It may not have been his mistake at Little Bighorn. I just read that the Army sent investigators to Little Bighorn and they found many, many knives with broken tips beside the soldiers as well as rifles that had jammed. I don’t know whether it is true but the article said that the army had issued .45-70 cartidges with copper cartridge cases rather than the normal brass. Afterwards the Army replaced the copper cases with brass and never had the problem again.
I am still trying to find the committee report. It may shed some light on the battle.
oh... the problem appeared to be that the copper cases jammed in the breech due to heat and the normal way of unjamming the rifle was to pry the cartridge cases loose with a knife point. Hence the broken knife blades.
It certainly wouldn’t be the first or last time our soldiers have received less than adequate arms.
I believe the original M-16 was a real pig in the earliest months of vietnam till corrections were made.