th Cavalry, including Frederick Benteen. |
