Battle of Honsinger Bluff The Battle of Honsinger Bluff is of historic significance in that the main combatants were units of the U . S . 7th Cavalry under Lt . Col . George Armstrong Custer , and Native American warriors from the village of the Hunkpapa medicine man , Sitting Bull , many of whom would clash with Custer again approximately three years later at the Battle of the Little Big Horn . Geography . The Battle of Honsinger Bluff occurred on August 4 , 1873 at a point approximately west of the confluence of the Tongue River and Yellowstone River near Miles City , Montana . The battlefield , on a floodplain of the Yellowstone River , is dominated by a massive gravelly hill to the northeast , often referenced as the " Big Hill " in historical accounts of the battle , but referenced locally as " Yellowstone Hill " . This hill is nearly long and between 1 to wide with steep slopes of 200 to . It is the present location of the Miles City Airport . To the east and south lies the Yellowstone River . The floodplain , varying between 1 and in width , extends westerly upstream along the Yellowstone for nearly until it meets Locke Bluff near Hathaway , Montana . Key positions involved a bluff , Honsinger Bluff , on the southwesterly face of Yellowstone Hill , and two large groves of cottonwood trees on old channels of the Yellowstone , one approximately westerly of Yellowstone Hill and the second approximately westerly . Participants . U . S . Army forces . Custer and units of the 7th Cavalry were part of the military column commanded by Col . David S . Stanley accompanying the 1873 Northern Pacific Railway survey party surveying the north side of the Yellowstone River west of the Powder River in eastern Montana . Stanley ' s column consisted of a 1 , 300 man force of cavalry , infantry , and two artillery pieces ( 3 " rifled Rodman guns ) . It traveled with 275 mule - drawn wagons and 353 civilians involved in the survey . 27 Indian and mixed - blood scouts supported the column . Native American forces . The Native American forces were from the lodge of Sitting Bull , situated near Locke Bluff to the west , estimated at anywhere from 400 to 500 lodges . It included Hunkpapa Sioux under Gall accompanied by the warchief Rain in the Face , Oglala Sioux under Crazy Horse , and Miniconjou and Cheyenne . The prelude . On Sunday , August 3 , 1873 , Stanley ' s column camped near the mouth of Sunday Creek , a tributary to the Yellowstone on the northeasterly end of Yellowstone Hill . Early on the morning of August 4 , the column moved up the northwest side of the hill along the south fork of Sunday Creek . Capt . George W . Yates with a troop of cavalry accompanied the surveyors along the southeast side of the hill along the Yellowstone River . Custer , with Companies A and B of the 7th Cavalry under the command of Capt . Myles Moylan scouted to the west ahead of the Stanley column . Custer ' s group consisted of 86 men , 5 officers and Indian scouts . Custer ' s brother , Lt . Tom Custer , and his brother - in - law , Lt . James Calhoun , accompanied him . Custer ' s troops traveled along the top of Yellowstone Hill and then descended a steep buffalo trail on its northwesterly end on to the broad , grass covered flood plain . Custer spotted a wooded area along the Yellowstone , about to the West that would be a suitable location for the Stanley column to camp that evening . He dismounted his men in the woods , where they napped and fished in the river . Their horses grazed on the grassy floodplain . Having a premonition of danger , Custer set out two four - man guard patrols . Scouts from Sitting Bull ' s village traveled along the Yellowstone west of Yellowstone Hill but did not appear to be aware of the presence of the Stanley column . They did , however , spot Custer ' s group resting in the woods . Reinforcements were obtained from Sitting Bull ' s village and by noon somewhere between 100 and 300 Indians were hiding in the second wooded area west of Custer ' s location . The battle . The decoy move . A small band of Indians approached the cavalry ' s grazing horse from the West . They were spotted by the guard units , who alerted the other troops . Custer ordered his men to saddle up and he began to pursue the Indian riders in the company of his orderly and Lt . Calhoun . Tom Custer followed with a group of approximately 20 troopers . Myles Moylan led the remainder of the unit behind Tom Custer . George Custer halted his pursuit and the Indian riders also halted . When he