Soldiers Falling into Camp: The Battles at the Rosebud and the Little Bighorn

Soldiers Falling into Camp: The Battles at the Rosebud and the Little Bighorn by Marshall, Joseph, III. paperback edition. ISBN: 9780977903900.

It was called the Greasy Grass Fight by the Lakota , and it is the most glaring symbol of the clash of cultures on the High Plains in the 19th Century. But that grandiose description overshadows the fact that it was a human event. It was instigated by human attitudes, thoughts, actions, and reactions. Human beings, people, were on both sides of that fateful struggle. It is a fact too often ignored, and to ignore it distorts the telling of the story. Another aspect of the Greasy Grass story also often overlooked is the Battle of the Rosebud, eight days earlier and some thirty miles to the south. There the Lakota and Cheyenne faced a larger force commanded by General George Crook and fought them to a standstill. A victory, for all intents and purposes, for the Lakota and their Cheyenne allies. One which effectively eliminated Crook from that summer’s grand plan to catch the Lakota in a three-way pincer movement. And, perhaps more importantly, their victory over Crook was the best rehearsal possible for the Lakota and Cheyenne. It prepared them for what was to come eight days later. We do not purport to tell herein the ultimate and “once and for all” story of the Greasy Grass Fight. What we have tried to do is tell a story of a human event. We have based it on facts available in written form as well as information handed down through Lakota and Crow oral traditions.