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@bougeac great points, thank you. I believe Custer was ready for a tough fight and for casualties, thus the somber nature of the last few nights at camp, his asking the officers for their opinions (leading Wallace to wonder if Custer would die), the making out of wills etc. He had an interview before he left DC acknowledging there would be many Indians and this would be a difficult campaign. And while I think the nature of a Cavalry attack in these circumstances make it impossible to plan every outcome (as Godfrey points out), I think he was confident that if the leaders of his other columns, Reno, Benteen, and McDougal, led in a way Custer himself would lead, he expected a bloody win.

@bougeac I do not think the pack train was as far back as Benteen maintained. I think Reno ought to have held longer at the timber. Honestly, there is no way to know the other outcomes. Seems impossible that Custer could have caught the Indians unaware, but he did. If his other columns managed do what Custer intended, who knows if other "impossible" things may have happened as well?

@bougeac as always I value and appreciate your comments and insights!

Thank you so much, Bill. I agree. And I think modern students of the fight ought to read the Godfrey account carefully and give him the credit due. All best, Siobhan

@@redemptivepete I don't know for sure. Perhaps he was too ill from his own withdrawal from alcohol? I wish he had testified. It might have been the closure he needed.

@getoffenit7827 YES! Great run down on the impracticality of bringing them along. Thank you!

@Macbob-j6f All great points. But not all the Indians were part of a united front. Wooden Leg says how the warriors were about to flee when they thought Reno was coming out of the timber to charge-- and it was only when they realized he was retreating that they set out after him and slayed the soldiers like a Buffalo hunt (there was a reason there was the Army adage of "never run from an Indian"). And Sitting Bull gave an interview where he too said Reno was beaten by old men and "squaws" and should have stayed to fight. So while I think no matter what, there would have been heavy US CAV death tolls, I think the day would have been very different if Reno had held out longer, and Benteen, who was on a trajectory to meet Reno in the valley, had reinforced him there. Custer would have been at the other end of the village, at the Cheyeene camp, and even if he had trouble crossing, the show of force of the two columns would have exerted a different pressure on the braves and their families.

@@SiobhanFallon7 Not true on almost everything said in your post. Benteen was ordered to Custer's command, and had he not meet up with Reno his command also would have been wiped out as would Reno's had he not retreated. Reno could not hold out in the woods and for as him not meeting up with the warriors, old my God read the Indian account s and see who was in the Valley fight...hind Rain in the Face, Gall etc. and later Crazy Horse and his band which crossed the Little Big Horn and was hitting Reno's command from behind. Godfrey and Gall (due to Indian politics) both had many stories that changed views of the battle that did not happened at all, and which version of the Godfrey stories do you need broken down to show how wrong he was on the battle. Benteen by the late summer of 1876 had already said what the Indians would said of Last Stand Hill fight, it was 30 minutes. Mass panic hit Custer's command when the Indians charged Colhoun's company. The idea of Custer coming to capture the women and children was by many to explain why Custer did not support Reno, the women, old men and children fled to the west, northwest and north, they also took many of the ponies, which is why the mass mainly went to the west and northwest. Custer was going into the village to kill them all, men, women and children, but there are too many Indians already across the Little Big Horn for this to be a safe tactic. Custer did not understand the mass he was about to fight outnumbers him very badly. This is not 1867 and Indians mostly armed with bows, many have repeating rifles by 1876. Reno is down to 70 odd men unwounded, when Benteen meet up with Reno. Custer was dead when he started his command down towards the Little Big Horn.

@Tellgryn hi Tim. You can use Benteen's version of the fight if you'd like, and overlook how often he contradicted himself or changed his story or slandered Custer and most other officers in his letters. And how Benteen had a very real need to defend himself and villianize Custer as Benteen was originally implicated in Whittaker's biography on Custer and early call for a court of inquiry. Personally, if I am to choose Benteen or Godfrey's account, hands down I will pay more attention to Godfrey who had less skin in the blame game. As I said in my intro to this video, Godfrey was not always right, but his point of view is certainly a valid one and less colored by a lifelong animosity to Custer, which Benteen himself admits to feeling from the very first interaction with Custer when he joined the 7th. And how in the world did you come to the conclusion that Custer was "going into the village to kill them all, men, women and children" when there is absolutely zero evidence in Custer's career that he ever did such a thing? Of course, you know that it was Custer's command at the Washita that stopped the Osage from targeting the women. Custer knew this would be a hard fight. He didn't have the numbers but he was under no illusion this would be easy and he gave an interview before he left DC in May saying exactly that.

