Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer was assigned to lead the strike force.

Custer was a complex figure whose military career was characterized by both genuine tactical skill and a recklessness about the lives of those under his command.

He had been court-martialed in 1867 for various offenses, including leaving his post without permission, and was serving under a suspension when Sheridan restored him to command for the winter campaign.

Custer’s Seventh Cavalry tracked a trail from the site of a Cheyenne raid in Kansas southward toward the Washita River.

The trail led to Black Kettle’s camp.