Agree.... Lack of proper tools to counter superior numbers at the little big horn fight makes one appreciate the mere firepower a modern fire team can present.
Time machine tactics weighed with just a simple what if....
Stay safe !
The gatling guns would not have made much difference because the terrain would have made it difficult to bring their superior firepower to bear.
The popular movie depiction of hordes of mounted Indians swarming the soldiers at the top of the hill is incorrect. That swarming only happened at the very end of the battle when most of the soldiers were either dead, wounded or out of ammunition.
While it’s normally true that whoever has the high ground has an advantage, that wasn’t the case at this battle. The slopes leading up to the top of the hill were not smooth, flat and uniform. They were full of little gullies and depressions which provided sufficient cover, and the initial waves of attackers dismounted while out of range and advanced on foot or crawling from cover to cover all the while picking off the cavalrymen with their superior rifles, as noted up thread.
Custer’s men were above them, just below the crest of the hill, in a concentrated area with almost no cover but the bodies of their horses. Most of the battle was a brutal process of attrition against desperate exposed troopers expending their ammunition against stealthy, difficult to see attackers with superior weapons and terrain advantage.
The gatling guns would not have had many exposed targets, but the gatling operators standing up would have been extremely exposed to Indians shooting from prone, relatively concealed positions.
I spent most of a day back in the late 1980’s walking the battlefield all the way from the Reno-Benteen camp to the last stand site, and talking with the guides about how things went down. I remember thinking as I stood at the last stand site that if I’d been one of Custer’s men I’d have probably fragged him for leading us into such murderously indefensible death trap... /grin
I remember an old episode of, (I believe it was and circa 1961 or so), the original ‘Twilight Zone’ where a tank crew out on maneuvers in the area of the battle were somehow transported back in time to the fight. IIRC the 3 soldiers, along with their tank, were armed with .45 auto feeders and M-1 carbines. Interesting episode to say the least.