Hero or coward? Gen. Marcus Reno’s actions at Little Big Horn still debated – March 30

On this day in 1889, General Marcus A. Reno, died in Washington, D.C., considered by some the last casualty of Custer’s fatal blunder at the Battle of the  Little Big Horn.

 A flawed individual and an imperfect officer by all accounts,Reno’s command decisions came under intense  scrutiny long after the epic battle had ended   Despite his shortcomings in other areas, some historians argue, his actions on June 25, 1876 did not warrant the charge of cowardice leveled against him.

Born November 15, 1834 in Carollton, Illinois, Reno expressed interest in the military at an early age, writing the Secretary of War when he was 15 seeking a place at West Point.  He was accepted after several tries but his career at the Academy was not stellar, taking longer to graduate than the average cadet because of  an excess of demerits.  He apparently acquitted himself well enough in ten engagements during the Civil War, however, and was brevetted a Colonel in the U. S. Army and brigadier general in the U.S. Volunteers for “meritorious service.”

Following a half dozen administrative postings, he joined the ill-fated 7th Cavalry as a commander in South Carolina in 1871 and was transferred to Fort Abraham Lincoln in present-day North Dakota in the Fall of 1875.

Custer’s overconfident battle plan at the Little Big Horn called for Reno and three companies along with three companies led by Captain Frederick Benteen, to approach the Sioux camp from the south as Custer’s five companies swept down from the north.

What happened next has been up for debate ever since.  Claiming he sensed a trap after fording the river, Reno called “Halt,” ordering his troop to dismount and prepare to fight on foot.  He was proved right when a large fighting force of warriors appeared, outflanking Reno’s men who were forced to take cover in a stand of timber.  Benteen arrived shortly thereafter and Reno reportedly shouted for help. “For God sakes, Benteen, halt your command and help me.  I’ve lost half my men.”

But Benteen proceeded north to reinforce Custer.  Discovering the catastrophe that was befalling Custer, Benteen retreated back to what became known as the Reno-Benteen defense site.  He later insisted that he was met by a befuddled Reno holding a bottle of whiskey, asking Benteen to assume command.

General Alfred Terry and Colonel John Gibbon arrived with reinforcements on June 27, two days too late to save Custer.  Thirteen survivors of Reno’s company received the Medal of Honor for bravery but Reno was branded a coward.

Things only got worse.  Reassigned to Fort Abercrombie near present day Wahpeton, North Dakota, Reno was charged with making unwanted advances toward another officer’s wife just six months later.  A general court martial  was convened in Saint Paul, Minnesota, in May of 1877.  He was found guilty on six of seven charges and ordered dismissed from the Army.  President Rutherford B. Hayes intervened, however, reducing the dismissal to just two years.

Once back in the military, Reno demanded a court of inquiry to review the charges of drunkenness and cowardice leveled against him at the Battle of the Little Big Horn.  Following nearly a month of testimony by a number of the survivors, he was exonerated, the court finding that Custer’s annihilation was not due to Reno’s actions.

Contemporary accounts suggest that some of the enlisted witnesses claimed they were coerced into giving false testimony  to correspond with the facts put forth by the officers.

But things got worse again.  While serving as the commanding officer at Fort Meade near present-day Sturgis, South Dakota, he faced a second court marshal, charged with drunkenness and conduct unbecoming an officer for allegedly spying  on Ella Sturgis, the daughter of Custer’s  command replacement, General John Sturgis.  This time it stuck.  He was cashiered out of the service, continuing to pursue reinstatement of his rank while working in Washington as a pension examiner.

Trouble always seemed to overtake Reno. Diagnosed with cancer of the tongue at the age of  54 in mid-March of 1889, he underwent surgery at Providence Hospital in Washington on March 19, contracted pneumonia and died 13 days later.  Due to his sudden and unexpected demise, no available grave site could be found in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where other members of his family were buried and he was temporarily interred in an unmarked grave in the capital city’s Glenwood Cemetery.

A move to build a monument to Reno at the Bighorn battle site in the 1890s was vigorously opposed by Elizabeth Custer, General Custer’s widow, who spent the remainder of her life attempting to restore her husband’s reputation. Writing in 1926, seven years before her death, she continued to argue that it was wrong to “single out for honor the one coward of the regiment.”

 General Reno did receive a measure of vindication 78 years later when his great-nephew requested that a military review board reopen the 1880 court marshal.  Reversing the court’s findings, the board issued  Reno an Honorable Discharge posthumously.   In 1967 his remains were reinterred at Custer National Cemetery on the Bighorn Battlefield site with full military honors.

Fort Meade,  General Reno’s “last stand,” was  built by survivors of Little Big Horn, and remained open longer than most of the region’s frontier  posts.   A military installation up until WWII it is now the site of a Veterans Administration Hospital.  Historic for several reasons, it was here in 1892 Colonel Caleb Carlton first began the custom of  playing”The Star Spangled Banner” at military events, spurring Congress to finally declare it the National Anthem.  And one of the world’s most famous war horses, Captain Myles Keogh’s “Comanche” the lone survivor at Little Big Horn, was officially retired here with full military honors.  The Old Fort Meade Museum, one mile east of Sturgis, is open from 9 to 5 daily, June 1 to October 31.  Admission is $5 and children are admitted free.  For more information go to allblackhills.com or call (605)347-9822.