Posted on 01/21/2019 12:17:14 AM PST by vannrox
In most cases, movies based on real incidents tend to make those events more exciting. Not so in the case of Custers Last Stand. Of course, moviegoers wouldnt likely want to see all of the scalping, animal killing, decapitation and other grim horrors of this battle.
There would not be enough time in these movies to allow for the minor but still intriguing facts surrounding Little Big Horn.
These facts and/or believed stories are well worth to read!
The Cavalry, armed with single shot carbines was no match against Native Americans with far more firepower. They were up against 100 repeating Winchesters and more Indian firearms numbering as many as 350 total. It was an onslaught they were unprepared for.
These Cavalry soldiers were possibly not all well trained. There were several minors that were not yet of military age among them, and several of the men found in archeological excavations were not in military uniform. Indian accounts of the battle describe the men as scared and in a panic.
By most accounts, many of the men ran away from the carnage to make defense farther up, and it was on Custer Hill that Lt. Edward Godfrey and General Edward McClerand (and later confirmed by archeologists) found the bodies of Cavalry men surrounded by a circle of dead horses.
On top of Custer Hill was a circle of dead horses with a 30-foot diameter, which was not badly formed. Around Custer some 30 or 40 men had fallen, some of whom had evidently used their horses as breastworks. General McClerand
Numerous dead horses were lying along the southwestern slope of Custer Hill. On the very top were found four or five dead horses that were swollen, putrid, and offensive, their stiffened legs sticking straight out from their bodies. Close under the brow of the hill several horses are lying together, and by the side of one of these Custer was found. Colonel John Gibbon
Crow Chief Plenty Coups had a vision as a child that if his nation was to survive, it would need to befriend the coming white man. He stuck to that his entire life, and upon his death in the 1920s; he donated his home to the National Park Service.
The Crow were originally from Lake Erie, but in the 1700s were pushed Westward by other tribes to first Manitoba, and then by the Cheyenne and Sioux into Montana. The Crow territory included Little Big Horn, and in 1851, that land was included in the reservation boundaries set by the U.S. government for the Crow nation.
For decades, nearly a century, before the formation of the Crow reservation and the Crows alliance with the U.S., the Cheyenne, and Sioux had been stealing Crow horses and warring with the less armed nation on a regular basis. They were, in a sense, bullies.
In 1868, after battling with the Sioux, the U.S. signed the Treaty of Fort Laramie, which gave the Lakota Sioux territory up to the crest of the Bighorn Mountains. The Sioux treatment of the Crow became worse, and in the two years leading up to the battle with Custer, it escalated and it further involved the U.S. Army.
The Crow did not have enough numbers to defend themselves and neither did the Army, but together they were better off. Sioux made numerous raids on the Crow and Army outposts, and the Crow would often sacrifice their warriors in attempts to recover stolen horses and goods.
Indian Agent Dexter Clapp began to plead with the government for assistance in helping the Crow. He said, As long as they are being driven from point to point, there is no use asking them to settle down and farm. Clapp himself, in the meantime, armed the Crow with guns and ammunition. The Sioux are now occupying the eastern and best portion of their reservation, and by their constant warfare, paralyzing all efforts to induce the Crows to undertake agriculture.
It wasnt only the Crow that were being pushed around by the Sioux; other nations included Shoshone, Blackfeet, and Arikaras.
During the battle, in addition to scalps, the Sioux took things from the soldiers bodies that intrigued them.
Watches were seen only as an object that ticked, and once the ticking stopped, they were mostly discarded. Black Elk says of one that he took from a soldiers belt It was round and bright and yellow and very beautiful, and I put it on me for a necklace. At first, it ticked inside and then it did not anymore.
They also found compasses and saw that the needle floated and moved when the compass case was turned. Because of their position to the bodies of the dead soldiers, the compass happened to point at the bodies. They concluded that the device was attuned to the soldiers, and thats how the white men found each other.
Paper money was of no use as it was seen as green art and was given to the children or thrown away. The wallets, however, were worth more and were kept an interesting and opposite perspective than ours, but probably more correct.