@Tellgryn when Benteen's column was back on the main trail, they could see soldiers fighting in the valley as well as those trickling up to the top of the bluffs. Benteen made the decision, with the help of Indian scouts, to go up to Reno Hill rather than join the soldiers who were left in the valley. If Reno had not fled, Benteen would have made a juncture with Reno in the valley. Also not sure where you got the statistic of Reno only having 70 unwounded men. He had the battle strength of 153 enlisted men when he was in the valley. Almost all of his casualties occurred during his retreat-- still, with the abandoned men below and of course the dead, 117 of Reno's column made it to Reno Hill (please see p 215 of Wagner's Participants).

@Tellgryn (Tim, when you come out swinging with the accusation "not true on almost everything in your post" you know I have to at least put up a defense 🤷🏼‍♀️😉🤣 )

@richanglin7994 very true!

@@freeesolo thanks so much!! 🙏💕

@bwm3013 thank you!! Really nice of you to check back in and tell me you noticed a difference. Please check out the more recent ones and see if I managed to continue fixing that! 🙏🙏🙏

I’ve watched a dozen or two of your videos, Siobhan, and really enjoy them. I just finished Libby Custer’s Boots and Saddles, which I know you use for reference. It is a good book, though the Appendix, a composition of Custer s letters, I found to be the most interesting. Keep up the good work!

@bwm3013 Thank you!! The index and end notes/ footnotes are often a treasure. The footnotes in Donovan's Terrible Glory are worth the price of the book alone!

@@M35kriegsmarine oh Marc, you are awesome

@@terry7893 😬

@@50Quid-d3x that'd be incredible!

@@SiobhanFallon7 It was epic. I had taken my father to the eye doctor across the street and while I was waiting I walked over and asked the lady at the ticket counter if I could go look at the John Clymer paintings and she said I could go back and look at them... that's when I stumbled upon the rifle factory and Gatlin Gun!

@50Quid-d3x wow, fantastic! Well done 🙌

@@SiobhanFallon7 Chief Washakie the great Shoshone Indian Chief, as an up and comming in the tribe wanted strength and wisdom to fight against the white European encroachment. So he journeyed to the Medicine Wheel set at an an elevation of 9,000' in the Big Horn Mountains... where he met a man with long brown hair wearing a seamless white robe. Who told him to make peace with the white people or they would genocide the entire Indian Race from the face of the earth. He further instructed him to travel to a place a great distance and locate a red sandstone rock and carve this stone into peace pipes and make peace with the white people. Thoes pipes are on display at Central Wyoming College in Riverton, Wyoming. When I was there... I sat next to a Shoshone Indian in my Calculus II class. At the end of the class on the last day we stood up and I turned toward him an asked: "Well, what grade did you get and he said: and he said "I got a B" So I said to him "Well if you got a B you are somebody and don't you ever forget it!" The story of Chief Washakie going to the Medicine Wheel is in a book in the college library.

@karlrohrbaugh4708 thanks, Karl!

@@rickster1957 Much appreciated, Rick! Please let me know if there are other videos of mine you've liked 🙏🎉

@biglaw6278 thanks so much!! My email is siobhan@siobhanfallon.com

@williamminamoto.7535 yes very true, great that you point out the back story of the 1873 crash and how that affected many decisions from Washington! It's so hard for me to cover everything (my videos would be hours long!), so I appreciate you chiming in and fleshing things out for us, William!

Thank you, Dave!!

@@keithagn 🤣 thank you, Keith!!

@harveygault1911 thank you!! Wow, Harvey, interesting point about the warrior garb. I have never heard that addressed before and will look it up!

@@Jay_Hall thank you so much, Jay! 🎉

@debpratt52 thank you, Deb! There are so many myths about the Little Bighorn. That's part of the fun for me, comparing the history with our modern assumptions. So good of you to take the time to comment!

@markmitchell4967 I agree with you, Mark. Godfrey does too 😉 So kind of you to watch and comment. Hope to hear from you again soon 🙏

@stanleypelcak1806 thank you, Stanley! Your kind words mean a lot 🙏

@richardprescott6322 Richard, I will see if I can dig that up!

