The battle at Little Bighorn was 132 years ago today. This report is from The New York Times a few days later:
On June 25 Gen. Custer’s command came upon the main camp of Sitting Bull, and at once attacked it, charging the thickest part of it with five companies, Major Reno, with seven companies attacking on the other side. The soldiers were repulsed and a wholesale slaughter ensued. Gen. Custer, his brother, his nephew, and his brother-in-law were killed, and not one of his detachment escaped. The Indians surrounded Major Reno’s command and held them in the hills during a whole day, but Gibbon’s command came up and the Indians left. The number of killed is stated at 300 and the wounded at 31. Two hundred and seven men are said to have been buried in one place. The list of killed includes seventeen commissioned officers.
It is the opinion of Army officers in Chicago, Washington, and Philadelphia, including Gens. Sherman and Sheridan, that Gen. Custer was rashly imprudent to attack such a large number of Indians, Sitting Bull’s force being 4,000 strong.
Custer, often a reckless but previously a lucky commander, was to have his reputation rescued by what became the life-long work of Mrs. Custer.
Even then, the commie liberal media hated America, saying bad things about the heroic General Custer.
I took a photo overlooking the graves … you can see how far he got from reasonable cover. Up on a ridge, he and his men, all a-horseback, could be picked off like quail.
Standing there, one wonders: did he get bad intelligence, was he overconfident (as many were, believing in indian inferiority), or just plain stupid? I stood there for a long time, trying to figure out what he was thinking, to no avail. The mystery continues to beckon.
Then again, everyone talks about how Custer lost, more than how the Indians won. Superior firepower couldn’t make up the numbers for the outmanned 7th. The Indians used the newer weapons against Custer’s forces immediately upon capture, adapting strategy on the spot.
Most believe it was a flanking move — Reno attacking from the south directly into the Indian camp (on the other side of the river), while Custer hooked around from the east and north.
Custer had made the mistake of attacking without knowing where the enemy was (all the enemy) at least twice before in his career, both times to deadly consequences for his men (in the Civil War and at Washita). This time he was in the isolated troop.
Had Custer and Reno reversed tactical roles at Little Bighorn, and Custer survived and Reno been wiped out, none of us would know Custer’s name today.
Custer is buried at West Point.
I’ve read that if the Indian camp were populated with as many people today as it was on June 25, 1876, it would be the seventh largest city in Montana.
I’ll leave the above comment but a one word comment would have been sufficient to explain what Custer was thinking.
Hubris.