The Warriors also found flasks. They assumed the strong, burning liquid inside was holy water and that it was this drink that made the soldiers act strangely shooting at each other and committing suicide in panic.
After Custer himself fell, the remaining soldiers fled in a disorganized panic toward a stand of cottonwood. The stampede was such that an Indian warrior compared it with a hunting buffalo.
The white men went crazy. Instead of shooting us, they turned their guns upon themselves. Almost before we could get to them, every one of them was dead. They killed themselves. Wooden Leg
More and more soldiers were getting off their horses, preferring to hide or crawl along the ground . . . As hundreds of Indians surrounded this ridge, I saw one of the soldiers point his pistol at his head and pull the trigger. Others imitated his example, sometimes shooting themselves, sometimes each other. When Chief Lame White Man reached the soldiers, all of them were already dead. Indians then attacked the first ridge, and again, most of the white men were already dead. The only thing remaining for the Indians to do was pick up the abandoned guns and ammunition. Kate Bighead
There were, of course, horses at Little Big Horn, but there were also other animals pets among them.
Custer wrote home to his wife Tuck regularly comes when I am writing, and lays her head on the desk, rooting up my hand with her long nose until I consent to stop and notice her. She and Swift, Lady and Kaiser sleep in my tent. His dogs were trained to run alongside his horse that could be how Tuck died in the battle. The other dogs had been left at camp with their caretaker.
The horses have far stranger stories. Aside from the trench of horses mentioned above, there were mysterious horses like Little Soldier, the horse of Bobtailed Bull, an Arikara scout working with Major Marcus Reno. After Bobtailed Bull had died in battle, Little Soldier made his way over 300 miles back to his home in the Dakota Territory.
Another horse was found by General Godfrey on the Yellowstone River. It was missing nothing. It had its halter, saddle, and bit everything down to the oats to feed it. The saddle bags were empty, but the general was told that they did hold a carbine when first discovered. The horse had been shot in the forehead. There was no sign of the rider.
A horse that showed up in Canada after its sale by the Sioux was recovered by the Mounties, and after U.S. approval, the RMP superintendent, James Morrow Walsh was allowed to keep it. He named him Custer.
There are several paintings of the battle done by Indians, the most famous of which was done by Kicking Bear, a Sioux warrior and a later performer in Buffalo Bill Codys Wild West show. From his perspective, the central focus is himself, Crazy Horse, Rain In The Face, and Sitting Bull. It also features Custer and the departing spirits of the deceased.Red Horse pictographic account of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, 1881
Red Cloud also shared his perspective in a pictograph.
Captain Grant Marsh of the Far West Steamboat was the first to deliver the news of what happened at Custers Last Stand. His mission had been to take supplies to Custer, but instead, he ferried 51 wounded soldiers away from the massacre.
To do this, he had to drop some weight. Rather than drop the fuel needed for steam, or supplies needed for the men, he chose to drop $375,000 worth of gold bars on the shores of the Bighorn River. It has never been recovered.
If you visit the battlefield at Little Big Horn, there is a visual cue for gaining perspective on how the battle went down.
Each marble marker marks the spot where a soldier fell. Originally, they were buried where they died, but the bodies were moved later. The markers remain.
The places where the soldiers fell are marked with white marble headstones, so from afar you can get a picture of what the aftermath looked like.
Custers life is a mishmash of failure, brazen luck, and some success, but he wasnt the hero or anti-hero portrayed in movies.
He was known as a prankster at West Point and graduated as the lowest ranking cadet.
Most people believe he was a general, and he was for a while during the Civil War a Brevet Major General. After the war, the rank reverted to Captain and remained so for the rest of his career.
He was court martialed twice once for going AWOL to visit his wife.
During a campaign in Texas, the soldiers continually gave him gruff and balked at his discipline, and thought of him as a vain dandy. Custer was known for his appreciation of his hair and his attention to it with cinnamon oil for scent and other treatments.
Most of the legend surrounding Custer was embellished or even made up by Custers wife during speeches throughout her life, and by the shows put on by a friend and fellow soldier, Buffalo Bill.
Its amazing what modern archeology and good investigation can accomplish.
