Posted on 06/25/2007 6:45:11 AM PDT by drzz
In Memoriam: Custer's Last Stand, June 25, 1876
Private William Slaper : «Each man had secreted himself behind a slain horse. »
Lieutenant Charles DeRudio: “The horses were laying as if to suggest a barricade.”
Lieutenant Luther Hare: “The evidence on the Custer field indicated very hard fighting.”
__
Reno court of Inquiry: “In regard to the severity of the fighting on General Custer’s battlefield, did you see any evidences that there was hard fighting there, or the contrary?
Lieutenant Godfrey: “I think there must have been a very hard fighting.
Reno court of Inquiry: “You think there was a hard struggle?”
Lieutenant Godfrey: Undoubtedly, there was a very hard struggle.”
__
Lieutenant Edgerly: “I believe Custer fought very desperately.”
Lieutenant Edward McClernand, of Terry’s column: “Horse remains in a 30-foot diameter circle not badly done, evidently used as breastworks.”
Lieutenant Edward McClernand, of Terry’s column: “(The Custer Hill stand) showed more care taken in deploying and placing men than was shown in any other part of the entire field – including, of course, Reno’s several positions.”
Thunder Hawk’s wife: “It was quite a fight” (on Custer Hill)
Wooden Leg could see “that all the soldiers were killed except for a band that remained hidden behind their dead horses.”
Flying By: “(the stand) was made in the place where Custer would be killed, down at the end of the long ridge.”
Flying Hawk: “Custer made a stand on his hill.”
Gall: Gall neared the end of the ridge where the last soldiers were making a stand. “They were fighting good” he said.
Lights: he could see the soldiers who had fled the Keogh fight joining those making the stand on the hill.
Two Eagles: The most stubborn stand the soldiers made was on Custer Hill. From his position a short way north and west of that point, Two Eagles noticed the hilltop was very level and the soldiers took the spot to continue their defense. (…) “They were killed on top of the ridge” Two Eagles declared.
Red Hawk: The bluecoats were “falling back steadily to Custer Hill where another stand was made”, said Red Hawk. “Here the soldiers made a desperate fight.”
Two Moon: (…) Two Moon turned back to watch the fight. (…) The “grey bunch" was still fighting.
Standing Bear: Moving north along the ridge to where he could see better, Standing Bear noticed dismounted soldiers holding their horses by the bridles. “They were ready for us”, he said, and they began to shoot, “the bullets were just raining”. (…) Bear Horn rode up too close (to the last stand) and was himself shot down.
Iron Hawk: On Last Stand Hill, Iron Hawk saw about twenty men on horseback and about thirty men on foot. “The Indians pressed and crowded right in and around them on Custer Hill” But the soldiers weren’t ready to die. Said Iron Hawk,“We stood there a long time.”
Big Beaver: Big Beaver crawled back down the coulee to put a bit more distance between himself and the deadly soldiers bullets. (…) The Indians were rushing toward the hill where the soldiers were making their desperate fight.
http://www.custerwest.org
Ok, sorry, you’re dumb and I don’t want to waste time with someone who doesn’t even knows a clue about his history. Go to McDonald’s and let the adults speak for you.
Hello
All what you’ve read is false. see http://www.custerwest.org
1) Custer wasn’t a criminal, never massacred Indians. (see the Battle of the Washita)
2) Custer was one of the most brilliant cavalry generals of his times (see Custer in the Civil War)
3) Custer understood how to fight Indians (see the Battle of the Washita, the Battle of the Littlebighorn pages -LBH-)
4) Custer never underestimated his enemy at Little Bighorn (see “before the battle”).
5) The Indians at LBH were 1’500, exactly the number of warriors Custer expected to fight. There has never been “thousands of Indians” in Sitting Bull’s village or “an impossible victory” as some still say without knowing what the evidences say.
6) The Indians never ambushed Custer, never flanked him. They were surprised by the attack and most of their actions were late and disorganized.
7) Custer’s troops were not all massacred. 2/3 of Custer’s troops, who had to lead front and flank attacks, were out of the battle after 30 minutes and never reached Custer. This military betrayal by Major Reno and Captain Benteen can be proved with evidences shown on this website. It also explains why the army never did any inquiry on the battle, and let the American public dream about the “reckless Custer”.
8) Custer’s attack at Little Bighorn hasn’t been condemned by every military expert, but analyzed and supported by such figures as US general in chief Nelson Appelton Miles, the most successful Indian fighter of US history, and many historians and others.
Been there myself, same situation, and felt the same.
Hello
I didn’t say that Indians weren’t good warriors, but they weren’t good UNITS. Their organization was poor, because of tactical freedom (each warrior could decide to follow the leader or not)
Black Kettle’s involvment in the Kansas massacres was clear and he himself admitted it on November 20, 1868. The “Dog Soldiers” sermon was given by the people who loved Black Kettle and showed him as a peaceful buddy. His own co-chief Little Rock even described the crimes in numerous details
Today is this country’s Little Big Horn as the Senate gives amnesty to 12 to 20 million illegals who will be joined thereafter by tens of millions more. Only this time Custer in the form of George Bush is helping the Indians.
Custer, imo, was no traitor. Bush is.
I don’t agree with the amnesty - Bush didn’t stand for what he had promised... Custer did.
Benteen and Reno were traitors - they helped the Indians doing their bloody job
I admit my ignorance to the actual/factual history of this battle. It’s been so long ago that I learned this in elementary school (like eons)....do you have any good book/author recommendations? I want as historical account as possible. Thanks.
