The Army figure: 268 dead
The National Park Service's battle chronology states that on the afternoon and evening of 25 June 1876, "268 7th cavalry soldiers, civilians, and Indian scouts will be killed along with an estimated 60-100 Lakota and Cheyenne." Major Reno and Captain Benteen's commands, with the pack train, stayed under siege into 26 June, when the village withdrew as General Terry's column approached.
"Soldiers" in everyday search language usually means the US Army dead. The NPS total of 268 already includes attached civilians and Indian scouts who rode with the Seventh Cavalry, so it is slightly broader than enlisted-and-officer-only lists. When a secondary source says "about 268" or "Custer's command was wiped out," it is pointing at this same NPS-backed count.
Custer's five companies on the ridges north of the village were destroyed. Reno's and Benteen's survivors held a defensive position until relief arrived on 27 June, when Terry and Gibbon found Custer's dead battalion. On 28 June, Reno's companies buried Custer's command.
Dated timeline of the fight and the count
| Date (1876) | Event | Bearing on the death toll |
|---|---|---|
| 17 June | Battle of the Rosebud; Crook fights Crazy Horse and Cheyenne | Nine soldiers and about 13 warriors reported slain there, separate from Little Bighorn |
| 22 June | Custer's 12 companies ordered up Rosebud Creek | Sets the force that will take the 268 dead |
| 25 June, dawn | Scouts report a large village; Custer advances | Approach march before contact |
| 25 June, afternoon-evening | Battle of the Little Bighorn | 268 Army-side dead; Native dead estimated 60-100 |
| 26 June, afternoon | Village withdraws; siege on Reno-Benteen ends | Fighting on the Army side stops |
| 27 June | Terry and Gibbon reach the field | Discover Custer's destroyed battalion |
| 28 June | Burials of Custer's command | Army dead recovered and counted on the field |
| 29-30 June | 52 wounded evacuated on steamer *Far West* | Wounded are not part of the 268 killed |
Keep Rosebud's nine soldier deaths out of the Little Bighorn total. They belong to the same campaign week but a different battle on 17 June.
Native casualties stay a range
The NPS estimate of 60 to 100 Lakota and Cheyenne killed is not a named roster. Warriors removed many of their dead, and oral histories do not line up on a single integer. Treat any precise Native total that lacks a cited census as a guess.
Sitting Bull's village was large enough that Custer's divided attack failed before the whole Seventh Cavalry could concentrate. The chronology notes a 24 June "dying dancing" ceremony in which about twenty young Lakota and Cheyenne took a suicide vow to defend the village; that detail explains resolve on the Native side, not a separate casualty column.
After the battle, the campaign continued. Crazy Horse surrendered in May 1877; Sitting Bull crossed into Canada and later surrendered in 1881. Those later deaths and surrenders are outside the 25-26 June count.
Wounded versus killed
The NPS chronology records that 52 soldiers were transported on the *Far West* to Fort Abraham Lincoln for treatment after the fight. They are survivors, not additions to the 268 killed.
Popular retellings sometimes blur "Custer's entire command" with "the entire Seventh Cavalry." Reno and Benteen brought survivors off the field; the annihilated portion was Custer's immediate battalion on what became Last Stand Hill and the nearby ridges.
For another US Army disaster recounted with hard numbers on this site, see the Battle of the Crater (1864).