Where was the "good" ground

[Jas. Watson]

I have ridden up to the top of that hill and I do believe it would have been defensible as it is the highest point around within Henry rifle range. However it is quite large around the military crest and his troops would heve been spread mighty thin defending it.
But the bigger problem with that hill is the total lack of access to water.....

[harpskiddie]

The water factor is the ultimate limiting factor to any of the high ground from MTC to Hwy 212. If you can defend the ground and keep your horses protected, then you have no access to water. Godfrey mentions a spring somewhere north and east of MTC, and he has it marked on his map just above "Custer's Route" as it passes the Calhoun position. I was there [or thought I was] and couldn't find it. Maybe it was a bad year, or maybe it had dried up in the intervening 80 odd years.

Jas. - you'll probably have been in that area, and know that it is not a good defensive position, even with a supply of water. It is subject to fire from virtually any point around the perimeter.

If Custer had forted up down near the river, even supposing he had the psychological makeup to do that, he might have saved a goodly portion of his command; but if the Hostiles had gone the way they eventually did, he could have kissed his career goodbye. And there's nothing to say the warriors wouldn't have burned him out while keeping up a goodly fire from above.

I think that once he lost the initiative, and there were many reasons why this happened, and was on his own, he was done for. Whichever way he attempted to go, he would have been beset by the crowd of warriors. The monument would simply have been put up in a different location.