would proceed , they would proceed . They were headed toward the wooded area along the river about from where Custer ' s troops were located . This was a similar tactic used by the Indians in the Fetterman Massacre near Fort Phil Kearny , Wyoming in December 1866 . As he approached the wooded area , the force of Indians hidden in the woods , estimated as anywhere from 100 to 300 , broke out in pursuit of Custer . Custer retreated through a skirmish line formed by Tom Custer ' s men . The volley from the skirmish line distracted the pursuing Indians enough to halt their charge . Custer had Moylan pull back to the wooded area previously occupied by his troops . The siege . After reaching the wooded area , the cavalry troops dismounted , forming a semicircular perimeter along a former channel of the Yellowstone . The usual configuration for dismounted cavalry was every fourth man holding horses , however , due to the length of the semicircular perimeter , every eighth man held horses . The bank of the dry channel served as a natural parapet . The Indian forces laid siege to the cavalry troops , but with little effect . About an hour into the battle , a force of nearly 50 warriors attempted to flank the cavalry ' s perimeter by traveling down along the river . They were hidden by the high bank , however a scout accompanying them was spotted and drew fire . The group , thinking they had been discovered , retreated . The flanking tactic having failed , the Indians set fire to the grass hoping to use the smoke as a screen to approach the cavalry perimeter . However , Custer ' s troops likewise used the smoke as a screen to move closer to the Indian forces and the tactic did not favor either side . The siege continued for about three hours in reported 110 °F heat . The ambush of Honsinger . The 7th Cavalry ' s senior veterinary surgeon , Dr . John Honsinger , rode with Stanley ' s column , along with the suttler , Augustus Baliran . Honsinger was a German native who , in 1869 , was appointed as the first veterinary surgeon for the post - Civil War 7th cavalry . New York Tribune correspondent Samuel J . Barrows , with the Stanley column , had ridden with Dr . Honsinger earlier in the day and described him as " a fine - looking , portly man , about 55 years of age , dressed in a blue coat and buckskin pantaloons , mounted on his fine blooded horse . . . No man of the regiment took more care of his horse than he . It was an extra - professional care — a love of the horse for his own sake " Around 2 : 00 p . m . , oblivious to the battle raging two or three miles ( 5 km ) from them , Honsinger and Baliran left the Stanley column to ride down to the river in order to water their horses and possibly hunt for agates . A Ree scout with the Stanley column , who did not speak English , attempted to stop Honsinger by grabbing the reins of his horse , pointing to the West and saying " Indians , Indians " . Honsinger , hearing sporadic shooting in that direction and believing it was Custer ' s men hunting game , corrected the scout by stating " Cavalry , Cavalry " and rode on . At approximately the same time , Privates John H . Ball and M . Brown , who were part of Lt . Yates ' troops guarding the surveyors along the river , slipped away from their company and headed for the river to cool off and nap . Ball spotted Honsinger and Baliran and rode to join them . Unfortunately , at the same time , Rain in the Face and five of his warriors headed to the westerly base of Yellowstone Hill , now called Honsinger Bluff , to serve as an early warning against any approaching cavalry forces . The Indians spotted Honsinger and Baliran approaching and hid amid the rocks and scrub brush at the base of Honsinger Bluff . So successful was the concealment of the Indians that they were able to grab the reins of Honsinger ' s horse as he rode by , pulling him from the horse and shooting him as he fell . Baliran and Ball were also quickly dispatched by Rain in the Face and his men . The charge . The prolonged siege by the Indian forces , lasting nearly three hours , was remarkably unusual , as clashes normally were much briefer and rarely involved sustained , in - place fighting . Custer ' s troops had nearly exhausted the 100 rounds per man ammunition cache and sent to the horse holders for their ammunition supplies . Toward the end of the battle , due to heat exhaustion of both the cavalry troops and Indian warriors , the shooting had become very sporadic . At this point , Custer ordered his men to mount