Military history buffs with a few million dollars to spare may wish to check out the upcoming auction of a rare 7th Cavalry artefact from the Battle of Little Bighorn.The swallowtail battle guidon of the 7th Cavalry Regiment was the only military artefact left behind after Custer and his men were defeated by thousands of Lakota and Cheyenne Indians, led by Sitting Bull, in June, 1876.
The battle caused enormous shock in the US at the time - when the young nation was preparing to celebrate its centennial - and has become one of the most celebrated in American military history.
The victorious Plains Indians had stripped the corpses clean of trophies but evidently missed the flag, which was hidden under the body of a fallen soldier.
It was recovered by Sgt Ferdinand Culbertson, a member of a burial party, and was sold for $54 in 1895 to the Detroit Institute of Arts.
Another 7th Cavalry guidon was found months later in an Indian village seized by US troops, but is reportedly moth-eaten and in very poor condition.
Three other guidons were never recovered, while the regimental flag was on a train at the time of the battle.
The Detroit institute is now selling it to pay for new art acquisitions, after admitting it barely ever saw the guidon, as it was almost continually on loan to other institutions.
By: Shelldrake
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