OK for Custer then it was OK for Benteen

[mcaryf]

Hi Crzhrs

Benteen was definitely ordered to attack any Indians he came across and he would be supported (sound familiar?). Blaque has some good quotes from Gibson that they were supposed to go to LBH valley where they certainly should have seen Indians to pitch into. At the time Gibson thought he had got to the LBH valley but in fact he had not.

Regards

Mike

[elisabeth]

So, more if onlys. If only they'd had a scout with them, he'd have got them to the right valley. And then how differently things would have played out ...

[mcaryf]

Hi Elisabeth

I do not think that was one of the real "if only's". The problem was not finding the right valley but being able to get to it in time from where they started. The problem seems to me that Custer sent Benteen to the left too early leaving too much rough country to traverse before he would get to the LBH valley.

In practice to execute Custer's apparent strategy it would have been better if Benteen had retained the lead position in the column, crossed the river where Reno did but then swung out to the left whilst Reno took his original route. There is no real need to delay so that Custer can get into position on the right because he actually could have been there in time if he had not delayed so much during his bluff traverse. Then Benteen and Reno attack simultaneously and Custer comes in from MTC 15 minutes or so later. Could well have been enough to shatter the confidence of the warriors and precipitate a retreat. I do not think the Indians would have been defeated in the sense of a forced surrender but the cavalry might have destroyed a lot of materiel and caused a flight towards Terry with further possibilities for the army.

Regards

Mike

[elisabeth]

Sorry, Mike, I must have misread your post no. 75. I thought you meant that if they'd seen the right valley they'd have seen the Indians and acted accordngly -- i.e. attacked straight away.

You're right, your plan would have worked far better. Is this yet another case of generals "always fighting the last war"-- Custer having been once bitten by satellite villages at Washita, obsessing about them again now despite all the evidence that there were more than enough Indians to his north?

[blaque]

Elisabeth,
As to Custer’s Washita obsession, I agree with you that it was there, on the LBH. But I don’t think Custer was concerned by the possibility that any satellite villages could threaten his regiment’s left flank or rear. He knew that the main village (or villages) was 12 or 15 miles northwards, with over one thousand warriors who were the real threat for his attacking regiment. I think his fears were with the packtrain: war parties from a few smaller villages further upriver could well surprise the train and during the ensuing fight kill, seize or scatter a large number of mules. Then it would make a lot of sense if, to provide against this possibility, Custer instructed the leftmost part of his attacking force (Benteen) to do his utmost to prevent any wandering warbands from fleeing past his left, as then they could put the mule train in jeopardy. Hence Gibson’s words about his reaching high points in the hills “to ascertain if the Indians were trying to escape up the valley of the LBH"; and also his rendering of the gist of Benteen’s orders as to drive the Indians down towards the location of the village (i.e. northwards). If Custer did so, Cooke's Bring Packs note would make more sense.
By the way, there is another interesting speculation about Gibson. Nowhere in the short account of his scout does he mention that he was sent with a 5-men detail in advance of the column; but we know from Benteen, Edgerly and Godfrey that he did lead a reconnaissance party. So, what if he was he referring to himself and his party when he wrote the following?: “In case no Indians were seen up the valley, we were to hurry back and reform the command as soon as possible”. Wild speculation, of course, but it’s strange that the pronoun “we” is ever present in his narrative, as if the whole battalion was alongside him, sighting the LBH valley.
Tomorrow I start my vacations. See you all in September!

[Dark Cloud]

Except, I recall, that sentence is part of a paragraph detailing Custer's instructions to Benteen and his (Gibson's)part in it, but that still is NOT wild speculation, but a good point.

[mcaryf]

Does anybody know where on the Internet the whole text of Gibson's letter describing Benteen's mission might be?

Mike

[harpskiddie]

Mike:

I'll send you a transcription of Gibson's letter to his wife and also of Edgerly's to his wife, both dated 4 July 1876. Benteen's of the same date you can find conveniently in Graham's Myth.

Gordie

[mcaryf]

Thanks Gordie.

Mike