I will ask my sister. Will let you know lass.

I think you have some very keen insights into Benteen's character. He was a very shrewd man, and a survivor. I don't think he would have deliberately let his friends die, but I think his grudges against Custer were on his mind, and he didn't mind Custer getting his butt handed to him. Of course no one could have predicted Custer was being totally annihilated.

Thank you, Richard! I don't know much about those conflicts but I will take a look!

Much appreciated, John 🙏🙏🙏

Great stuff, Gregory! Wow! I need to find the Terry letter to Sheridan you mention from June 21st!

@@SiobhanFallon7 You may be able to find a copy of the actual document here: Colonel Robert P. Hughes, “The Campaign Against the Sioux in 1876, found in the Journal of the Military Institution of the United States, Vol XVIII, No. LXXIX, January 1896. Hughes was a captain and Terry’s brother-in-law who served with him on the Plaines. Also, the government record depositories (Secretary of War Report) contain Terry’s numerous reports and may have a copy. I do have the transcript of the dispatch if you would like for me to send it. Terry's flawed plan would make a terrific video for you to pursue. The plan itself and Terry's poor leadership and disasterous decision making leading the Montana Column to the Little Bighorn was certainly a major factor in the defeat.

@@SiobhanFallon7 Following is a transcript of Terry’s dispatch to Sheridan: Dispatch to General Sheridan June 21, 1876 - Rosebud Creek Mouth “No Indians have been met with as yet, but traces of a large and recent village have been discovered 20 or 30 miles up the Rosebud. Gibbon’s column will move this morning on the north side of the Yellowstone for the mouth of the Big Horn, where it will be ferried across by the supply steamer, and whence it will proceed to the mouth of the Little Horn, and so on. Custer will go up the Rosebud tomorrow with his whole regiment and thence to the Little Horn, thence down the Little Horn. I only hope that one of these two columns will find the Indians. I go personally with Gibbon.” Roger Darling in his excellent book, "A Sad and Terrible Blunder” had this to say about this communique: “This is hardly the appropriate official language for launching 1,000 men into a major campaign maneuver. This remarkable wording conveyed little confidence in Terry’s strategic plan being a carefully crafted maneuver capable of accomplishing a well-timed and coordinated pincer [attack]. Instead, the message to Sheridan betrayed a superficial plan that Terry was trusting to luck.”

@@gregoryweis5836 Fantastic! Thank you, Gregory. I have the Darling book and will find this passage. So good of you to share with us.

@@gregoryweis5836 you (and Darling) are so right about this sounding rather slap dash 😬

Thank you, Frank! 🎉🙌

@josephinekush5056 Really? I didn't know that, George! His account moves a peg higher now in my estimation! I find myself returning to Godfrey again and again. You and I have spoken about this a bit, but at times Godfrey seemed like a bit of an odd duck socially. And he was critical in a way few active duty Army/ 7th Cav officers were. Not really pro-Custer or anti-Custer (though, yes, became a great friend of Mrs Custer). Wouldn't hang out at Reno's champagne parties in Chicago during the Reno Court of Inquiry. All this makes him more an objective voice in my mind. Ultimately, he was never caught in a lie or drastically changed his story as far as I have found. So good of you to watch and comment!

YES! All great points, Robert! 🙌🎉

Thank you, my friend!!

I agree with you!

Excellent points, thank you!

@patmckeane6588 always so good to hear from you, Pat!!

@@SiobhanFallon7 Thank you Siobhan

Didn't he!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣 Even when he was young. Ah the lost art of facial hair!

@@SiobhanFallon7 Yes but beards have come back a bit in Australia😄

Your correct my dad was there in korea …. He said he got sick of killing Chinese .. he said he killed so many he finally lost count … And yes he was keeping up with his count … back then he was a mean man who didn’t care to kill as many as possible… He also would sit down and have coffee with McArthur… he spoke to him on several Occasions mapping out potential assault targets and locations in Korea

@ltcol2005 hey there. Thanks for commenting. I have never found any evidence that Custer had a desire to be president. He was a poor public speaker, his wife did not want him to enter into politics, and he had a bad experience when accompanying President Johnson on his "Swing Around the Circle" tour. He saw his mentor, McClellan, fail in politics. He also would not have been back from the summer 1876 campaign in time to establish any sort of political bid. So I would love to see whatever evidence you have that Custer was interested in this presidential path?

