The world of those interested in the subject is divided in two great factions , the pro-Custers and the anti-Custers. For the former, he was a hero who was unjustly criticized and who has gone down in history gloriously and even betrayed in various ways; For the seconds that even question his previous actions and his judgment in years as distant as those of the American Civil War (for example Trevillian Station) he was a vain and cruel incompetent.
On Sunday, June 25, 1876, Custer divided his regiment into four parts (always including the mule train guarded by Company B and reinforced by 5 men from each of the other 11 companies), he first sends Captain Benteen (who has hated him since Major Elliot's death at the Battle of the Washita) in command of a battalion made up of Companies D, H and K on a mission of recognition towards his left flank (there were no witnesses who could refute Benteen's thesis). What was the object of it? some believe that it was trying to locate General Crook's column, others that he did not want to find Indian villages behind him once in action, and then there is the "official" Benteen version that he simply ordered him to scout to the left... In second place and somewhat later in their march towards the big town (in fact at least six towns that for once were located contiguous) another battalion under the command of Commander (Major) Reno stands out with companies A, G and M with explicit orders to charge into the village; this time there is NO doubt about the order. The mule train with the extra ammunition and supplies closes the column at a lower speed (and is the fourth portion of the force).
Custer, in command of what would be almost two battalions (Keogh and Yates) plus HQ, decides (in accordance with the cavalry tactics of the time) to support the attack by the south of Reno taking over the natives from the east (the arrival of General Terry's column was expected from the north). In Commander Reno's court-martial (requested by himself to clear his service record of the slander of the written press) he always said that Custer's promise It was that he would give "support" to his attack with all the rest of the troops, which in fact "directly" did not happen.
It should be clarified at this point that the tactics used by the natives until the battles of Rosebud (which took place 7 days before and where General Crook is repulsed in his advance by Crazy Horse ) and Little Bighorn were dilatory and evasive, the great concern of Custer or any other commander was that the "Indians" did not vanish over the horizon, and much more in summer when their ponies were operational and more mobile than the mounts of the regular US Cavalry. Hence the obsession to surround the hostiles and prevent their escape.
Custer's death at Little Bighorn
We defend the thesis that, contrary to popular perception or official myth, Custer was not one of the last to die, but was wounded in the chest when trying to cross the river at the beginning of his action. In fact, this conjecture would explain his battalion's confused performance and why they didn't retreat like Reno did. It's not that Reno's performance was without flaws, that he was, but that's not the subject of this essay.
If Custer, wounded, is moved to the rear from the ford, one can understand the lack of coordination of the battalion of Keogh left behind to link with Benteen ( "Big town, bring the ammo, be quick!" as Custer's last known message went), it can even be argued that if there really was an attempt to reach the edge of the town, the man in charge was not Custer but Tom. Custer (attempting to link up with Terry or capture the old men, women, and children), Keogh is unaware of Custer's injury until it is too late to assume command of the battalion, and he remains stationary in the position that was dubbed the South Skirmish Line ( South Front Skirmish Line). The troop accumulates on Last Stand Hill for lack of any other order than to protect their wounded commander, and it does not matter if the coup de grâce to the temple is given by Custer himself or by his brother Tom so that he does not fall alive. in the hands of the natives.
This theory would explain why Custer, realizing of the real size of the "town" and realizing that the Indians are going to fight instead of fleeing, and given the disproportion of forces and respective mobility, he does not withdraw towards Keogh and then towards Benteen and the supply train to organize a defense once once the initiative of the attack was lost. Reno, when his situation became untenable, did more harm than good with an inferior force and initially facing the entire Indian host. The "paralysis" of Custer's battalion can only be explained by the breakdown of the chain of command and the loss of time that makes withdrawal impossible.
Custer has the combat initiative until, suddenly, it disappears or is taken from him, in fact, the 7th Cavalry it was more a unit of dragoons than cavalry proper (that's why they left the sabers behind), they arrived mounted to combat, but they fought dismounted, no one at the battle of the Little Bighorn gave a cavalry charge, not Custer, not Reno, much less Benteen who finds Reno in shock and his battalion in disarray. Benteen saved the remnants of the regiment during the sunset, the night and the next day... but he will always be remembered for not following a peremptory order from his direct commander:"BE QUICK!" (Come quickly!). His decision to stay with Reno and his subsequent timid advancement in the direction of Custer's fight (quickly aborted) and initiated by an insubordinate Weir in command of D Company, doing so on his own initiative, is debatable to say the least. .
Hollywood and a host of books on the subject have led us to believe that if he wasn't the last to fall, Custer was one of the last. If that were true and we analyze "his inactions" in this case taking into account his enormous command experience after four years of brilliant career in the Civil War and his ten years of fighting on the prairies, the location and passivity of his direct command is incomprehensible.
Evidently there are books that defend this thesis such as Custer Went First of K.G. Lundmark, recently published in the US, but there are earlier ones, has always been a high point of the why? Custer believed that the natives were going to scatter andrun away instead of fight and he used the tactics that worked for him at Washita (but at a gallop and without prior scouting). His obsession was to be the first to achieve a victory over the hostiles, and evidently this influenced the final massacre of his direct command (not waiting for Terry, not believing what his indigenous scouts warned him about the size of the concentration of Indians and to a certain extent an excess of pride and aggressiveness combined with the absence of support from Benteen).
What Custer did not know is that these same hostiles had met and defeated General Crook's column (a week earlier), that their morale was soaring , that Sitting Bull's prophecies reaffirmed this morality, and that they were willing to fight for their homes and families. The fact that on that day the concentration of villages in one place gave the hostiles an overwhelming numerical superiority and also their ponies were fresh and allowed them to exploit their internal lines of communication did the rest.
In my opinion there was a Last Stand it was Tom Custer's Last Stand , as corroborated by some testimonies from the participating natives. But it is still just another plausible theory.