Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Captain Thomas Weir, 7th Cavalry

Would you say the Indian's lack of coordination and cooperation is the reason they failed to reduce the Reno-Benteen position. From what I have seen when I've been there it looks like a coordinated attack could have taken that place in short order.

As I said earlier had the roles been reversed with 300 Indians defending that hill and 1000 U.S. soldiers attacking it would have been over quick.

Early bird, who can say? The only thing stranger than the reality we do know, is the reality that we don’t know!😀
The vid by Chris Hedges lead me to watch this one.

That’s causing me to reflect a little on many of the people I have come to consider heroes.
Was Custer a hero? Well, he was the 19th century equivalent of a movie star or a modern rockstar! Surely a flawed character, but larger than life. He was human, as are you and I.
I don’t want to get off this subject, lord knows I’m learning a lot about something I’ve been fascinated with for years!
But thinking about heroes provokes me to start another thread.😨
Reon

I’m inclined to agree, but I think maybe Sitting Bill held back.
He was pretty wise, and no doubt realized that this big win was going to cause way more trouble than it’s worth.
I think deep down, every Lakota or Cheyenne knew that their way of life was closing.
Many probably felt as some of us do right now with the decline of our country.
Sitting Bull probably realized that they had poked one helluva big hornets nest.
Reon

I reckon it had to do with Terry's column being spotted, and the Indians deciding to leave.

Terry’s column didn’t get there until the afternoon of the 27th. There was plenty of time for a concerted effort to overrun Reno Hill.
They’d surely have wiped out the seven companies there.
But as I said, they tended to avoid pitched battles, and even this being a slam-dunk, they knew that they would suffer many more losses by doing it.
And they knew as well that Terry and Gibbon were on the way.
Weighing the pros and cons, I think Sitting Bull decided against it.
Their blood was surely up. I’d bet dollars to donuts that the majority would have wanted Reno’s and Benteen’s hair.
It would’ve taken a strong leader to dissuade the people, and I think only Sitting Bull possessed that leadership.
Reon

Kinda schitty the way they killed sitting bull

Sitting Bull did not join in the fight, he stayed in camp with the non combatants. The presenters at LBH say it was on account of his age. Benteen was born in 1835. Reno was born in 1834. Sitting Bulls birth is reported variously from 1831 to 1837.

Maybe in the Civil War he was.
Not at the Little Big Horn, though.
In my opinion he was a selfish glory hound.
Ordering Reno to attack the south end of the camp and then abandoning him.
He used Reno as a diversion.

I didn't watch all the videos. But several years ago I saw a one hour program on tv, where there had been a fire at the Little Bighorn, and the ground was all cleared. A team of archaeologists went in with metal detectors. They didn't find many cartridge casings at Last Stand Hill, and so they declared that right there, Custer's men didn't put up much of a fight.

What the Phds overlooked, was one hundred years of souvenir hunting. When Terry's troops came in 3 days after the battle, and they saw the hill where Custer and Tom had been killed, you know some of those soldiers picked up cartridge casings for souvenirs.


There was another forum that I was on, a guy said that his dad and uncle went to Last Stand Hill, maybe in the twenties, and picked up a 5-gallon bucket of cartridge casings from Last Stand Hill and elsewhere on the battlefield.

These latter-day arechaeologists ignored a hundred years of souvenir hunting, therefore their conclusions are incorrect.

In a couple of the videos they said that the Indians that witnessed the battle said “ the battle lasted as long as it took a hungry man to eat his meal “. That tells me the battle was pretty lopsided.

He won’t no hero in the civil war

Since, Reno and Beteen’s men were stationery and had had a chance to get entrenched in their defensive positions, it was going to be far more difficult for the Indians to overwhelm Reno and Benteen than Custer. (During the night of the 25th, the men used canteen’s and spoons to dig slight impressions to hide in. In fact, some of those depressions still exist). With saddles and dead horses in front of them for protection and the men lying down, it was going to be costly for the Indians to mount a frontal attack. In fact, the Indians tried a charge and it proved costly.

Without water and the river being hundreds of yards away and hundreds of feet below and with the scorching sun, the better strategy was to keep the soldiers surrounded and take long distance shots.

And this is what the Indians did until Terry’s approach from the north.

I believe I recall earlier in a similar thread on LBH that Sitting Bull later said that if Reno had pressed his attack and held giving Custer time to actually attack the encampment that Custer would have carried the day.

"Hinde sight."

I read that description also. If true it didn't take long. Benteen said the bodies were scattered around as if you flung a handful of corn.

The physical evidence they are finding and cataloging is probably much better evidence than eye witnesses. My experience with eye witnesses is they are pretty unreliable. Any judge would likely tell you that. Not that they mean to lie but things get confused in the mind especially as time passes.To the Yankees he was. General Phil Sheridan held both Custer and Benteen in high esteem. I've wondered if he kept the two of them together to balance each other out as their command styles were very different.

No matter how much evidence you post, there are still those that won’t read it or just ignore it. All of these points have been covered more than once, providing plenty of evidence to the contrary…

What that dumbfck posts, ain't evidence.

Oh wow

Who is that dumb---?