You call him a brilliant tactician....after THAT statement??
Brilliant tacticians do NOT engage overwhelming forces, given the option, and he had MANY options.
Civil War exploits aside, his actions at Little Bighorn were deplorable.
I have walked the ground, and have many books about the battle, including "Crimsoned Prairie" and "A Terrible Glory", and "brilliant tactician" is not a valid descriptive, indeed quite the opposite.
Bad intelligence.