C. Windolph's Shocking Account of Custer's Last Stand
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- Опубліковано 5 лют 2025
- Dive into the gripping first-hand account of Charles Windolph, one of the few survivors of the Battle of Little Bighorn. Windolph's detailed narration offers a vivid portrayal of the events leading to Custer's Last Stand, revealing the harrowing experiences and bravery of the soldiers. Discover the strategic missteps, the intense combat, and the fierce determination of the 7th Cavalry Regiment. Like and subscribe for more incredible historical stories and accounts from the front lines. #history #ushistory #historyfacts #nativeamerican
Edith Crook, granddaughter of General Crook, was my great Grandmother. one of the nicest people i'd ever met. She told us about growing up during that time, and she, as well as my father, were the reason i joined the US Army. After my service, i went to see some of these battlefields and you can Feel the fear and excitement from the guides. Sadly, most of the people's stories were uncertain or lacking detail, so thank you for this video.
Thank you for your comments and your service.
Brother I’m not watching it because I know the true history. Genocide even *before Jackson’s Removal Act. Yes, women, children & elders. Just Slaughtered while trying to run away from the nomadic villages. America’s Shame.
@@N2Mtns2 the genocide has begun much before with the extermination war led by the British against the Pequots and the Wampanoags and when they distributed smallpox infected blankets to the Delawares... The Spanish also have slaughtered tribes in the Caribbean islands and Mexico...
@@marco-dn7kd I know, Marco. I educate people that “Thanksgiving” did NOT happen that way and many call it “Thanksgiving A lot” and I won’t cook the “traditional” meal. Our family reflects com the thankful part tho. Did you know that diseases were brought here … and not just the small pox blankets. It’s all still genocide for more land. My Dad’s Grandfather, CHIEF REDBIRDS (look him up) and his Hunting Buddy, Jack, we’re resting at night by a fire and both were ambushed and murdered while Not armed & fighting. The Cavalryman were made to and many wanted to Clear the Land of filthy savages. Why do people not realize the hundreds of Indian Nations that were totally wiped out. Has anybody seen a Rez today? And the youth are Discouraged from leaving the boundaries? The Supreme Court just turned down the Navajo Nation for asking for MORE Water?? Water. Instead of an avg of 17 gallons a day. Our Supreme Court said NO to what should be everyone’s right. That was very recent. The land has minerals. DNA Tests wipe out “Native” to make the population look smaller. I know Rez people who had it done & they weren’t native. What a dirty farce.
@@marco-dn7kd Marco I’m talking America. My Major.
I learned most sitting at the knees of story teller elders. Now I’m getting there myself.
Please quickly look up
CHIEF REDBIRD. Kentucky where they settled. Harlan, Kentucky. Sick to death of death.
I visited the battlefield about 15 years ago. Despite being a Brit, I had been raised on a steady flow of 'Westerns' by my late father, so was familiar with the stories. Although the landscape appears flat, it is actually comprised of small hillocks and depressions and would have been difficult to fight over as there was a lot of cover. Traveling back from the Indian village to last-stand hill, the trail of stone markers, each one showing where a soldier fell, told the tale of the consequences of Custer's ill-conceived plan. I have been fortunate enough to visit Gettysburg, the Alamo, Valley Forge, the Somme, Ypres, Culloden, and Blood River, Isandlwana and Rourke's drift in South Africa. But of all of them, Last Stand Hill feels the most peaceful, and is probably the most beautiful. As a side note, Custer's buckskin suit is preserved at the museum. The man seems to have been tiny. I guess, about 5'6" and maybe 120lbs, judging by the frame on which it was mounted.
We are larger now due to eating cheap corn byproducts and vegetable oils and sugars. And lets not even get started on being left in front of a tv as a baby.
If you can see one of the Titanic deck chairs " in person " you'll see that 120- 130 lbs is max size. People were much smaller back then.
You do realize that his "ill conceived tactics" had worked before don't you?
