Posted on 06/25/2007 6:45:11 AM PDT by drzz
We went about 10 miles on a dirt road to get closer to the Devil’s Tower. Had to see it after Close Encounters......
Custer wasn’t in charge of the men under his direct command.
400 men of his own regiment didn’t join him or support him during the combat.
As it turned out I think Custer did make a mistake in going in with a divided force, not that the division of itself would have been fatal but because Reno failed to hold a leg even if he couldn’t skin.
__
Lieutenant Edward Godfrey, Company K, 7th cavalry, after Little Bighorn
(Sklenar, Larry, To Hell with Honor, p.262)
What was Custer doing leading his men into the Little Big Horn that day?
Starting his presidential campaign.
I have a nice story about the Devil’s Tower. We were still on the road at night and we didn’t find any hostel. We just passed near the Devil’s Tower on 1 a.m. and eventually found an excellent ranch after having thought of sleeping in the car.
When we came back to Switzerland, everybody was excited about our picture of the Devil’s Tower at night... :-)
The presidential theory is an hoax.
Custer had freedom to pursue the Indians and get them if he could.
What screwed up that day was Benteen’s and Reno’s behavior during the battle.
Let’s see. I have 650 men. The enemy has 1,500 (although Custer may not have known this).
My plan to deal with being outnumbered more than 2/1 is to split my men into three roughly equal-sized groups, inviting defeat in detail.
Sounds like an excellent plan to me.
It was my impression that Custer’s men were uniformly equipped with single shot carbines.
The Indians also had carbines too but not to the same extent as Custer’s men did. They made extensive use of the bow and arrow.
Here’s another good map (it’s from the NPS’s web site):
http://www.nps.gov/libi/planyourvisit/upload/LIBImap1.pdf
Front and flank attack, movement, offensive, surprise.
That’s the way to attack a force in the cavalry, and that’s what Custer did. As US general in chief Nelson Miles and Confederate cavalry general Rosser said, the plan was good.
The front columns didn’t do their job, and the flank column, with Custer, was left alone.
On top of the mountain it was snowing. Fortunately, we trudged forward and eventually descended out of the snow. I was really scared for about 20 minutes.
In Red Lodge, a police cruiser followed us through the town. I knew he was there. I was doing 33 MPH after seeing a sign for 35.
On the other side of town he pulled us over and gave me a ticket for speeding, saying it was 25. The wind blew his hat off and he bent down in front of the car to pick it up. My 8 year old daughter yelled, "Floor it dad." Apparently he didn't hear her.
I had read a story just before our trip about a guy whose drug defense was that the Red Lodge police planted cocaine during the search of the house. All of his witnesses swore he never touched the stuff. All I could think of was that I was going to do 10 years in a Montana prison.
They had single shot carbine, Springfield, but long-range carbine, which was better than short-range repeating carbine used by Indians (to shoot while being mounted)
That’s an AMAZING story !
Thanks MplsSteve - that’s a great map with movement & position references. Good find.
Curiously enough in the annals of the French Foreign Legion, a platoon of Legionaires held off a huge number of Mexicans. (Emperor Maximillian"s brief reign). All wiped out. This is - or was, celebrated by the French Foreign Legion as a glorious thing annually
I cannot understand the derision of Custer. Oh, those darn historians- whatever suits 'em. (lol).
You can see on the NPS map that there was no “enormous village” with thousands of Indians, but only an 1.5-mile-long village with 1’500 warriors.
The specific number of warriors Custer expected to fight. His decision to attack was sound.
But Benteen and Reno didn’t do their job, as the testimonies show... http://www.custerwest.org
Excellent post, peter!
The Legion’s last stand was Camerone.
Custer’s decision to attack was sound according to everything: the enemy (the Indians weren’t as organized as we say today), the strength, the surprise (Custer achieved surprise), the location...
Custer acted well. But his subordinates didn’t. When Custer reached the village, he couldn’t believe that he could loose the battle. Everything had gone better than he expected.
That’s why so many lies were spread about Little Bighorn. The real responsible of the disaster, the traitors Benteen and Reno, couldn’t explain their actions, unless the village would be enormous and Custer’s decision to attack would be foolish.
131 years of lies and myth - and Custer’s honor tarnished.
I had a similar experience there in 1999.
He took my license and went back to his car. He then returned and gave me a warning. I was very relieved.
We spent the night along the interstate and left early the next morning.
In the panhandle, we went through a curve and there were two troopers in the median facing in opposite directions. One came after us. I knew I was going to jail.
He took my license and went back to the car. Now I knew I was a goner. He returned and issued me a ..................warning. I drove the rest of the way through Nebraska at 60 MPH.
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