I am Captain Benteen and this is my story. I was commander of the third battalion of the seventh Cavalry regiment on the day that Brevet Major General George Armstrong Custer Led the Seventh Cavalry regiment into battle in the Valley of the Little Bighorn.

General Custer, I and the other battalion commanders met to do a map reconnaissance of the area and decided that I would remain in the rear with the pack train while Major Reno attacked the Indian village from the south. General Custer and his battalion and Captain Spatola and his battalion would assemble on the ridges overlooking the valley and wait for the Major Reno to draw the Indians towards him as he attacked. They were then to charge down into the valley from the hills. I would reinforce Reno when I arrived. I did not arrive in time to be effective in battle.

Two major problems occurred in this fight. Captain Spatola took his battalion and attacked an insignificant piece of high ground that the Indians occupied and in doing so took heavy casualties. He was not only absent from the most critical position in the battle at the time but he did not even succeed in taking that hill. The second problem involved the commander. He was very lost most of the time and seemed unable to make rational decisions. He never told Captain Spatola to continue with the original plan and was himself in a position that was not in accord with the original plan. He also exposed himself unnecessarily to enemy fire from an occupied hill that was again not a critical position at the time. The General was wounded.

Reno's Battalion did a superb job of keeping with the original battle plans. The men drew the Indians right where they would be vulnerable form their left and front. Their best hope would have been to keep attacking Reno as I was not there yet to reinforce him. I just got to my position when I was called away to other duties.