Video: UNITED THEY STOOD

VIDEO ^ | drzz

[drzz]

United they stood, not for glory, but because they were a band of brothers. Nobody was watching them, and no glory awaited them. They stood because they were men of honor and dignity.

Lesson from the past.

[Jeffrey_D.]

Custer had been ordered to wait for reinforcements and chose to attack a group of warriors before they could alert the village. Ignoring that order was a big mistake

[drzz]

Please watch this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKeTsG2JpQA

If you are interested by the real story of the battle, please know that historians are now convinced that Custer never disobeyed any order and that his attack was sound. His own Indian scouts said that he should attack, because everyone thought that the Indian village would escape.

[PGalt]

Thanks for posting. BTTT.

[Leatherneck_MT]

bump for later

[Psycho_Bunny]

It is impossible for me to romanticize Custer's final battle.  While I can sympathize with the men who died in it, a blunder was clearly committed.

It was also a battle in a war in which determining which side were the "Good Guys" is extremely subjective.

[PzLdr]

Custer thought he had no choice. Some of his troops on his back trail were spotted by Indians [returning, unknown to Custer] to the reservation after buffalo hunting with the hostiles [the major reason for the Army’s miscalculation on the size of the village was the deliberate failure of the Indian agents to report the number of Indians who went out for the hunt]. Custer thought he’d been spotted. His original plan was to lay up at the Crows’ Nest for the 25th, do a recon that evening, and hit the village the next morning.

The concept of operations was to have all three columns [Crook, Gibbon, and Terry] rendezvous in the vicinity of the Big Horn on the 25th. Nobody [including Custer] knew that Crook had already been stopped and driven back at the Rosebud by Crazy Horse [Crook didn't notify anyone]. Nobody has ever commented on the fact that Gibbon and Terry arrived on the 27th - a day later than planned. So even if Custer had delayed his attack to the 26th, as he planned, he still would have gone in alone. And since his orders were not to allow the Indians to escape [the same orders applied to all the Army units in the campaign], waiting until the 27th would have put his command at risk, and violated his orders. And Custer had been given operational independence by Terry. He was never given orders to wait for reinforcements.

[drzz]

BRAVO ! Great knowledge of the battle !

You are totally right !
See my movie about Custer’s last stand:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKeTsG2JpQA

[drzz]

Honor the soldiers who died with their boots on.

Soldiers in Vietnam were also abandoned by people who thought that North Vietnamese communists were “fighting for their lands” altough they were brutal soldiers.

[PzLdr]

Correction [typo]: The three columns were supposed to rendezvous on the 26th, not the 25th.

[drzz]

Yep, but Indian scouts discovered the 7th cavalry, altough they didn’t warn the village.

When Custer arrived near the village, he was surprised to see that the teepees were still there, that the Indians “were caught napping”. Everything was doing well for Custer at this point.

But Benteen and Reno didn’t answer the call of duty - and we know what happened.
See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKeTsG2JpQA

[humint]

My comment is not intended to be discouraging, only honest and constructively critical. I think your videos are low quality and unnecessarily divisive. While they are geared to incite emotion, they incite the kinds of emotions that lose wars. Michael Moore's tactics of showing images of American leadership in unflattering ways adds nothing to the debate. Indeed, it is distracting.

[Psycho_Bunny]

I do honor the men who died there...I stated I was sympathetic to their fate, and I am.  But I won't romanticize the battle:  it was a mistake.

I really don't have a dispute with you:  I think the only reason I responded to your post is because "United We Stand" currently carries implications in this country that do not apply to the circumstances surrounding Little Big Horn.  So when I saw your graphic and then clicked on the link I was taken aback.

And for the record, Vietnam is a specious comparison.

[drzz]

The diffence between Democrats and Republicans in the War on Terror is the same between Major Reno and General Custer.

Major Reno ran away and ignored Custer’s orders to come quickly and support him.

Custer made a stand and waited for support, showing great heroism (latest researchs by the National Park Service showed 200 dead Indians on the battlefield).

Vietcongs tortured soldiers, right? After Little Bighorn, Indians took three prisoners in their village and tortured them. One of this prisoners was probably Lieut. Sturgis.

[drzz]

To put details:

Indians burn Sturgis alive and put his heads on a pole in the center of their village.

I know that many Americans are still attracted to the “Noble Native American” myth, but that’s what happened.

Think about it.

[Psycho_Bunny]

To put details:

Indians burn Sturgis alive and put his heads on a pole in the center of their village.

I know that many Americans are still attracted to the “Noble Native American” myth, but that’s what happened.

Think about it.

You are putting "words in my mouth".  I am not a person who spouts about the Noble Savage.  Nor was I address any specific circumstance when I stated that it was difficult to figure out who the "Good Guys" were in the Indian Wars throughout our history.

There is nothing in our history that would objectively support being proud of what we did to the American Indians.  While there's plenty of blame to spread between the parties, in the long run we were worse than them.

I don't believe we need to apologize for what we did:  we stole their land fair and square.  But if you believe we behaved civilly toward them, you need to think about it.

[PzLdr]

It wasn't Reno Custer sent for. It was Benteen. And Frederick Benteen HATED George Armstrong Custer. He hated him for his higher rank [Benteen had been a Colonel or Brigadier in the Civil War, and fought with distinction]. He believed Custer had abandoned Maj. Joel Elliot at the Washita, and hated him for that. He hated Custer for the other officers in the regiment he favored over Benteen. Benteen wrote anonymous articles about the Washita in eastern papers to undermine Custer. the only reason he [and Reno] commanded columns at the Little big Horn was seniority.

Reno had been ordered to charge the village. He disobeyed that order when he halted, dismounted and set up a skirmish line in a field south of the village [depriving himself of 20% of his firepower - horse holders]. He was driven [for want of a better word] from there to the woods along the river. When Bloody Knife had his head blown off next to, and brains splattered on, Reno, Reno lost it and “led” a route across the river and up to what is now Reno’s Hill. Most of the men in his unit were killed during that retreat, or by being left behind in the woods.

Benteen had been sent to the west, and it was to him Custer sent Giovanni Martini with the famous “Come Quick..’ note. To say Benteen moved with anything but alacrity would be an understatement. Autie reed, a civilian, and Custer’s nephew was with Benteen. He left Benteen when the latter got the written message. Autie Reed died with his uncles. Benteen stopped on the way to water his horses, and never pushed his column. When he got to Reno’s position [Custer was no more than a mile or so away at the time], Benteen stopped, and disobeying his orders, reinforced Reno. Both reused to budge from Reno Hill at the request of Lt. Weir, and even when they heard heavy firing to the north.

[drzz]

Absolutely : if the settlers hadn’t won, they would have been anihilated.

The NA pledges of today remind me the pledges we can hear in the Arab countries. Same denial of the atrocities they committed, same will of re-writing history, and same support coming from the stupid lefties...

[drzz]

DAMN IT, YOU KNOW ALL THE BATTLE, THAT’S TRULY AMAZING !!

CONGRATULATIONS !

I know well the story and I am pleased that you know it well too.

Yes, Custer was betrayed!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKeTsG2JpQA

[PzLdr]

‘Nother typo: “reused” [in last sentence] should be “refused” [spell check does have its limits].