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To: sphinx

"Interesting. Can you elaborate or do you have a link? I am not a close student of the battle but I always took the conventional view as fairly plausible -- namely, that Custer brought the head of the column off the bluff down the ravine to the river, commenced skirmishing, and tried to fall back to the high ground when Indian numbers became apparent. His battalion was pursued, flanked, and swamped in line of march, with the various companies dying more-or-less in place (with the last survivors, of course, making a break for it)."

No, I don't have a link, although I suspect others participating in this thread do. I would suggest you hit The History Channels website on this topic.

The same forensics used at a modern day crime scene were applied. The results are simply amazing. The investigators indentified several dozen different weapon types used by the Indians in this battle, which completely and forever has changed the modern view of what actually happened.

In one segment, they show using a computerized map of the battlefield the movements of several of the Warriors, and the Troopers, based on matching the fired cartridge casing found on the field.

I found it very compelling, others have a differing viewpoint. Thats what makes it fun to discuss.


106 posted on 06/25/2004 9:58:57 AM PDT by Badeye ("The day you stop learning, is the day you begin dying")
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To: Badeye
I was aware that the forensic study demonstrated the Indian's firepower advantage, which seems to have been the big surprise.

Did the study also address the various reports of suicide by the trapped troopers? These have occasionally stirred controversy, although I find the tradition of saving the last round for oneself eminently sensible when fighting an opponent prone to torturing prisoners to death for entertainment.

108 posted on 06/25/2004 10:03:54 AM PDT by sphinx
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