Ford B area ride - video

[herosrest]

Ford B area ride - video

[johnson1941]

Simple enough.

When Custer hit MTC from Cedar he had 3 choices…make a left and go down and around near the mouth, go right and see what’s up there (Indians apparently), TRY to get across onto NC.


Some points made by those there…

Sheridan RCOO
Q) Following the banks of the ravine from “B” did you notice the approaches to it?
A) Yes, sir, I went down the ravine on what may be known as the left bank of it, I suppose two miles, and then crossed it.
Q) There are bluffs on the right bank following it from the mouth up?
A) After you get above the mouth 30 or 40 yards it would be difficult to cross it till you went up nearly two miles, it had steep cut banks.



He Dog
They kept right on down the river and crossed Medicine Tail coulee and onto little rise. When Custer passed near to Ford B, he was moving as though to reach the lower ford of our camp.


Herendeen RCOI
Q) Do you know whether there was a ford there?
A) The next year there was a good ford there, right in the vicinity of the mouth of the creek.
Q) A command moving in from above there, how would it get to the place where the bodies were found afterwards, with a view to getting a good route?
A) It was easy only at one place where the creek came in, and they could cross at the mouth of it where I was myself.
Q) From your knowledge of the country, from the point where the commands separated, what was the probable route of General Custer, or have you any idea in regard to that? What trail do you think he took, and did he come to this watering place, or strike the river lower down?
A) I should think they would come to the river to get around easy. There was a swale that led to the creek and then they could follow the creek down.



And that’s exactly what at least some portion of the command did. Seems there was action at ford b maybe not because Custer wanted to force a fording there, but because once in MTC, it was the…openest way to move further north.

A brief repulse, per lots of witnesses, a move north to the flats and along GGR, following the line originally thought.

[herosrest]

^Ducemus

Curtis route. That skirts the mouth of North Medicine Tail onto the west flank of that coulee and I assume, went some way to disguise the command.

There is a Deep Ravine in the jumbled terrain at the mouth of North Medicine Tail which is now disguised by the culvert carrying the road. It is deep enough that riders could enter it under cover from the river bench.

Curtis route

Mouth of Nth Medicine Tail (Google Map)

Hostiles filtering into Deep Coulee (Nth MT) through the culverted ravine, were under cover and cutting off troops to the west.

Images on Friends site, from 'Dick Harmon waiting for Phil Whitlow to find something'. above 'Custer's Cartridge?' paragraph and images.

Custer went up Greasy Grass Hill. Now, how do you think companies further back towards NC reacted to those at Deep Coulee being cut off?

You're sold on Cedar Coulee but we can get into it later.