"Custers ego" is the lazy explanation about what happened, there was an entire series of events, any one of them missing and things would have gone much differently, that led to the outcome.
Someone, I think the US Army War College, did an experiment where they took highly experienced Infantry officers and gave them the same task as Custer, without them knowing they were recreating The Battle of Little Big Horn, they were given the same assets, the same intelligence, the same terrain and were task with the same objective Custer was, the majority of them planned the same operation he did.
So no, it's not as simple as "Custers ego is the reason...", there's alot more to it then that.
There's a great true tale of a trucker driving past the battlefield when the ghost of Custer suddenly appears in the seat beside him, in great distress. In full uniform, Custer turns and says, "We need reinforcements!" And then disappears.
If that narrative is an accurate account of Windhoff,s writings,it becomes evident that his education was far above an average soldier ,his accounts indicate that those in command acted with competence but were overcome by sheer numbers. His account of Major Reno,s action overcome the stories I have read of his inaction as well. For me this is the best account I have read,thank you for posting it.
like all of the indian accounts of this day, their words and stories have been edited, rewritten. they use the originals as a base and build on them. spruce them up. I doubt if Custer could've written any thing as eloquent as these stories are presented.
these are not windhoff's writings. his writings are in a book entitled "i fought with custer," meaning he marched into battle with custer's regiment but was not with custer's immediate command during the battle. had he been, he would not have survived to tell the tail, as no one of custer's immediate command was survived the fight. according to his book, windhoff's MOH was earned by volunteering to fetch water from a stream at bottom of reno's hill, where indians awaited, knowing how desperately water was needed by wounded situated at hilltop.
The “mainstream media” was as corrupt or even more corrupt as it is now… they “reported” that Custer and his men were incompetent so the public wouldn’t lost its stomach for war.
Custer was an incompetent idiot. His name should be removed from everything and he should be branded as a fucking total lunatic. I smile each time I hear about this reverse slaughter but I am sad that idiot Custer was the reason so many children soldiers lost their lives. So now let's rewrite history and portray Custer as what he truly was, a bumbling idiot.
Windolph wrote a book late in life. He was the last man living who'd been in the 7th at LBH. By that time he was nearly blind and he gave a verbal account and others put his words into writing.
Custers ego got hundreds of men needlessly killed
Custer was a failure in Gettysburg as well…..
First of all the battle didn’t need to happen! The lack of provisions and harsh winters would have drove the natives back onto the reservation. Secondly this exact tactic had been employed with success before 🤷♀️
plus himself
...and horses and mules, god bless
It never ceases to amaze me, how officers can lead good men to their deaths....needlessly..... US Army, 'nam vet....Nov '66 to Nov '67......May ALL my brothers and sisters REST IN PEACE.......
Hunger for glory killed Custer
Thank you for your service
Name one thing the Military has ever done right!
@@user-sp8eb6iz7f M&M's in the MRE's
"It never ceases to amaze me, how officers can lead good men to their deaths..." Opperative word is LEAD.
I read an account years ago by a Native American survivor of the battle. He said that Custer was one of the first to fall. The best book I've read on the subject is James Donovan's "A Terrible Glory - Custer and the Little Bighorn". It's one of those rare books, thoroughly researched, and captivating. You can't put it down.
Going from memory, I'm 99% certain that David Humphrys Miller mentions that in his book.
Another one I just earlier this yr is "Crazy Horse and Custer" by Stephen Ambrose.
Agreed… amazing book
Ya, I read that-it's a great read.
I read he was shot crossing the river and was carried a mile up to this last stand hill where he was finished off with either a 41 s w or a webly that's never been found autopsy the skull if they Evan gave it he carried webly s maybe he did kill himself the body had a rifle wound a arrow a temple wound eardrums punched out arrow shoved into his penis
Never underestimate your opponent
and NEVER divide your force in the face of the enemy.
