On the afternoon of June 25, 1876, the acrid smoke of black powder lifted across a desolate ridge in the Montana Territory, revealing a staggering military disaster: the complete annihilation of 210 soldiers from the U.S. Seventh Cavalry, led by Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer. The Battle of the Little Bighorn—known to the Lakota as the Battle of the Greasy Grass—ignited an immediate frenzy of American myth-making, which over the decades prompted more than 120 men to falsely claim they were the "lone human survivor" of the battalion. In reality, the only verified survivor found standing among the bodies days later was a severely wounded cavalry horse named Comanche. This decisive tactical defeat stunned an American public celebrating its centennial, exposing how the U.S. military’s systemic hubris and reliance on flawed intelligence bl ...