All 3 of these armies were defeated by Crazy Horse. Crook was defeated at Rosebuds near the Wyoming/Montana border but was able to maintain good order and retreat back to Fort Fetterman. Crook never made it to the rendezvous at the Powder River. Gibbon was stopped by a swollen river (Yellowstone River) and was then attacked nightly, losing horses and men. They also never made it to the rendezvous. Only Custer made it to Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse’s camp. Terry’s column on the map is really Custer’s forces (Grant would only let him resume command if directly supervised by General Terry due to Custer testifying against Grant’s corrupt brother in the Belknap scandal). They were annihilated at Little Big Horn. The 5 companies with Custer had no survivors and the 3 companies with Reno and 3 with Benteen lost about a third of their men. When added together the three US armies lost over 300 soldiers and the forces under Crazy Horse lost around 50.
Belknap the US Secretary of War is the only US cabinet member ever to be impeached. He and his 3 wives were involved in a huge scandal taking bribes from weapons companies and selling overpriced guns and ammo to the army as well as to the Indians they were fighting. They also gave certain companies monopolies in exchange for kickbacks. Belknap even married his wife’s sister after she passed away and kept the same scam going. His trial was the reason Custer, and the entire campaign were delayed for months allowing the Sioux force to grow to double what it had been. Belknap is also the reason Sitting Bull’s camp was so well armed.
Thus, after the embarrassing losses to Red Cloud that had ended in the removal of the army from the area and seen all of their forts burned; the US followed that debacle up with and even bigger disaster. Custer’s defeat is well known but at least he made it to the field. The other two were turned back with very little effort.
The details will be covered in probably 3 or 4 podcasts but the final 2 will be for paid subs only.