@@brianoidperson word's from Ancient Asian... a long with perch on the Cliffs and look down on the enemy....
@@DrStrangelove-w9wthe move Custer was trying to do had work for him in the past. Mostly because the Indians had always fled upon a surprise battle. benteen on the left and Custer on the right were trying to get ahead and close off the Indian escape but as we know they weren't going to flee this time. First Custer disobey the order to wait for the main party if they discovered the Indians and the fateful mistake was he didn't get eyes on the force he engaged prior to engagement.
Ah, but Custer saw the vainglory in the attack! Until he didn't.
It also didn't help (as I've read elsewhere) that Custer refused to take the new Gatlin guns that had recently been assigned to him, because he felt speed was more important than firepower. It's important to keep an open mind to new technological advances.
And listen to Sun Tzu.
He was a true observer of what happened.He never sold out to publishers but told his story with conscience.I have been on the Custer LBH trail most of my life.Yes I believe what he says here.
No one survived Custers men were mutilated after death.
A man called James Pym, born and bred in the same village as i was, Garsington, Oxfordshire, England, fought
on Reno hill. Like this gentleman quoted here, James Pym also won the Medal of Honour for his courage. There
are still Pyms living in Garsinton to this day.
that's so strange. I grew up in west Berkshire and i've never heard of Garsington until now lol. Maybe because I live in the USA these days and have forgotten.
@@dimwitsixtytwelve Garsington is only a small village, no reason you should have heard of it mate. James Pym won his
Medal of Honour for volunteering to leave Reno hill and cross open ground under heavy fire to fetch water from a creek
for his wounded and thirst maddened comrades. This he did several times until he was wounded himself, and could no longer go.
@@johnday6392 He would have got more plaudits if he managed to find some cans of Carling Black Label...and bring em back...
@@nialloneill5097 Nah mate, he wasa 19th century Garsington bloke, he would have spat that out. Now, if
he'd found some bottles of Clinches best bitter, he'd have definitely brought them back to his pals.
Courage for murdering children and women?
We owned a house on Washington Street in Lead, Sd. just above the open cut.and one day some people form the Museum stopped by and wanted to know if they could take some photos. That house was either lived in or owned by Charles. (I can not recall but the address was 318 Washington St.) I was friends with some older men in Lead, that when they were young - knew Charles when he was an old man, and tell me he used to get around using a pair of canes. Several of my kids have met met these men that knew him. This rather shrinks the time scale a bit. Several of my kids have met men that knew him. After he left the army, he later became a harness maker for the Homestake gold mine in Lead, SD. He Died March 11, 1950 making him the oldest white survivor of the battle. It was sometime in 2004 or so that the visit from the museum representatives that I found out that this little house I owned had historical significance.
FyI- portraits of the surviving warriors were painted in the 1950's and all hang in the halls of the crazy horse musem in south Dakota. Their oral accounts were recorded and ive read them but have forgotten the book. Wandering through those portraits in the museum is worth it.
Charles wrote a book, "I fought with Custer".
Always read your mileswmathis updates daily.
Oòps
Thanks!
The real 'tragedy' of this whole episode is that the greed, self-importance and deception of the American government couldn't follow its own treaties and write new ones that would REALLY benefit both sides. We were still doing that with the XL Pipeline.
Always recon and gather intel. Never divide your troops especially facing long odds. Custer ignored all of this.
Also divided elements lost visual sight of each other. Horses stirred up lots of dust,so visibility at times was poor.After the battle,the warriors found many dead Indians WITH ARROWS STUCK IN THEM.
They would have lost to such superior number anyway. A foolish/shameful endeavor.
@TheMick777777 Custer was a egomainiac . I cant say he was smart enough to avoid his own ego. He led a lot of good men to their deaths.
@@williammorris4419 Not necessarily, but it’s really unknowable.
@@dawa875 Do you have any reliable evidence to support your claim?
No words about the experience or bravery of the native Americans?
Because the account is from the side of the cavalry.
