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To: ijcr

Add Chief Low Dogs account of the fighting and that of Custer's last dispatch rider and Reno's and Benteen's men and one has a much better history than the silly forensic studies. For one thing cartridge cases were used on the battlefield witing 20 years of the "Last Stand". There was instant nostalgia and a battlefield reunion only ten years after the battle.

The nearest telegraph key in the Dekotas pushed 50,000 words of news of the battle in less than 36 hours as the battle was fought in the age of electronic communications. Mrs. Custer lived to see the battle depicted by Hollywood in silent films and she lived on into the sound film era as well.


38 posted on 06/25/2004 8:13:54 AM PDT by Monterrosa-24 (France kicked Germany's teeth out at Verdun among other places.)
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To: Monterrosa-24

"....and one has a much better history than the silly forensic studies. "

You obviously didn't see the program referenced above. Because of those "silly forensic studies" we now know how the battle initially began (to the spot within three feet). We know the Indians had far superior firepower on that day, which wasn't known, nor appreciated fully by historians and military experts until the past three or four years.

We know how each seperate "group" fell back, moved forward, and when the end was obvious, exactly where Custer's last remaining troops (about 25 - 35 from what I recall) attempted to seek an escape route.

Finally, these "silly forensic studies" took down a half dozen "myths" that were accepted by historians as "fact"....such as when Custer was killed, flow of the battle, etc etc etc.

Eye witnesses are to be viewed with extreme caution in any situation. Those that are "handed down" from generation to generation lose so much in each retelling they are impossible to rely on. Thats true of witnesses today as it was in the 1800's.


51 posted on 06/25/2004 8:37:41 AM PDT by Badeye ("The day you stop learning, is the day you begin dying")
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