up , and the bugler sounded the charge . Pvt . Brown , napping at the base of Honsinger ' s Bluff , awakened to witness the ambush of Honsinger and Baliran and the shooting of the fleeing Pvt . Ball . Brown mounted his horse without a saddle and rode wildly toward the Stanley column . Stanley heard shooting , probably the shots from Rain in the Face ' s scouting party , and at about the same time saw Pvt . Brown approaching at a gallop yelling " All down there are killed " . Fearing a repeat of the Fetterman Massacre , Stanley ordered the entire remaining 7th Cavalry forward , the advance unit being led by 2nd Lt . Charles Braden . Arriving at the brow of Honsinger Bluff , Braden ' s troop had to dismount and lead their horses down the steep slope . As they remounted , Rain in the Face ' s party passed within 100 yards of them , fleeing back toward the main Indian force . Custer ' s mounted troopers burst from their wood position in a charge that scattered the Indian forces , who fled upriver with Custer ' s troops in pursuit . They pursued them for nearly four miles but were never able to close on them sufficiently to engage them . Historians still debate whether Custer charged independently of the approaching forces under Braden , or whether he had spotted Braden ' s approach and coordinated his charge with the arrival of the reinforcements . Casualties . While Custer ' s 7th Cavalry forces suffered 11 dead , the 7th Cavalry lost its senior veterinarian surgeon , Dr . John Honsinger , its suttler , Augustus Baliran , as well as Pvt . Ball . While Honsinger and Baliran were found the day of the battle , Ball ' s body was not located until September 1873 . Although no bodies were recovered on the battlefield , Native American casualties were estimated to number 5 dead , with numerous other warriors and horses wounded . The aftermath . Rain in the Face retained Honsinger ' s gold watch and later bragged about killing Honsinger and Balitran . Custer learned of Rain in the Face ' s claims and dispatched his brother , Tom , to the Standing Rock Reservation to arrest him for the murder of Honsinger and Balitran . He was apprehended and jailed on December 13 , 1874 . Rain in the Face escaped from custody a few months later and vowed to cut out the heart of Tom Custer and eat it . Lt . Braden was critically wounded a week later , on August 11 , 1873 , in another clash with Sitting Bull ' s forces upriver near the mouth of the Big Horn River . His thigh was shattered by an Indian bullet and he remained on permanent sick leave until his retirement from the Army in 1878 . George Custer , Tom Custer and James Calhoun , along with Capt . George Yates , all perished at the Little Big Horn on June 25 , 1876 . Myles Moylan and Charles Varnum survived the battle on Reno Hill . Moylan , four years later , was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for conspicuous bravery at the September 30 , 1877 Battle of Bear Paw where Lt . Col . Nelson A . Miles forces captured the Nez Perce band of Chief Joseph at Snake Creek near Havre , Montana . Sitting Bull , Gall , Crazy Horse and Rain in the Face all participated in the Little Big Horn battle . Rain in the Face in later years claimed to have cut the heart out of Tom Custer at Little Big Horn and taken a bite out of it . Veterinarian John Honsinger was buried along the Yellowstone River at the base of Honsinger Bluff . Some authorities claim that Father Pierre DeSmet , happened along that evening , and oversaw the burial . DeSmet was rumored to have baptized Sitting Bull earlier . However , Fr . DeSmet died in St . Louis on May 23 , 1873 , over two months prior to the battle . U . S . Army troops occupied this area again on June 6 and 7 , 1876 prior to the battle on the Little Big Horn . The Montana column , consisting of the 2nd Cavalry and 7th Infantry under the command of Col . John Gibbon , camped in " a beautiful cottonwood grove on splendid sod " a few miles west of Honsinger Bluff . This was likely either the grove in which Sitting Bull ' s ambush force hid , or the one occupied by Custer ' s troops during the battle . Literary references . The legend of Rain in the Face cutting out Tom Custer ' s heart is immortalized in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ' s poem " Revenge of Rain in the Face " . Further reading . Lubetkin , M . John , Jay Cooke ' s Gamble : The Northern Pacific Railroad , The Sioux , and the Panic of 1873 , University of Oklahoma Press , Norman , Oklahoma 2006 ISBN 0 - 8061 - 3740 - 1