His very silence speaks

[herosrest]

^Ducemus

His very silence speaksComanche--the horse who survived Custer's last stand by Elizabeth Atwood Lawrence. Enjoy.

[Jenny]

Do you have an idea how many horses died at LBH? I want to include them in a painting, maybe by color.

Thx,
Jenny

[noggy]

Dec 31, 2022 20:12:34 GMT -6 Jenny said:

Do you have an idea how many horses died at LBH? I want to include them in a painting, maybe by color.

Thx,
Jenny

Good, question.

No

At least not for mye part. I'm the noob here, so I hope the veterans can contribute more. But it does allow for some mental exercise for mye part so I'll just think out loud. Some very rough math can maybe indicate "something":

- About 40 dead horses were said to be on LSH/Custer Hill. Theorized to have been shot by their riders to be used as cover. You can probably add a couple here and there around it.

- Benteen said he counted 70 dead horses "on the field". I'm not sure, but I believe this is does not include LSH/CH, as in probably meaning Battle Ridge(Calhoun Hill/the Keogh sector.

- Most who got out of the valley fight would have had their horses. Many of the KIAs were shot/knocked/pulled off their mounts according to Indian testimonies of the fight, so there wouldn't have been that many horses killed there. US casualties in the Valley were...30+ men and scouts?

So lets just say at least 120 dead with GAC and Reno's retreat.

But substantial amount of horses and mules were killed on Reno Hill, but I can't recall any numbers. There were more horses here than on the rest of the field, and clustered up as easy targets too but not possible to capture, so this is where the heaviest horse casualties would have been. If anyone has any data on this, I think you at least could get to a "just about" number (this is my trying to re-word Norwegian phrases into English again!). There are articles on archaeology done on "horse pits" and there is a horse cemetery, but the marker here does not mention members.

All the best,
Noggy

[Jenny]

Herosrest seems to have a lot of good info. Is there a way to "tag" him here for an opinion? I'm still learning how to use this site. Argh!

j

[tubman13]

Give him a PM.

Regards,
Tom

[Jenny]

All who are interested in horses that perished at LB, here's a snippet from a long piece by John Gray:

"The Battle of the Little Big Horn took a tragic toll of men and a greater one of horses, as the returns for June 30 reveal. Of officers and men, 253 rode to their death. Of public horses, 319 perished and 15 more were rendered unserviceable. In every company more horses than men fell (or were captured), leaving but 263 serviceable mounts for the surviving 344 officers and men. When these remnants marched from the field on the night of June 29 with the rescue column, 29 wounded men rode on travois and litters, but some troopers must have been reduced to shank's mare or pack mule."

And here's the link: www.kshs.org/p/veterinary-service-on-custer-s-last-campaign/13275

I'm hoping to find additional info about this by Elwood Nye.

J