What happened to the native Americans, Also happened to us,I am from New Zealand.All for Land
👍 up bro
@ still happening there from what i see about the govt amending the agreement?
Yes brother,
Custer's body was removed from the Little Bighorn. He is buried at the cemetery at the United States Military Academy at West Point. It's marked with a beautiful marker showing scenes of the old west on it. I visited it often in the late 60's before and after my first tour in Vietnam. My grandmother raised me in Watertown, NY. She was born in Quebec, Canada, an Oka Mohawk Indian from the Iroquois Nation. I'm now retired from the USMC.
Actually they brought back bones they thought were Custer's and that was only after their second visit to the battlefield.
Custer was a mass murderer of Native American, especially women and children. He had comin everything that happened.
Semper Fi!
Wasn't the body of Custer missing HIS HEAD?
Thank you for your service friend. Salute and regards.
A very informative and interesting account of this famous battle.
There is a reason SO many books have been written about him and this event. HOT button stuff. Reading so many things it is clear that most thoughts say more about the writer than about Custer.
It’s time to paint this as a win for the oppressed that were defending their territory and families
The Iroquois and the Ojibwe oppressed the Sioux out of the Great Lakes region. Then the Sioux oppressed the Crow and Blackfeet out of the Dakota regions, who oppressed the Arapaho into Colorado, who oppressed the Ute over the mountains into the Western side of the Rockies, who oppressed the Navajo south into Arizona and New Mexico, where they were oppressed by the Apache, who were oppressed out of West Texas by the Comanche.
Then another tribe showed up and oppressed all of them.
Paint doesn’t change the shape
Killing Custer just got the Lakota and Cheyenne screwed out of whatever they could have negotiated. Custer's wife was a formidable evangelist. The "Indians" would have been better off surrendering. The tragedy at Wounded Knee was a direct result of their misunderstanding the European Heroic Myth. Custer's death was a direct result of his misunderstanding the Plains Indians.
Custer's demise was the result of his stupidity and his vainglorious attempts to recreate himself as a dead hero. He got what he was looking for, I guess, good and hard. I found it rather humorous that after the battle, the squaws drove sticks into his ears in order to say, "You didn't listen to us when we told you wed kill you if we attacked you. LOL
Oppressed? The Indian Wars lasted 350 years. Native American tribes were also brutal to other tribes, to their own people, their Women, etc.
I agree with JFK Our treatment of the American Indian is the real tragedy
American Indians terribly mistreated Whites: murders, raids, kidnapping and slavery... especially women and children. How can you be so naive?
Agreed, but we can’t seem to coexist with anyone. It’s like Chief Ten Bears said in the movie The Outlaw Josey Wales, “Governments are chiefed by the double tongued”
American Indians were also horrible to other tribes and to Europeans. The violence went both directions.
You would have done everything you could to survive from Jamestown on for 100 years all every kid thought about was kidnapping by or attack by Indians....it was the inevitable outcome of Euro settling of the continent.
@@skywardpictures 👍
excellent account of the action. Still gotta root for the natives fighting for their lands and lives.
How romantic it seems... Most of the people that native americans slaughtered were poor uneducated white people (women and children) just trying to build a new life and survive. For centuries before the "white man" arrived native american war parties killed and raped other native american tribes on a regular basis and taking survivors as slaves.
Keep in mind these men you're "rooting" against were US veterans no different than Iraq or WW2 soldiers.
No innocent parties in this fight. Indians have been guilty of preying on each other for centuries. Raping killing and pillaging their own people. Same for the White man.
@@jimbrew4529 True enough, but keep in mind these were people who inhabited the land for thousands of years before we came along and took it from them.
@@garymiller5416 "Thousands of years..." Not exactly. Prior to settlement by the whites, the Sioux were driven from their homeland of Minnesota and the Great Lakes by the Ojibway. Funny, I've never heard of the Ojibway lament or having a collective guilt over this.
