Posted on 06/25/2019 7:36:18 AM PDT by Red Badger
Thank you very much, schurmann. Your knowledge is impressive and appreciated.
I believe the calvary opposition during the battle was along the river and up a small hill. Maybe not suitable for positioning those guns.
Your archeologist doesn’t have a clue.
“The Command and General Staff College have been conducting staff rides of the Custer Battlefield for years. I participated in the first one, consisting of senior officers and the late Congressman Ike Skelton...Before setting out that morning, most of us agreed with your assessment. Interestingly, when the staff ride had been completed, most had revised our conclusions...remember that the enemy gets a vote...” [centurion316, post 26]
Covering that ground with Ike Skelton must have been a real treat. One of the better Congressional Reps and a strong advocate for the military.
I recall reading someplace that Army War College did something similar: a sand table exercise, with names, dates & locations sanitized. Supposedly, students started out with the same notions you & fellow riders did, but ended up making pretty much the same decisions as did George Custer and fellow officers that day in June 1876.
“I believe the calvary opposition during the battle was along the river and up a small hill. Maybe not suitable for positioning those guns.” [morphing libertarian, post 164]
Small hills are no part of the terrain there.
The land on east side of the river rises in bluffs that top out 50 to 150 ft above the floodplain; a great number of gullies and washes are cut back into the upland territory from the river. Pretty much infeasible to get any artillery train to the area from the southeast, or to move emplacements about the area. Gatling guns were no smaller nor lighter.
Plus, hardly anyone had worked out just how to use what few rapid fire arms existed in 1876. Repeaters were newfangled and unproven: Plevna was still more than a year in the future.
I guess that was what I was referring to as hills. i was at the site and remember it was not entirely level. We started buy the center and went out and down a decline where some markers indicated where items were found. Maybe they would have pout the guns up on the bluff and waited there?
A few bits of info:
The replacement rounds were brass, not sure how they were manufactured, probably bored.
It appears that the cavalry was issued carbines which shot 45-55s rather than the normal 45-70 cartridges. The sticking cartridges were handled with a ramrod which was underneath the barrel.You simply popped the stuck cartridges out when they jammed.
The copper cartridges also frequently corroded and the resulting jams were described as much like gluing the cartridge in the breech.
THE CARBINES ISSUED DID NOT HAVE RAMRODS. They used their knives as previously stated.
The Army specified that the an enemy would be engaged at long distance which continued until after 1945. Hence the move to 1500 yard sites a bit later.
Fire rate for inexperienced soldiers was 8 rounds per minute, for experienced personnel, 18 rounds per minute. I can speak with authority when I say that their breeches were smoking hot, probably over 200 degrees.
The need to pry a cartridge out frequently would probably cost 4 to 5 rounds per minute, serious decrease in fire power.
Your archeologist doesn’t have a clue.
“The best read on Isandlwana is “How can man die better””
Sounds interesting. Just ordered a copy.
Lefties HATE Custer and the men at the Alamo.
And your evidence is . . . ?
Don’t say Indian interviews
Has nothing to do w political viewpoint.
Actually he rejects Indian testimony.
I am not aware of the War College doing a Custer Battlefield Staff Ride. What you describe is the standard format for all staff rides done by CGSC and the War College. Custer Staff Rides have been done on horseback, an option added by I Corps at Lewis McChord Joint Base.
There is LOTS of evidence.
This has been studied for years.
Your archaeologist crap contradicts most of the evidence.
Don’t say academic archaeologist a century+ later.
you will be find it fascinating. Good section on how effectively the Zulu army was organized and lead. Dispels lots of myths surrounding this battle.
Lt Col Snook also wrote about Rourk’s Drift. The title is “like Wolves on the Fold”. Like his book on Isandlwana
he shoot holes I lots of myths about that battle. Particularly targeted is the misrepresentations of several of the participants by the movie “Zulu”.
What evidence. Specifics.
Forensic evidence is forever. Ask all the people now being freed on DNA evidence.
Indians lie. Soldiers lie or forget.
That’s your job, not mine.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.