Custer Monument - Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument - American Guide Series on Waymarking.com

From Montana: A State Guide Book -  Tour 3:

CUSTER MONUMENT in the CUSTER BATTLEFIELD, one mile square; the area was set aside by the Federal Government, December 7, 1886. The monument, a sandstone obelisk surrounded by an iron fence, lists the names of 265 men killed on the battlefield, but only 209 marble slabs have been set up, supposedly marking the spots where men fell. When General Terry arrived on the field two days after the battle, his troops and Reno's were too busy caring for their wounded to have much time for burying the dead. Four days after the battle Terry sent a detail that buried the bodies of officers in graves a few inches deep, but only partly covered those of the enlisted men. Capt. H. L. Nowlan charted the officers' graves. A year later a detail from Fort Keogh arrived to exhume the remains of officers. The covering earth had been blown and washed away, and many skeletons were above ground. Wolves and coyotes had been busy. The skull, one femur, and a few small bones of Custer were found and taken to West Point for burial. In 1885, when all bones found on the surface were buried in a square pit at the base of the sandstone monument, wooden stakes were placed on the places where the bones were found. Years later a commission arrived to replace the stakes with stone markers but so many of the bits of wood had rotted away that the slabs were set up largely by guesswork. Those in charge of the marking hunted for spots where grass grew rank, on the assumption that the soil under them had been enriched by animal matter. Large rank areas were passed over on the theory that they represented places where horses had died.

Nevertheless, these irregularly grouped markers along a hilltop, with a few scattered along the edges of the field, give a better picture of what happened here on the afternoon of June 25, 1876, than the thousands of controversial words that have been published about the fight. Academicians still ask how it was that the Sioux and Cheyenne were armed with Winchesters, superior to the arms of the Seventh Cavalry; why Custer divided his command into four parts; why Custer was in such a hurry; why Benteen did not come to his assistance. Authors, such as Thomas1 B. Marquis, continue to assert that many of Custer's command committed suicide.

The area is now called the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument.  The monument is located on the at the top of "Last Stand Hill" and a marker showing where Custer body was found is a short distance down the hill.  The inscription on the monument reads:

"In memory of officers and soldiers who fell near this place fighting with the 7th United States Cavalry against Sioux Indians on 25th and 26th of June A.D 1876."

The monument also inscribed with the names of the officers and soldiers with General Custer's name on the top of the list.

After the battle the soldiers were buried where they fell in 1881 the soldiers were re-interred in a single grave at this site with about 220 soldiers, scouts and civilians buried at the base of the memorial.