Thank you for your posts.
Question : Crook lost a battle earlier apparently forcing him to stop. Was Crook in violation of orders from Miles to proceed north to support the three point attack ?
Were Crook’s losses ( real and imagined ) so bad that he could not proceed north ? Crook went fishing instead ?
I must admit that I do not know what Crook's orders were or his motivation. My interest in "Custer's Last Stand" was strictly that of hearing the stories as a kid and from a military point of view. Looking closely it was a brilliant move by the Sioux/Cheyenne warriors. Regarding Crook... I did read somewhere that Sheridan once said that Crook had a "tendency to be selected in obeying orders and even then he dawdles like a kid on his way to school on a warm day".
Crook is hardly the first to be on the receiving end of that complaint with similar results.