Studies underway at Little Big Horn Battlefield National Monument are so advanced that researchers can find a bullet on the ground and track where it was shot from, who shot it, and how adept at fighting the soldier was.
They conduct their research with metal detectors and microscopes and match firing pins to rifle cartridges. They are also working with new translations of Native American accounts of the battle.
Sorry. Not buying it. The fact he cheated on his wife would cost a modern day American officer his commission. I think it was General Reno Benteen , I could be wrong but one of his fellow generals said of him “I’m only too proud to say I despised him’’. You like Custer, I don’t.
1. His wife was Custers biggest advocate. So why are you holding a grudge that she did not?
2. Major Reno is a subordinate of Custers at the Big Horn.
3. Capt Frederick William Benteen was also Custers subordinant at the Big Horn. He commanded H company.
4. Custers military record speaks for itself.
To be honest I have no idea but I seem to remember it falls somehow to Congress to deliberate?
“...The fact he cheated on his wife would cost a modern day American officer his commission...I could be wrong but one of his fellow generals said of him ‘Im only too proud to say I despised him’...” [jmacusa, post 81]
And here I was suspecting your ignorance of USMA, ACW, and 19th century (US) history was wide & deep as it was - now you’ve removed all doubt. You are of course free to hold any opinion you like; convincing the forum that your opinion deserves to be taken seriously is another matter.
The first sentence I quoted is pure presentist bushwah. It’s a ploy often engaged in by Left-inclined academics, condemning individuals who lived long ago for failing to live up to modern “moral standards” - standards the Left sets and controls. Too cute by half.
There are no “facts” known about George Armstrong Custer’s infidelity, or lack of it. There are a lot of suspicions, rumors, and palaver by academics.
The words of one officer expressing dislike for another aren’t as significant as you think. I spent the better part of three decades on active duty, working with all ranks and all technical specialties from every US armed service department, most intelligence and security agencies, law enforcement, and personnel of a number of Allied nations; it fell to my lot to give technical advice to a great number of high-ranking individuals - very often, realities they did not like to hear. The one common constant among senior leaders in all these groups was their outsized egoes. And when they differed with another of their number, they weren’t shy about voicing their poor opinion of their opponent. They clashed more than they agreed. So the fact that someone said such words about Custer, wrong or right, deserved or not, is more in the nature of yawn-inducing than indicative of anything substantive.
Besides, what does Custer’s personal life have to do with is abilities as a soldier & commander? Claiming there is a connection here is also another Left gambit - one the Right keeps falling for, despite the fact that the Left doesn’t believe in it.
Sorry bud. You didn’t read the first part of the sentence. I said ‘’modern day’’ US officer. Custer was a bum. Jerkoff.
Hey, here’s a place you can start: Indian Country Today, 2/1/2017. Adrian Jawort.
“...You didnt read the first part of the sentence. I said modern day’ US officer. Custer was a bum...” [jmacusa, post 85]
I read all of your post.
Your take on Custer’s private life doesn’t matter.
You are using the “presentism” gambit: the conceit that there is only one standard of “morality,” which is agreed to by all and never changes. Honest historical researchers reject it outright and warn others to do the same.
Presentism is used by two types of people:
1. Those short on knowledge, experience, or smarts. They can’t figure out what’s going on.
2. Dishonest people.
“Hey, heres a place you can start: Indian Country Today, 2/1/2017. Adrian Jawort.” [jmacusa, post 86]
Thanks. I’ve read it on and off.
Tim Giago, the founder/publisher of the original print edition, is a well-known public personality in our area (western South Dakota). Can’t say what his connection is with the paper, just now. He’s blown hot & cold on a great many topics. Deserves credit for refusing to toe the (drearily predictable Left-leaning social-justice-uber-alles) party line on American Indian policies.
He owns no small store of courage; tribal feuds & disputes get really ugly on occasion but he perseveres.
One thing such publications are not really known for is any accurate take on military history, or current military affairs.
Uh, that’s General John A. Logan, not Custer.
I will charitably assume you just confused the phrase “native to” with the word “native.”
They mean very different things.
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