Reno, Marcus (1834-1889)

US Army major. He was the most senior officer of the US 7th Cavalry to survive the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Montana, in 1876, during which his commanding officer Lt-Col George Custer and a detachment of around 225 men were massacred. Reno had been ordered to take 125 men and attack Sioux chief Sitting Bull's encampment from the south while Custer attacked from the north, but his troops were beaten back by 2,000 warriors. Although criticized by Custer's supporters, he was cleared of failing to do his duty in an inquiry of 1879.

Early career Reno attended West Point Military Academy, New York State, and was appointed as an officer in the US Army. He served as a commander in the American Civil War (1861-65) with the Union army of the north. Reno was attached to the US 7th Cavalry as a major in 1871 and served with Custer in the 1874 expedition to the Black Hills of South Dakota when gold was discovered in the region.

Events at the Little Bighorn, 1876 In 1876 Reno accompanied Custer and the 7th Cavalry into the Powder River country of the Black Hills for a campaign against the Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho Indians camped with Sitting Bull. Custer had been ordered to scout round the Wolf Mountains to meet the US forces led by Col John Gibbon and General Alfred Terry before attacking the group. Reno and his detachments were used to scout the area as Custer moved up Rosebud Creek, and discovered a wide Indian trail through the Wolf Mountains. Custer chose to follow the trail and reached the encampment on the Little Bighorn too early.

On the morning of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Reno was given command of about 125 men and ordered by Custer to advance across the Little Bighorn and into the camp from the south whilst Custer attacked from the north. Reno, however, was beaten back, and soon came under attack from hundreds of American Indian warriors. Reno was unable to help Custer, and was forced onto higher ground overlooking the Little Bighorn River. While Custer's detachment were killed to the north of the camp, the cavalry assigned to Reno and a reserve detachment assigned to Capt Frederick Benteen spent 36 hours fighting off the attacks of Sitting Bull's warriors. Only when the American Indians fled at the advance of Col Gibbon's infantry on 27 June 1876 was Reno relieved.

Aftermath of the battle Reno was made something of a scapegoat for the defeat at the Little Bighorn by those who wished to defend the reputation of Custer and the 7th Cavalry. Reno's failure to advance and support Custer's attack was severely criticized, and he was was accused of being a coward who had abandoned Custer and his men to death while saving himself.

At the 1879 inquiry into the events at the Little Bighorn, Reno was cleared of failing to fulfil his duty and cowardice. At the inquiry Reno commented that he had ‘no confidence in his (Custer's) ability as a soldier’. This was a sentiment shared by many, including Capt Benteen and President Ulysses S Grant. All three, however, could be accused of being biased in their opposition to Custer. Grant disliked Custer, who had tried to accuse Grant's brother of corruption in early 1876. Reno and Benteen needed to protect their own reputations in the face of potentially ruinous accusations.

In 1880 Reno was court-martialled on unrelated matters and dishonourably discharged from the US Army. His conviction and punishment cannot be held as entirely fair, however, as the officer who court-martialled Reno had lost a son at the Little Bighorn. Reno died in 1889, his reputation in ruins.