The Gatling Guns presence or absence on the battlefield will long endure as a controversy. Having read dozens of books, including reprints of participants involved (via inexpensive electronic editions), Custer’s decision to leave them behind because they would have slowed his column makes sense to me. However, if they slowed the column, the battle may have happened a day or two later, if at all. Also, Custer’s tactics were offensive in nature, while the Gatling’s power was in the defense. The only position where, IMO, the Gatlings would have been useful was in the Reno/Benteen defensive position established after Reno retreated back to the bluff position where the pack animals were located. Visiting and walking the battlefield is on my ‘bucket list.’
“Visiting and walking the battlefield is on my ‘bucket list.”
You need to go. It’s truly an amazing place - pretty eerie too near the Last Stand Hill.
If you ever go, I highly recommend going to Pompeys Pillar. It’s not far from there and it’s a big massive rock where Lewis & Clark left graffiti on their cross-continental trek in 1806.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pompeys_Pillar_National_Monument
Well worth the visit. I went there on the 101st anniversary of the battle in 1977 and no one else was there, just my wife and I. The museum was closed too. We walked down a ravine to the river and saw numerous headstones where soldiers had fallen all the way from the river to the hill where the main part of the battle took place. It was a profoundly moving experience to see it in person.