Thank you for your absolutely amazing work….your work is valued more than you know 🥰

@ericstevens8744 thank you, Eric!! 🙏

@@gar9429 thank you!! 🙏 That comment makes the video worthwhile, Gar. Much appreciated.

@stevenvanover8773 Thank you so very much, Steven!

Read the book Lakota Noon

@ericstevens8744 yes, Michno's Lakota Noon is great.

@walterbrown9651 as always Walter, thank you!!! 🙏

You're the best, Joe

@patrickroy3380 aww Patrick, thank you! Glad to know you watched it more than once. 😊 that makes me so happy. My number on the last few videos are so low I'm considering throwing in the towel or at least taking a break from UA-cam for a little bit. These take so much work. I was home for a month in the states in August and didn't post any new content and it looks like my new videos are not getting pushed out to new viewers because my absence made me lose whatever bit of YpuTube traction i had built up over the past year. But the viewers I do have are incredible!!! Still my efforts (three new videos!) all posted in September are a little disappointing so I think I might just start doing one video a month and not worry so much about growing my channel, but just appreciate the kind and lovely people like ypu who continue to watch and chime in about my work 🙏💕🌏

​@@SiobhanFallon7 From what I know about UA-cam you need to post weekly and to be honest at least in my opinion I would keep everything on Custer's Last Stand or direct Association.

We need more of this fabulous woman and her fabulous work

@patrickroy3380 yeah, I know, hard to branch out if you want to draw in viewers not familiar with all in strange side stories and smaller controversies of the LBH fight. Once a week would be impossible for me 😬 Thank you for the advice and kindness. You're wonderful.

Patrick, I think we all love the painting, and yes, it is very inaccurate. I have 5 witnesses now that said Custer is killed at the Little Big Horn trying to cross, which lead to a major crisis in the command. I wish Rain in the Face would have been in the picture when he confronted Tom Custer. The terrain the command tried to defend is not defendable in any way and gave the attacker the advantage due to the nature of the terrain.

@@josephcreaden6281 aw, much appreciated, Joe!!

@@MaryAnnAngros-fq9yy he did!!

Thank you, Brandon! So glad you found my videos and I appreciate you taking the time to comment 🙏

@pigmanobvious ok!! I'll look into it!! And thank you! I might take a break for a little while. My last few videos are not gaining much traction-- I think because I didn't post when I was visiting the USA in August so I slipped down the UA-cam algorithm back into the unseen category 🤣🤦🏼‍♀️ They take so much work and time out of my life. I love them and the research so very much, but I think my stories are just too niche? As always thank you and who knows, maybe I will surprise myself and have another video up in two weeks 🤷🏼‍♀️

@anulfadventures yes, the painting really is incredible. All the different facial expressions and mini dramas occurring all over the place. The individuality of the dress and weapons. Libbie Custer, like Godfrey, also was said to cry when she saw it in person. I'd like to find the story of her reaction. It must have been very hard for her to see this. I have read that Custer divided up his columns / battalion strictly according to rank and hierarchy-- by the book. I wonder what any other officer of the 7th with Indian fighting experience would have done in charge of Reno's column. We know Varnum wanted to stay and fight and not leave the wounded. But terror is contagious, so who knows?

The colored flags are wrong. There is a yellow regimental standard which dates from the mid 1880's and a period-correct blue one, neither of which should be there! There is some debate as to whether the 7th took its Regimental standard on campaign at all, or did so but left it with the pack train. What there should be is Custer's personal flag: it was swallow-tailed of equal horizontal stripes of red over blue with two crossed white sabers in the center. This flag was made by Custer's wife, Libby. In addition to the regimental standard, individual cavalry companies carried swallow-tailed flags called “guidons.” At the beginning of the Civil War cavalry guidons featured two horizontal bars, red over white. In 1862 the regulations changed and cavalry guidons featured red and white stripes with a blue canton in the same design as the National colors, and of of these (albeit undersized) is visible at the lower left of the painting. In 1885 - General Order 10 reverts back to the red-over-white guidon, now with the regimental number on the upper half and the letter of the troop on the lower half, and this is the flag commonly seen in Western movies.