Custer's Last Stand
Doomed cavalry defeat
Custer's Last Stand refers to the 1876 Battle of the Little Bighorn, where Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer and his cavalry detachment were killed by Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho forces.
The phrase has come to mean any final, futile effort against overwhelming odds: The company's price cuts were a Custer's Last Stand against bankruptcy.
- Indian WarsColonial-era indigenous conflicts
- cavalry chargeArmed riders attacking en masse
- Manifest DestinyBelief in justified American expansion
- gold rushMass migration seeking ore
- tribal sovereigntyIndigenous peoples' governmental independence
broken treaties · encirclement · sacred lands · oral histories · Sitting Bull · tragic irony · warrior societies · war paint · battle cry · war drums · Crazy Horse · historical reenactments · dime novels · commemorative monuments · national memory · chain of command · flanking maneuver · spiritual ceremonies
- BattlesAntietam, Leipzig, Gettysburg, Waterloo, Bunker Hill
- Indian WarsIndian Wars, King Philip's War, frontier wars, Little Bighorn, Wounded Knee
- Famous Failuresflop, bomb, dud, turkey, lemon
Custer's Last Standdecisive victory
Overwhelming win, clear outcome
total victory · D-Day · Battle of Midway · Normandy landings · Battle of Yorktown
Custer's Last StandWounded Knee Massacre
1890 military killing of Lakota
Custer, last, stand, lasts, lasted, lasting, lastly, stands, standing