Terry's and/or Gibbons infantry regiments

[Jimbo]

Most books & articles I have about Custer's Last Stand mention infantry troops that were with Gibbon's and/or Terry's columns but don't make any mention of actual deployment of any of the infantry soldiers during the subsequent battles. Is any info available regarding this? A rather new book out now about the history of Winchester's 1873 rifle by James Gordon, (esp. in regard to the Old West, Indian usage & the Little Big Horn battle). According to the author, any 1873 model, firing a 44-40 center fire cartridge made prior to serial # 18,500 range were produced & shipped prior to June 25, 1876 could have possibly been used in the battle. Some documented Indian guns are pictured in the book. I have heard of one that is in the 7,000 range, a pretty low number and rare. Usually , most of these located are pretty well used up & rather worn out, he says. Some are decorated with brass tacks. Several 1866 Brass frame Winchesters & Henry rifles, firing the 44 rimfire are documented as being used by the Souix, Cheyenne & Arapahoe. I understand that one 1866 Custer Battle Indian rifle recently auctioned off at a figure of a King's ransom. After extensive research, I discovered that, over the years, a variety of spent carridge cases were excavated in known Indian positions proving that the Indians had a substantial number of Winchester repeating rifles. Others were fired from Civil War Spencer repeating carbines & some other various firearms. There is no doubt that the 7 th cavalry was definitely out gunned during the battle, armed with only single shot 45-70 Springfield carbines and short range Colt Peacemakers and a limited supply of ammo. this disadvantage was compounded by the fact that the soft copper cased cartridges would jam in the chambers of the trap door breechblocks of many of the carbines after repeated firing - heating up , expanding, sticking & jamming in the barrels, with no means of extraction necessary in order to reload . I have heard that many dead troopers were found after the battle that had bloody fingernails. Not only was Custer's troopers outnumbered, but outgunned, to boot. THis fact was alluded to by some of the Officers that were testifying during the sessions of the Board of Inquiry after the battle.

[Steve Wilk]

I recommend the late James Willert's Sioux War trilogy: _Little Big Horn Diary_, _March of the Columns_ and _To the Edge of Darkness_ (if you can find them....they were recently republished ) which details the war day by day with troop deployments and such. The infantry continued to serve after Little Big Horn; with Crook's command and later Mackenzie. Col. Miles and his 5th infantry stayed active all through the winter of 1876-77; operating out of Tongue River Cantonment; harrassing the remaining Sioux and Cheyenne bands who had not yet surrendered. They saw action at Wolf Mountain and Lame Deer Creek, with some serving as mounted infantry on captured Indian horses.

As for the 7th being outgunned; much is made that the Sioux had repeaters. While these weapons may have contributed a shock value such as during Reno's "retreat" and perhaps at Calhoun Hill, their value I think has been overblown. These guns had an effective range of only 200 yds as opposed to the Springfield's 600; plus they lacked the penetrating power of the heavier .45-55 or .45/70. More importantly, a weapon is only as good as the person using it. Indians were notoriously lousy marksmen...they simply did not have access to scarce ammunition in order to take target practice. In addition, the typical plains warrior knew nothing of the required maintenance of the weapon, causing it to foul and misfire. Indians also would load the wrong size cartridge, causing weapons malfunctions.

"Strong Elk's firearm is a Winchester model 1866 .44cal rimfire, lever action rifle. He can load it with fifteen cartridges and outfire most current military firearms. The problem is that Strong Elk does not always have fifteen cartridges, so he carries the weapon for image rather than expectation of depending upon it in battle. ....This is Strong Elk's only mechanical possession and, having grown to manhood during the mid-nineteenth century on the plains, he knows little about its required maintenance. And since ammunition is scarce, he seldom practices with the weapon. Therefore, he is a mediocre shot at best. Some of his friends still prefer old muzzle-loading firearms, since bullets can be molded or most any small pellets can be rammed down the barrel and powder poured as needed." (LBHA Research Review, Vol 8 No. 1 Jan 1994: A Barnes King: "The Cavalryman & Strong Elk" p6)

Custer was not defeated because of Winchesters used by the Sioux. Remember at Weir Point when Edgerly asked a Pvt Sanders, who was laughing hysterically, what was so funny, he joked: "I was laughing to see what poor shots those Indians were; they were shooting too low and their bullets were spattering dust like drops of rain" Also recall Benteen strolling about atop Reno Hill, ignoring Indian bullets; he got his boot heel shot off, which would tend to sustain Sander's assessment. Had those been Nez Perce warriors, Benteen would have had something else shot off!

I've never read of the bloody finger nails....those bodies were lying for three days before makeshift burials. They were bloated and blackened. After death, blood pools in the extremities turning them black and blue. I highly doubt the burial parties were noticing bloody finger nails! The entire corpse was bloody after the mutilations.

The carbines jamming is also overblown. Very few of these weapons jammed, if they did it was because of verdigris forming on the copper cartridges, not a weapons defect. Troopers who did not routinely polish their ammo may have had this occur. Even if it did, that soldier could grab a carbine from a dead or wounded comrade and use it.

[Walt Cross]

The "heaps walking" as some Indians called the infantry, were used primarily to defend supply depots and camps. The Indians did respect them, one is supposed to have remarked after spotting Gibbons' columns that the "walks long soldiers" were coming and the Sioux feared them.

Custer’s troopers and several of the officers carried the Model 1873 Springfield carbine at the battle. A little over 41 inches long, it weighed nearly 7 pounds. This rifle fired copper cased cartridges .45 caliber, 405 grain bullet propelled by up to 70 grains of black powder at a velocity of 1166.6 feet per second. At 100 yards this bullet will penetrate more than 10 inches of white pine board.

On the open range the carbine far exceeded the range of the Indian’s bows and arrows and even their repeating rifles. But once combat got inside 300 yards, the long range advantage of the carbine was negated by the rapid fire of the lever action repeaters favored by the Indians. This was a contributing factor to the overwhelming of Custer’s Battalion.

Walt