Let’s not forget, the Indians were fighting to keep their own land. This against the continuous “land grab” of the government and land speculators trying to grab as much settlor money as possible and to hell with the Indian nations who were already there.
I agree...it was a 'legalised' and 'justified' theft and genocide...except it cannot be justified...not in any shape or form. Many of the Natives were much more enlightened than their white counterparts...who only saw land, gold, and money in their eyes...all fool's gold..now look at the US and the world...WHO was backward?
Since you feel that way, you must give up your home, car and job... and get out of this country, you cowardly hypocrite. You enjoy the benefit won for you... then you insult the soldiers who won it for you.
And where do you live?
@@kenstclair453 New Zealand. And don’t start on how the English treated the Māori (original imhabitants).
The Little Big Horn area is not Sioux tribal lands nor the Cheyenne or Arapahos. Whose land were they fighting for then? Could it be they were fighting to keep from being returned to their reservation?
Custer was an arrogant fool. He was given several opportunities to withdraw his forces. The Native Peoples did not want a fight. Custers blind hatred of natives costed many, many lives. Including his own
Sounds like what trump would do, yet he would run afar back and send others to the front. Loser that he is.
@@LyndaReilly - Last time I checked it was loser Kamala girl who lost all 7 swing states, ha ha! It's time for you to lose your TDS or instead be in complete self torment for a very long time, lol !
@@LyndaReilly except he never started a war when he was last president.
@@LyndaReillystill a bit butt hurt are we?
@@LyndaReillyloser? What’s that make ol cackling Kamala?
No amount of description can prepare you for the actual scene and gravestones marking where warriors of both sides fell.
The park is a good job too with these panoramic paintings that line up with the scenery behind it so you can really see how everything laid out Amazing
I visited in June of 2020.
It was hot, the visitor center was closed due to the China flue.
I drove the pavement through the park and on into private property, stopping at the spots w information, taking photos along the way.
My last stop was the memorial to the Native Americans.
I literally staggered as I entered the circle. Would have fallen if the wall hadn't caught me.
@@Ghostofachance-iw8pr oh my gosh! Yeah I didn’t get to experience the center either as I went November of the same year as you!
@@Ghostofachance-iw8pr but to be honest, it was pretty cool because there was no crowds.
The Battle of The Little Bighorn remains a profound and tragic episode in American history.
I would have thought the virtual annihilation of a race of people might be a tad more tragic.
I don't think that thought is one focused on by most of us especially the generations coming down the road. Sadly, this has been a common factor in human evolution where we destroy anything that gets in our way which will be our fate as well most likely. Don't forget how many indian tribes were probably eliminated through history before europeons even inhabited north america. It's one of the things humans are good at and is probably why we have survived for so long (at least during time scales from when we began).
You hit the nail on the head. He had his eyes on being a war hero eventually going to Washington as a politician. If you have ever been in combat, you know, glory has NO PLACE ON THE BATTLEFIED....It's scary enough without a 'fool' leading you to distruction..... Thanks for you comments......Me!
PS: Just ask all the Russian men going into the 'meat grinder' called Ukraine.....
@@mikeyoung9810 It's a dreadfully poor argument when you start bringing in the inter tribal wars before the Europeans arrived. I think that's a Westernised view that tries , and fails, to justify the European ethnic cleansing of a race of peoples.
Thank you for that, 66oggy.
I concur
Him and Dustin Hoffman were the only survivors. Yea when you attack people for no reason they get "hostile".
You mean like tribes attacking other tribes? And just like whites, they had reasons, land, and water they wanted.
Yeah but then Dustin Hoffman was holding one of Crazy Horses arms when the Soldier ran his Bayonet through his Guts Killing him till he was Dead
Hahaha. Them hostiles were hostile before any white people showed up. Hahaha
He then went on, many years later to have a successful acting career.
So why didn;t they asked Dustin Hoffman? He even has film on the battle.....
