Post by elisabeth on Sept 12, 2007 7:51:34 GMT -6
Here's a fascinating report of Evans' Christmas Day fight in 1868:
digital.library.okstate.edu/Chronicles/v016/v016p275.html
It makes an interesting sidebar to Washita -- and to LBH too, in some ways.
Evans, operating out of Fort Bascomb, New Mexico, was one of the three prongs of Sheridan's 1868 winter campaign (Carr and Custer being the other two). The lack of co-ordination expected between the three columns here may throw a little light on the 1876 campaign, perhaps. There are other similarities, not least that here, too, the plan was to turn draught mules into pack mules. Evans doesn't seem to have had anything like the same trouble in succeeding with that as Custer did in '76; no dramas reported at all.
As the editor of this piece points out, Evans, like Custer at Washita, managed to surprise an Indian village. Similarly, he destroyed a vast amount of property. He didn't capture the pony herd, and his estimate of warriors killed is a modest 25 or so in comparison to Custer's claim of 103; but all in all, he seems to have done rather well. Yet he apologises contritely for the "failure" of his mission. Just goes to show, one feels, how much is in the spin ...
It's a very fine report, I think. Straightforward, business-like, painfully honest about mistakes and failings, and giving full credit to every subordinate who deserved any. Nice reading.
digital.library.okstate.edu/Chronicles/v016/v016p275.html
It makes an interesting sidebar to Washita -- and to LBH too, in some ways.
Evans, operating out of Fort Bascomb, New Mexico, was one of the three prongs of Sheridan's 1868 winter campaign (Carr and Custer being the other two). The lack of co-ordination expected between the three columns here may throw a little light on the 1876 campaign, perhaps. There are other similarities, not least that here, too, the plan was to turn draught mules into pack mules. Evans doesn't seem to have had anything like the same trouble in succeeding with that as Custer did in '76; no dramas reported at all.
As the editor of this piece points out, Evans, like Custer at Washita, managed to surprise an Indian village. Similarly, he destroyed a vast amount of property. He didn't capture the pony herd, and his estimate of warriors killed is a modest 25 or so in comparison to Custer's claim of 103; but all in all, he seems to have done rather well. Yet he apologises contritely for the "failure" of his mission. Just goes to show, one feels, how much is in the spin ...
It's a very fine report, I think. Straightforward, business-like, painfully honest about mistakes and failings, and giving full credit to every subordinate who deserved any. Nice reading.