Prefer Montgomery? Hell NO! Worse than Patton, in many respects.
Actually, all of the best generals in the European theatre were German and Russian, if you ask me. The best American general was MacArthur, and he fought in the Pacific.
“He knew that quickness and agressiveness was the key of the cavalry.”
True, but then again, Patton never got the opportunity to practice that dictum on the scale he would have liked to. By the time Patton gets into the war, in both North Africa and France, the time for blitzkreig-type, free-wheeling operations is long gone(with the single exception of the envelopment of the Germans at Falaise). As the campaign progressed, Patton came up against fewer German armored units (with fewer machines), and the terrain became increasingly unsuitable for those types of operations. Very often, due to the superior tactical air support given Patton’s forces by both the IX and XIX Tac Air forces, Patton’s men hardly ever SEE, let alone fight, a German tank.
My complaint, vis-a-vis Patton is that the historical record doesn’t jibe with the official propaganda. Patton is stubborn, arrogant, consistently underrates his opponents and overrates his own abilities. He never faced any of the “A” List German commanders (Rommel, Guderian, Manstein, just to begin with), and the only time he ever faced a German Army on anything like equal terms was in Sicily. When an operation is to be undertaken which corresponds with Patton’s own ideas of how the war should be fought, or if it a plan of his own device, Patton is enthusiastic, hard-charging and on top of every detail. When the assignment comes from above, and it does not involve the application of his unique talents (pursuit), Pattopn drags his feet, does not take personal interest and leaves it to subordinates who he very often criticizes openly and in the most derogatory terms, and who he makes no bones that he has not the slightest confidence in.
The Patton legend is (mostly) a creation of the press, and is not borne out by his performance on the battlefield, given the circumstances as they existed in 1944-45.
A very colorful and entertaining character, but a real question mark as a general.
Everything, aside from what did happen, is conjecture but the totality of the military experience with Plains Indians suggests that if Custer had more men with him he would have won. It could have been a dozen or a hundred or two hundred to tip the balance. The Indians could be courageous but were not famously in favor of dying. Most likely just the approach of Benteen or Reno would have sent them flying.
I've been a member of Mensa for decades. Sorry that having someone disparage your adoration of Custer causes you to resort to histrionics.
The Indians, especially Black Kettle, had learned the art of playing the Whites off against each other. There was no doubt that his camp was a refuge (on the Washita and Sand Creek) for the murderers and rapists. Black Kettle could not have delivered peace even if he truly wanted it. He did not want peace, he just did not want to be attacked.
as far as i know i never said that he wasn't a competent cavalry officer (though most historians do not credit him with being particularly INTELLIGENT).
he WAS a STONE BIGOT & HATED Indians. personally, i think he got "what was coming to him".
free dixie,sw
On the 10th of August, 1868, they struck the settlements on the Saline River. On the 12th they reached the Solomon and wiped out a settlement where the city of Minneapolis is now situated. In this raid fifteen persons were killed, two wounded, and five women carried off. On the same day they attacked Wright’s bay camp near Ft. Dodge, raided the Pawnee, and killed two settlers on the Republican. On the 8th of September they captured a train at the Cimarron crossing of the Arkansas River, securing possession of seventeen men, who (they) burned; and the day following they murdered six men between Sheridan and Ft. Wallace. On the first of September, 1868, the Indians killed four men at Spanish Fork, in Texas, and outraged three women. One of those women was outraged by thirteen Indians and afterward killed and scalped. They left her with the hatchet still sticking in her head. Before leaving, they murdered her four little children. Of the children carried off by the Indians from Texas in 1868, fourteen were frozen to death in captivity.
The total of losses from September 12, 1868, to Febuary 9, 1869, exclusive of casualties incident to military operations, was 158 men murdered, sixteen wounded and forty-one scalped. Three scouts were killed, fourteen women outraged, one man was captured, four women and twenty-four children were carried off. Nearly all of these losses occurred in what we then called western Kansas, although the Saline, Solomon and Republican do not seem so very far west now.
Horace Moore
You have the Indians all wrong. They were nice folks to have in the neighborhood. Custer had no damn business sticking his nose into Black Kettle's camp. Clara Blinn was living out her fantasies as a sex toy for her most recent purchaser. Little Willie Blinn was still alive so someone had given him a blanket; either that or he slept with the warm dogs. If Custer hadn't attacked, the Indians wouldn't have put a bullet in her forehead, scalped her and smashed Willie's brains out on a tree.
You can't fool me, I saw Dances with Wolves and read Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. What Custer did offends my sensibilities.
-- 
(Custer's life) 
(Little Bighorn federal side) 
(Little Bighorn, Indian side, very important book) 
(Reno's and Benteen's betrayal, the evidences)
MARTIAL MONK, you are just right ! Congratulations ! I’ve posted Clara Blinn’s letter on my website
http://www.custerwest.org
My God ! You are so right about Benteen and Reno !
After Little Bighorn, one became to overestimate the Indians. But real fighters like General Miles knew that the failure of the campaign was on the federal side, and it wasn’t Custer’s lack of judgment. Custer was on the way to have his greatest victory, but support never came.
“The Patton legend is (mostly) a creation of the press”
mmmmmm.... That’s the usual hatred from cautious generals against the ones who fight and win...
Patton was one of the best field commander. He was full of energy and it’s not surprising that many of his jealous comrades began to hate him...
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