Accolades to the native Americans who were defending their very existence!
Lao Tzu's Art of War manual: "know the number and strength of your enemy before attacking."
That's when thinking you know and actually knowing becomes problematic.
That would be Sun Tzu. Nice try
@@jamesmcbeth4463 When you graduate last in your class thinking you know is all you have.
"Pride has no place on the battlefield." -Richard Marcinko
Most cadets and soldiers were illiterate: "know the number of pages worth memorizing before the rush of combat reduces your cognition to an unfinished prayer."
Never forget, these were Soldiers doing their duty as ordered by their Officers in Command as they swore an oath to do as they still do today. Lt. Colonel Custer had faced overwhelming odds before in his career during the Civil Wars and the Indian Wars and he survived them. This time, as an amateur historian and have studied these accounts in detail, I must conclude that Lt. Colonel Custer's luck ran out of him meeting an overwhelming force who mostly had repeating rifles and his men did not. Today those Brave Men whose bodies, stripped of everything and chopped in to many body parts today, we would say to them, thank you for your service. Well, at least I would. Thanks you for this video.
The Nazis on trial said the same thing in court about the genocide they were perpetrating against the Jews, they were just doing their duty. Problem is their actions resulted in a genocide against Native Americans that cost them 56 million lives. It is no surprise that the US is now supplies ammunition supplies money and diplomatic cover for Israel while it commits genocide in Gaza.
Thank you for their service??? They were invading land that did not belong to them.. killing native people who did nothing wrong but try to defend themselves and their land..
So true all these young men die because of white political men who do not have any real understanding of the nature of war, horror and death. TO THIS DAY! Many have served and serve us in the House of representatives, they feel proud. I don't. I am a Mom and do not want my son, or anyone else's son or daughter to die for some political arse hole that doesn't know how to compromise and make peace. THEY were then and still are today.
As the story goes the soldiers were cheering as they rode down into the valley. Custer shouting that there would be "Indians enough for everybody." If that is true, then the troopers were eager to get into the fight and did not hesitate at all.
Living and working on Indian reservations in the health end, the old people had stories and I made appointments with them at their homes with time to listen . Their version is far more believable than the white version. Custer was a huge self promoter , rule breaker, narcissist, and his ‘legend’ was stoked by his wife Libby the rest of her life. (She was enamored with Wild Bill Hickok who had issues, but was much more a man than Custer. ) Read the accounts of the survivors of Custer’s many escapades and his savagery to those who could not protect themselves. He got less than what he deserved, and disregarded the lives of soldiers for his own ego and career goals. AWOL to go see his wife. Very hard on any soldier who would do anything as egregious. But he was not unusual. He didn’t ever subscribe to , “kill the Indian and save the man,” just kill any and all Indians. What a fool.
my grandfather, back in Pennsylvania, was 13 at the time of the Battle of Little Bighorn...must have read about it in a newspaper.
Maybe not for others with more knowledge of that day, but this was the best description of deployment of soldiers that I have heard. Thank you. Did the feisty Italian on the wounded horse survive the day?
if you mean john martini the bugler he did.
Mary Hopkins
Just finished "The rest is history blog," which is two brits telling the Custer story, along with describing how one of the officers was drunk and rambling and another of the officers hated Custer. Well worth the watch, as they are having a blast describing the drunk officer. Plus the reasoning on why Custer split his forces.
On June 25th, while camped along the Little Bighorn River, Sitting Bull's village with approximately 7000 Lakotas and Cheyennes was attacked by Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer's 7th Cavalry............ so how can bravery be confused with stupidity?
Custer had only 5 companies of the 7th cavalry. The other 7 companies were with Reno and Benteen on the hills above the river. Even with the casualties Reno had suffered attacking the village the combined commands held off the Indian attacks of superior numbers for a day and half with little trouble doing so.
I vote arrogance He did have a healthy respect for the plains Indians but apparantly his desire to be president of the US clouded his thinking and thought a successful battle to be a stepping stone.
