Defensive positions or holding positions?

[trumpeter43]

I have studied this battle and participants for over 30 years. After continuous pondering why the troops were positioned where they ended up, it came to me that MAYBE, as many authors have said that as the 7th moved toward the village Custer was concerned that the Indians would run and get away. Thus Captain Benteen sent to the left.

Why then do the authors decide that all of a sudden Custer was not worried about the Indians getting away?

What if, after stopping at the first ford he sees Indians running North? Leaves troops to hold that ford and races to see where they are going and finds a North ford. Custer thinks the Indians are trying to escape using those fords and details his troops to block the fords figuring they are running because Benteen joined Reno and they are pushing the Indians North where they would run into Terry/Gibbon.

Sometime during this holding process he realizes they are not trying to escape but are attacking. Hears Calhoun or Keogh are having troubles and back tracks to last stand hill area and then runs into retreating troops from Keogh wing.

Just a theory that I haven't heard before. Just bugs me that Custer kept moving North without knowing if Benteen was actually coming to assist.

[shaw]

Trumpeter,

I don't want to speak for others, but this topic has been discussed in depth. Have you read some of the more recent threads about how the campaign could have been fought differently and about Benteen ( to name a few )?

Yes, Custer kept heading north. He kept dividing his force. Reno, Benteen, Calhoun and Keogh. It goes on and on until he finally finds what he is looking for. A ford where he can cross and corral the fleeing NA's. By then it's too late. Reno and Benteen are on a hill out of contact. Keogh and Calhoun are being overrun. I'm simplifying here. As Custer falls back to assemble his force the NA's close in and he is driven up to last stand hill. There are those among us who feel that Custer didn't realize that the end game was upon him until the last act in the play. He thinks Benteen is on his way to join him. He thinks Reno is holding position in the valley. He doesn't know what's happened to Calhoun and Keogh. As one poster do eloquently put it, he is looking for the battle he wants to fight versus that battle that is actually being fought.

Greetings,

Shaw

[quincannon]

The fords were insignificant as an escape route. Positioned as they were the Indians only had two choices as to routes to travel away from their present camps, with or without Custer, those being toward the southwest and the Big Horns, or north toward the confluence of the Big Horn and Little Big Horn Rivers, then onward.

The terrain to the east was much too difficult to give them an adequate jump start given Custer's presence in the south.

Custer's job was simple, keep them headed north and prevent them from moving southwest. He failed, and his whole focus on the eastward egress, if that is indeed what he was doing, per your suggestion, is like trying to unsuccessfully lock the barn door that the horse has no intention of using anyway.

[Beth]

I just wanted to add my greetings to a first time poster.

[quincannon]

Trumpeter: Do not confuse escaping the immediate environs of battle, with escaping from the Army. When you think about it, they are far different things. Had for instance upon seeing Custer's arrival, they all just picked up and scattered to the four winds with nothing but the shirt on their backs, it would have been a huge army victory, in that the ability to sustain war making would be lost for months to come. Were I Custer, that effort would have been encouraged and everything they owned that was left behind would be thrown on a bonfire.

Escaping with everything intact though is a far different situation, and Custer facilitated that escape.

[mac]

Trump
I love a good idea. Nice thought but as you see above it does not really work, especially in the light of this move by Custer leaving the option of western escape totally open and more attactive than the east.
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