[xtypo_dropcap]T[/xtypo_dropcap]he only remaining flag from the famous last battle of Gen. George Armstrong Custer was auctioned at Sotheby’s in New York on Friday.
The flag is torn and frayed from the action surrounding the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876 during the Great Sioux War, where Custer was overwhelmingly defeated by the Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne, led by chiefs Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull. It is the only flag from the battle known not to have been captured by Native American combatants during the battle.
Sotheby’s called the flag the “most significant and symbolic artifact recovered from the Little Bighorn battlefield.”
Custer led more than 200 troops to Little Bighorn River in what is now Montana. None of them survived the battle against nearly 2,000 Native American forces. Sotheby’s expected the flag to sell for around $5 million, but it sold for just over $2.2 million.
The flag is torn and frayed from the action surrounding the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876 during the Great Sioux War, where Custer was overwhelmingly defeated by the Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne, led by chiefs Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull. It is the only flag from the battle known not to have been captured by Native American combatants during the battle.
Sotheby’s called the flag the “most significant and symbolic artifact recovered from the Little Bighorn battlefield.”
Custer led more than 200 troops to Little Bighorn River in what is now Montana. None of them survived the battle against nearly 2,000 Native American forces. Sotheby’s expected the flag to sell for around $5 million, but it sold for just over $2.2 million.
