or he was named after it.
BFL
OMG.
By any objective standard George Armstrong Custer was one of the worst men ever to be commissioned an officer in the US Army. Reckless, frequently insubordinate, he cared little if anything for the welfare of his men and he was a serial adulterer to his long suffering wife Libby.
Custer’s widow was a master of fake news, presenting him as a hero and skipping his outright failure. Most people think of him as I did Lincoln and FDR in my ignorant youth. (Unlike my increasingly appreciative understanding of Washington.)
Imagine that. Not a white man among them.
Most of Custer's battalion died in, approximately, company formation, in a long skirmish line along the ridge. There is some intermingling as one would expect as a position collapsed, but the location of the bodies does not suggest panicked flight. The greatest degree of intermingling is on the highest elevation, which we know as Last Stand Hill. This makes sense; Custer would have headed for the high ground as things went south, and survivors of other companies would have tried to reach the last group of fighters as their positions were overrun. Custer's body was found on the high ground, although it is often suggested that he may have been killed or severely wounded earlier, down on the ford. We don't really know when or where Custer was hit, and this point still draws conjecture because it is relevant to the conduct of the 7th Cavalry's battle.
The Indian description of panicked flight may be a reference to the Reno fight. Reno had crossed the river with three companies and hit one end of the village while Custer's column moved along the ridge on the far bank. Reno quickly discovered that he had kicked a hornets nest and was fighting the whole Sioux nation, while Custer's men were nowhere to be seen. Reno gave the order to withdraw to the cottonwoods along the river, though in fairness it seems that every man in his command had reached the same conclusion independently; they were running for their lives from a hopeless skirmish line in the open ground back to the cover of the trees. The survivors regrouped in the woods and fell back across the river to a convenient bluff, where they were soon joined by Captain Benteen and his command. This half of the regiment held out until relieved when the Terry-Gibbon column arrived
The subject of cavalry troopers shooting themselves sometimes comes up. Some of them probably did. The Indians routinely practiced torture, and they were good at it. Some gruesome samples were found on the battlefield, including dismembered remains of some men -- three if memory serves --who were unfortunately enough to have lived long enough to be taken back to the village. The principle of saving the last bullet for yourself is found in many armies with experience of fighting natives who liked to finish enemies slowly. As Kipling put it, "When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains …."
It was Reno’s detachment that ran for the trees. Custer was in a completely different part of the battlefield and probably still alive at that point.
Well that was a worthless article.
Frank Finkel?
"Days after the disaster, Finkle reached the confluence of the Rosebud and Yellowstone rivers and put his dying horse out of its misery with a single pistol shot to the head. Lieutenant Edward Godfrey of the 7th Cavalry found the horse in August and realized that there had been a survivor."
Survivor Frank Finkel’s Lasting Stand
There is a reason that both sides took things to the extreme. It was a battle for existence in the eyes of many. We have have come a long way from those days, despite the left wanting all of us to relive those battles today.
To hell with them.
"A Fate Worse Than Death" - Stories of captives of Native American Tribes
I believe this is the authors blog, but the book is available on Amazon. I have a copy. It relays the horror of torture in excruciating detail.
Not mentioned is the fact that many of the soldiers under Custer’s command were recent immigrants who did not speak English. They were Polish or from other Eastern European countries.
“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.”
I’d bet that by 1876 most Indians knew what alcohol was.
Custer was born in Michigan.
Doesn’t that make him a “Native American” too?
BKMK
Custer wrote articles for a hunting magazine. He boasted about perfecting the technique of shooting a buffalo with a pistol on a dead run. What he didn’t mention was that he shot 2 horses out from under him in perfecting the process.
One interesting thing I heard several times during military history and strategy classes was that Custer had two horse-drawn Gatling Guns available to him, but left them at the fort because he thought they’d slow him down.
Bet he regretted that decision later on.
Also, on the monuments at Little Big Horn listing the Indians killed there, is one brave named “Plenty Lice”.
Bet he was really popular.
How did the Indians obtain their superior firepower?
Bttt.
5.56mm
Custer was brevetted to Major General of Volunteers in 1864. In 1866, he reverted to his permanent Regular Army rank, Captain. Shortly thereafter, the Regular Army reorganized, and Custer was appointed as the Lieutenant Colonel of the newly raised 7th Cavalry. Since the Colonel of the 7th Cavalry never joined his command, serving on other duties, Custer commanded the Regiment. Most West Point graduates and Regular Army officers had similar stories, they served with the Volunteers in much higher grades and had to go back to their Regular Army rank when the war was over.
Brevet rank was usually awarded for performance in combat, recipients were entitled to the title, by courtesy, and could wear their Brevet uniform. This reads like most pirate stories, short on facts.