Historedia
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First Clash with Lakota

When
August 4, 1873
Where
Near the Tongue River, Montana
Part of
Seventh Cavalry's first clash with the Sioux near the Tongue River

The 7th Cavalry clashed for the first time with the Lakota near the Tongue River on August 4, 1873, protecting a survey party.

Custer's forces were part of Stanley's column surveying the north side of the Yellowstone River. On August 4, 1873, Stanley's column camped near the mouth of Sunday Creek, a tributary to the Yellowstone, and moved up the northwest side of Yellowstone Hill that morning; the supplied passages do not state the clash occurred at that camp site. The engagement is instead sourced near the Tongue River, while the Honsinger Bluff account places fighting along the Yellowstone River near present-day Miles City. No passage gives exact coordinates, and the legacy claim of one casualty per side is not supported.

Sources

  1. George Armstrong Custer Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-05
  2. Yellowstone Expedition of 1873 Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-31
  3. Battle of Honsinger Bluff Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-01

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.