The Coward of the Little Bighorn

Major Marcus Reno’s reputation is of the coward of the Little Bighorn, the man who let Custer and his men die, who lost control of his command and barely survived the Montana fight in late June 1876.

A court martial found him innocent of those charges; almost all of the witnesses testified in his defense, saying he’d been brave in battle.

Another court martial in 1880 was different.  Reno was kicked out of the army for being drunk on duty, hitting another officer and being a “peeping tom.”