He DID scout the Tullocks Creek valley. Terry used this lie to cover his ass, but the truth is, Custer never ignored any of the general’s advice.
Well, you're in possession of information I've never seen. The time to scout Tullock's Creek was when the scouts were sent out at the Busby Bend of the Rosebud late on the 24th. Scout George Herendeen was expressly with the command to report back to Terry on what Custer's command had found. Custer did send his scouts out that evening, but there's no evidence they actually scouted the Tullock's Creek area (that I'm aware of). They returned saying the trail was fresh, and moved up Davis Creek to the pass in the Wolf Mountains. And George Herendeen remained with the Custer command throughout the battle. He was never dispatched to Terry with any kind of a report.
Jeffry Wert, in his book "Custer" goes on from here..."For Custer, the information demanded a decision. Much has been written since about his disobedience of Terry's orders that recommended a movement to the headwaters of the Tongue before turning west, and a scout down Tullock's Fork. The general prepared the instructions, however, uncertain about the village's location and believing it to be, most likely, on the upper Little Big Horn, not on the lower section of the river as the Crow had discovered. Although Custer had intended to scout the Tullock's Fork region, the evidence indicated no lodges had moved down the stream. Confronted with the new information, he concluded to follow "a hot trail," in Herendeen's words. Except for Crook's command, of which Custer knew nothing, the Indians had eluded the army for months, and now he had them within grasp. He chose to use the discretion that Terry had given him.
"After Varnum departed, Custer met with his officers and recounted the intelligence. He planned to cross the divide before daylight, conceal the regiment during the twenty-fifth, and attack at daylight the next day, he explained."
Other volumes I have on the battle (which are in my nephew's possession at this time and aren't available to consult) also support this contention; Custer may have wanted to scout the Tullock's Creek area, but the trail led up Davis Creek to the divide. He chose to follow the trail.
I'm not criticizing Custer. As I stated in an earlier post, he was not one to go off on a tangent because of orders when the evidence showed otherwise. I see no fault with that, and, apparently, neither did Terry because his orders gave a certain degree of latitude in exactly these types of circumstances.
If you have conclusive evidence that a scout of Tullock's Fork was indeed made, I wish you would present it.
Custer didn’t scout Tullocks Creek with his entire regiment, but his scouts did enough to inform him that no one was in this valley.
He then knew that he had to go in the Little Bighorn area. He also wanted to scout the LBH area on June 25 to look for any other tracks around the main Indian village, but it didn’t go that way because some Indians surprised his soldiers and he had to attack at once.
Benteen was sent to the South to do the same job the scout had previously done in Tullocks Creek : look out for tracks.
Sorry, it’s not Lieutenant Edgerly, it’s Lieutenant GODFREY in his CENTURY article.
Godfrey said that the regiment was doing a lot of halts and was moving slowly because the scouts were looking for tracks in the Tullocks Creek valley.
They reported to Custer that they hadn’t find any