Off Topic Custer Discussion

[historyman]

Custer and his men at Little Big Horn

The biggest problem with Custer's defeat at the Battle of Little Big Horn Creek was the timing. It was actually a huge win for the Sioux and Sitting Bull in the midst of many defeats. Custer's discovery of roughly 1,000 Sioux braves at an Indian village on the banks of the Little Big Horn Creek in Montana about 65 miles from Billings happened on June 25, 1876. This was roughly 2 weeks before the Centennial of the United States on July 4th, 1876. This is like the Fall of Saigon happening 2 weeks before the Bicentennial. Custer took a little less than 300 men against these 1,000 Sioux braves who were induced by their Medicine Man, Sitting Bull, to resist the US Army and take a stand no matter what the later cost. This took Custer by surprise because the other Native American tribes had all been giving in to US demands because the saw that the inevitable of being driven to reservations was eventually going to happen. Ever since the discovery of gold in the Black Hills of South Dakota it was deemed necessary to round up the Sioux and northern Cheyenne into reservations and kill all Native Americans who didn't agree to be held on the reservations.

What the defeat of Little Big Horn did was ruin the Centennial celebration along with bringing in Colorado as a state on August 1, 1876 (the Centennial State) which was very close to the area where the Sioux were proving troublesome. Custer just made a calculated move that drove the US into a deep despair and ruined many Centennial celebrations across the land. 

[LaPorteAveApostle]

Custer just made a calculated move that drove the US into a deep despair and ruined many Centennial celebrations across the land. 

It also ruined Custer's day too

[historyman]

Custer just made a calculated move that drove the US into a deep despair and ruined many Centennial celebrations across the land.

It also ruined Custer's day too

In 1991 President Bush had the name changed from Custer National Battlefield to Little Big Horn National Battlefield. The purpose was to also honor the Native Americans who fought for their nations that day. What is true is that Custer was a glory seeker who sacrificed his men and himself for greater glory. He did not make a good military decision but he was following orders that all Native Americans outside the reservations were to be killed. Sitting Bull was one of the first during that time to create a following among his people and a few other tribes to have the spirit and numbers to take on the American troops.

[setshot]

A good read IMO is "Son of the Morning Star - Custer and the Little Bighorn." by Evan S. Connell. I believe Connell may have won a Pulitzer,or was nominated for one. Enjoy!

[historyman]

from wikipedia:

The assessment of Custer's actions during the Indian Wars has undergone substantial reconsideration in modern times. Documenting the arc of popular perception in his 1984 biography Son of the Morning Star, author Evan Connell notes the reverential tone of Custer's first biographer Frederick Whittaker (whose book was rushed out the year of Custer's death.)[61] Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote an adoring (and often erroneous) poem.[62] President Theodore Roosevelt's lavish praise pleased Custer's widow.[63] Connell concludes:

"These days it is stylish to denigrate the general, whose stock sells for nothing. Nineteenth-century Americans thought differently. At that time he was a cavalier without fear and beyond reproach."[56]

President Grant, a highly successful general, bluntly criticized Custer's actions in the battle of the Little Bighorn. Quoted in the New York Herald on September 2, 1876, Grant said, "I regard Custer's Massacre as a sacrifice of troops, brought on by Custer himself, that was wholly unnecessary – wholly unnecessary."[64] General Phillip Sheridan likewise took a harsh view of Custer's final military actions. General Nelson Miles (who inherited Custer's mantle of famed Indian fighter) and others praised him as a fallen hero betrayed by the incompetence of subordinate officers. Miles noted the difficulty of winning a fight "with seven-twelfths of the command remaining out of the engagement when within sound of his rifle shots."[65] The controversy over blame for the disaster at Little Bighorn continues to this day. Major Marcus Reno's failure to press his attack on the south end of the Lakota/Cheyenne village and his flight to the timber along the river after a single casualty have been cited as a causal factor in the destruction of Custer's battalion, as has Captain Frederick Benteen's allegedly tardy arrival on the field and the failure of the two officers' combined forces to move toward the relief of Custer.

"When writing about Custer, neutral ground is elusive. What should Custer have done at any of the critical junctures that rapidly presented themselves, each now the subject of endless speculation and rumination? There will always be a variety of opinions based upon what Custer knew, what he did not know, and what he could not have known..."
—from Touched by Fire: The Life, Death, and Mythic Afterlife of George Armstrong Custer by Louise Barnett.[64]

In contrast, some of Custer's critics, including Gen. Sheridan, have asserted at least three clear tactical errors.[citation needed]
First, while camped at Powder River, Custer refused the support offered by General Terry on June 21, of an additional four companies of the Second Cavalry. Custer stated that he "could whip any Indian village on the Plains" with his own regiment, and that extra troops would simply be a burden.
At the same time, he left behind at the steamer Far West on the Yellowstone a battery of Gatling guns, knowing he was facing superior numbers. Before leaving the camp all the troops, including the officers, also boxed their sabers and sent them back with the wagons.[66] On the day of the battle, Custer divided his 600-man command, despite being faced with vastly superior numbers of Sioux and Cheyenne.

The refusal of an extra battalion reduced the size of his force by at least a sixth, and rejecting the firepower offered by the Gatling guns played into the events of June 25 to the disadvantage of his regiment.[67]

Custer's defenders, however, including historian Charles K. Hofling, have asserted that Gatling guns would have been slow and cumbersome as the troops crossed the rough country between the Yellowstone and the Little Bighorn.[68] Custer rated speed in gaining the battlefield as essential and more important. The additional firepower had the potential of turning the tide of the fight, given the Indians' propensity for withdrawing in the face of new military technology.[citation needed] Other Custer supporters[who?] have claimed that splitting the forces was a standard tactic, so as to demoralize the enemy with the appearance of the cavalry in different places all at once, especially when a contingent threatened the line of retreat.