“What happened? Why didn’t he retreat back towards Reno Hill after Yates’ failed charge of the village? Was he cut-off before that point? Did he really think his ~ 600 troops could subdue a village as large as it was rumored to be? Why did he refuse the 4 companies of the 2nd Cavalry under Brisbin?”
Probably pride.
Lot’s of things to reply to here. The Plains Indians at this point in time were maybe the best light cavalry in the world. They had better guns than the one’s Custer had. Certainly some had just bow and arrows and lances but some had lever action repeating rifles. Custer had single shot rifles with ammo problems, those rifles were good but no match for that day.
The Plains Indians adopted the “horse culture” very quickly after horses were introduced into the New World.
They were better light cavalry than Custer had.
The very large size of the village exceeded the average size of villages the cavalry were use to finding by 3 to 4 times. The warriors usually fought what we would call a delaying action while the women, children, old men quickly packed up and fled. The families began that packing up while the warriors rode out to engage the cavalry to “buy” them time, however the number of warriors was so much larger that they forced the cavalry into a defensive battle. The cavalry battle line, for Custer’s 5 companies, extended over a couple of miles and the Indians encircled those thin lines of defenders. See the book “Archaeology, History, and Custer’s Last Battle,” by Richard Allan Fox, Jr. for detailed maps of the battle lines for both sides. See also my post #54 for other titles worth reading.