Marcus Albert Reno (November 15, 1834 – March 30, 1889) was a United States career military officer who served in the American Civil War where he was a combatant in a number of major battles, and later under George Armstrong Custer in the Great Sioux War against the Lakota (Sioux) and Northern Cheyenne.

Reno is recognized for his prominent role in the Battle of the Little Bighorn, where he did not support Custer's battlefield position, remaining instead in a defensive formation with his troops about 4 miles (6.4 km) away.

His future uncertain, at the age of 15, Reno wrote to the Secretary of War to learn how to enter the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.

After some initial disappointment, he was admitted and attended West Point from 1851 until 1857, requiring two extra years due to excessive demerits.

[3] With the outbreak of the Civil War, the 1st Dragoons were renamed as 1st Cavalry Regiment and transferred through Panama to Washington, D.C., arriving in January 1862.

He was injured at the Battle of Kelly's Ford in Virginia on March 17, 1863, when his horse was shot and fell on him, causing a hernia.

In 1864, Reno took part in the battles of Haw's Shop, Cold Harbor, Trevilian Station, Darbytown Road, Winchester (3rd), Kearneysville, Smithfield Crossing and the Cedar Creek.

Reno received an appointment as brevet colonel in the Regular Army (United States), to rank from March 13, 1865, for "meritorious services during the war.

"[4] On January 13, 1866, President Andrew Johnson nominated Reno for appointment to the grade of brevet brigadier general, U.S.

"[12] The initially few Indian warriors ahead were still several hundred yards away when troops dismounted and formed a skirmish line.

[14] By this time 40 of Reno's 140 men already had been killed, 7 were wounded, and an undetermined number had been left behind in the timber, although most of those abandoned would later manage to rejoin him.

Two miles back, McDougall, marching with the pack train, heard gunfire, "a dull sound that resounded through the hills".

"[23] He decided they should retreat to their original position, now called the "Reno-Benteen defense site" or simply "Reno Hill".

"[24] McDougall found Reno disoriented, perhaps suffering from shock, certainly taking no interest in their precarious situation.

The firing resumed at dawn and continued until late in the afternoon, when the soldiers saw the distant village being broken up and the tribes moving south.

The next morning, the 27th, the surviving troops moved closer to the river, where General Alfred Terry and Colonel John Gibbon and their forces found them.

After 26 days of testimony, Judge Advocate General W. M. Dunn submitted his opinion and recommendations to the Secretary of War George W. McCrary on February 21, 1879.

He added, "The suspicion or accusation that Gen. Custer owed his death and the destruction of his command to the failure of Major Reno, through incompetency or cowardice, to go to his relief, is considered as set to rest...."[28] The court of inquiry did little to change public opinion.

Lieutenant Charles DeRudio told Walter Mason Camp "that there was a private understanding between a number of officers that they would do all they could to save Reno.

"[29] In 1904, a story in the Northwestern Christian Advocate claimed that Reno had admitted to its former editor that "his strange actions" during and after the Battle of Little Bighorn were "due to drink".

[32] Reno took an apartment in Washington D.C., where he doggedly pursued restoration of his military rank while working as an examiner in the Bureau of Pensions.

When she died of kidney disease in Harrisburg on July 10, 1874, Reno was in the field in Montana's Milk River Valley.

She was the widow of Lieutenant Commander Wilson McGunnegle and a mother of three adult children, including army officer George K.

No preparations had been made for his burial, so it was arranged that he be temporarily interred at Washington's Glenwood Cemetery until he could be reinterred with his first wife at the Ross family plot in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Writing in 1926, she stated "I long for a memorial to our heroes on the battlefield of the Little Big Horn [sic] but not to single out for honor, the one coward of the regiment.

[39] On September 9, 1967, his remains were reinterred with honors (including a church ceremony in Billings, Montana, and an eleven-gun salute at his gravesite) in the Custer National Cemetery, on the Little Bighorn battlefield.

[40] At the time of his appointment to West Point, Reno was about 5 ft 8 in (173 cm) tall and weighed about 145 pounds (66 kg).

[citation needed] Liam Sullivan portrayed Colonel Marcus Reno, with Barry Atwater as Custer, in the 1960 episode, "Gold, Glory, and Custer - Prelude" of the ABC/Warner Brothers western television series, Cheyenne, with Clint Walker in the title role of Cheyenne Bodie.

[42] In the 1965 movie, "The Great Sioux Massacre", directed by Sidney Salkow, the part of Major Reno was portrayed by actor Joseph Cotten.