little big horn

I believe that Custer's critical error was in trying to do both a hasty attack and a deliberate attack. he did this by sending Benteen off on a scout while sending Reno on his charge. If Custer needed to know if there was another village then he should have waited. If he didnt have time to wait for the info he should not have tried the scout in the first place.

 

From what I have read on Custer, I think the fool felt that he was immortal. He made many hasty decisions without much planning and thought process. Look where it got him too.

 

Of course when one considers the cumbersome Gatlings of the day, probably wouldn't have made much difference in the long run. They were more like large artillery pieces than machine guns. They were left behind for the simple reason that including them would have slowed the march to the point he wouldn't have arrived as planned. Of course everything else had messed up the timing anyway, so he probably still would have arrived after the southern force had been repelled and turned back.

Custer made any number of errors, of course he was using his past experience with the plains tribes as his guide, and this time they didn't break camp and try to run away using a fighting retreat strategy as most had in the past. Custer's ego, his past problems with a charge of "leaving his post" (which he did to meet up with his new wife), an investigation and suspension by President Grant, his desire for a MoH to rival his siblings (Tom Custer had two) who were with him and also perished. It has been rumored George A. also had political ambitions, not too far fetched in the time-frame and past Army officers making the change to politics. His loss of his war-time brevet promotion didn't sit well, and he was back to Lt. Colonel BTW and wanted that star back. One more heroic triumph in the west might turn the trick.

 

Custer should have kept his Regiment together; he could have still split it into four Battalions:


Yates: E, F & L Companies (120 men)
Keogh: B, C & I Companies (118 men)
Benteen: D, H & K Companies (117 men)
Reno: A, G & M Companies (126 men)


That would leave the pack train with about 80 Troopers, and his RHQ of another 15. There was still Varnum and Hare with the Indian Scout detachment.
Custer could have attacked the village with a two pronged attack, each attack containing two Battalions (six Companies each) and have a fall-back position on high ground containing the pack train and a medical area.

Yan.

 

The only thing that would have saved Custer and the 7th Cavalry that day would have been to do the smart thing and retreat. The thought of Custer sharing the glory of this with Benteen OR Reno (especially Benteen) is non-existent. Custer hated Benteen, a feeling which was more than mutual, with a seething passion and thought Reno a drunk. The 7th was not the crack band of warriors that history has made them out to be. They were young (average age of about 22) poorly equipped, poorly fed, poorly trained immigrants. I have read in some cases men had less than 10 rounds of practice on their .45 Springfield carbines that they took into battle. They were also out gunned. Battlefield forensics have found evidence that hundreds of Henry repeating rifles were used by the Lakota/Cheyenne warriors, effectively putting an almost 3-1 firepower advantage on their side. The cavalry of the time was set up to still fight standard European style battles of standing armies fighting it out. Skirmish lines set up when troops dismounted and lined up approx. 5 yards apart...their horses being held by a 4th man, behind the skirmish line which did nothing but cut down the effective firepower of the entire unit by 25% The 7th fought a defensive battle from almost the very start, with Reno's attempted attack turned back within minutes leaving Custer's men coming in on Medicine Trail coulee to face an overwhelming force. The historical picture of the last man fighting to the last bullet on Last Stand Hill is a fantastical tale but entirely untrue. The last men of the 7th died running terrified for their lives in Deep Ravine, where they were picked off one by one from warriors on all sides. The battle of the Little Big Horn was over the moment Custer rode into that valley. No gatling guns or unified Regiment would have saved him.

 

He wanted the women and children, the Reno attack was to draw out the warriors from the village and Custer was to cut behind and capture the non-coms, where Benteen was in this senario is open to debate, after his scout west Benteen was to re-enforce Reno, the scout west was to scatter any satilite villages. Once the non-coms were capture the warriors would be compelled to surrender.

 

His orders were to find the camp and lead the main column to it, although his orders did leave a little wiggle room for him to strike on his own. brndirt1's and luketdrifter's assesments are the correct ones. I would only add that a cavalry officer of the period had a unwritten expectation to act agressively if nothing else. Thought smarts usually trumps agressiveness every time.

 

Did you know he was supposed to have taken four (?) Gatling guns with him on that trip?

Didn't the Gatlings end up with Terry's column, which was intended/hoped to coordinate its advance with Custer's? Terry's was a mixed group of cavalry, infantry, and IIRC a few cannon; while Custer's all-cavalry force was intended to move more rapidly.

 

There is some debate over the break out from last stand hill to deep ravine, there could be a claim that very few men made it to deep ravine and that the troopers where from E Company, the got separated from F Company and Custer’s HQ and when they lost their horses they fled to deep ravine and killed.
Custer was also offered four extra Companies from the 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] Cavalry; he turned them down saying he wanted the mission to be a 7[SUP]th[/SUP] Cavalry affair only.

 

It was not a break out...it was a panicked flee. Custer was an arrogant, glory chasing fool and his troopers died because of it. He wanted the glory of a complete victory so he could ride it's coat tails into political fame.

 

Here is a link to a new PBS episode on Custer, very interesting all in all as it shows how his own ego comes to the fore and how it might have quite easily "biased" his opinions and actions.

Goto:

Video: Custer's Last Stand | Watch American Experience Online | PBS Video

 

Study the battle of the Wabash in 1791, St Clair tried to fight indians , The indians surrounded his camp and virtually wiped out 60% of the American force. Of the 1900 Americans 800 were killed as well as over 300 wounded, 200 camp followers were also killed. A much bigger defeat than Little Bighorn. The Worst defeat of American forces to Indians in US history.

 

I have read a little on Wabash...it gets no attention anywhere, you are right on that.
Clint thanks for the great link to PBS!

 

If you calculate the casualties as a percentage of the US Army it was the worst defeat of all time. In fact I don't think the US army has taken even close to that level of casualties in an entire war (percentage wise).

 

Custer died for your sins - white men.

 

Perhaps, but he also personified another thing besides "sin", i.e. greed.

 

My Great Grand father, Sgt Thomas Scott, was in the US Army and took part in the Sioux
Wars, although we don’t have very many details.

My last wife is Assiniboine (Sioux), her Great Grandmother (who I met in 1977) was a child in the village. She had relatives fighting in the battle and remembered from the standpoint of a bystander.

I am a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation so ancestors of my sons fought on both sides during this war.

“Custer was a pussy.” Sam Elliot as SGM Basil Plumley, We Were Soldiers

 

Nope.

 

Custer died as of result of his own ideology and hubris, not "sin".