@@foxykc No that is the movie hollywood Custer...
If indian prisoners are taken, fighting stops, and negotiations begin. Was that Custers plan all along ?
People tend to think of the Indians as a organized army and they were not . This was not a Civil War battle of two armies on the field, this was Indian fighting a entirely different matter, but just as deadly ...
Custer could not secure prisoners to trade with ...
just make up numbers you know you want paleface🤣🤣
@@johngaither9263 you were there brave paleface🤣😂typical whitey embellishments
‘A profound and tragic episode’ for whom? The Native American village with women and children that was attacked? Custer wasn’t one of the good guys for heaven’s sake. The morality has been entirely inverted but myths last longer than the truth.
and don't forget about the gold supposedly in those hills some wanted.
War is tragic for all; in this case Custer was sent by the US army to punish the savages for attacks, murdering and raping of the settlers, which they loved to do. Only the hopelessly naive would believe Custer woke up one morning and decided "let's go and Kill Indians". Custer split his forces in two to catch the Indians in a crossfire, but the 2nd command never showed up. The result was the slaughter of 300 soldiers by overwhelming numbers. The loss of the 300 brave soldiers was one of the most tragic events of war here in the US. His name lives on and his heroism has not been forgotten.
@@bpp325 Yes...he had illegally led and fed men's greed for gold into the holy sites of the Black Hills...no respect whatsoever...
@@comptonboodhoo6504 Custer started it...taking greedy whites for gold...against all agreements...and slaughtering women and children in other showdowns...he had it coming...HE was the savage...and any reasonable person would have defended his people and sacred places against such an evil arrogant foe. He was not brave...he was arrogant and foolhardy! And did not care for human beings...including his own men and horses. Don't blame the Natives for defending what was THEIRS. There are many folk defend their own lands...such as against the Nazis...and what was the difference with the whites in the US...they were ruthless treacherous invaders...who needed putting to the sword...
@@nialloneill5097 the Sioux were from the Great Lakes region and that's where their holy sites were and it was the Iroquois that drove them off.
The paintings in this vid are extraordinary. Thanks!
My great grandfather was in the 2nd Cavalry G Company with John Gibbon who arrived the next day to help bury the dead and evacuate the wounded. My uncle had his sabre, crossed swords from his hat, buttons from his uniform, belt buckle, spurs, 2nd Cavalry G Company insignia and American Indian Wars medal, and a photograph of him with his horse wearing a dragoon hat.
Wouldn't he have to be your great, great grandfather?
@@jamesyoung6379I’m 69yo. My great grandfather was at Cedar Mtn 1862 and Gettysburg 1863, he was about 19 at the time. My grandfather was b around 1880, my father in 1912. I came along 1955. It fits timeline ok.
@@patclair9555 My Paternal Grandparents were both Born 1885. It Happens. 🙃
@@patclair9555
Love your salt Pat. Never back down when the truth is on your side
AlwaysStand🇺🇸💪🏻💪🏿💪🏽💪
@@jayswartz6446loop
I nead to read more stories about Custer since recently staying in Custer, SD has peaked my interest to learn more.
Custer had a swollen head, thinking he was better. Guess not.
It was said by the souix that the battle took as long as a hungry man eats a dinner
@Desolate-Undaunted Sioux is the whites version. They call themselves Lakota or Dakota.
The battle of the Famished...
Was watching a UA-cam video a while back of a Sioux park ranger saying the same thing. He said he was a big man and that he can eat pretty fast when he's hungry.
In grade school 1940s I wrote a paper on the "Battle of the Little Bighorn " At the time I found 5 different versions
Over the years, I've continued to find additional versions of American and Native
This adds credence to the quote of Col David Hackwith
"History is often two totally different WARS from foxholes side by side
There is a common practice in law schools that on the first session of an incoming class to stage some outrageous stunt and then have the students write down what they saw. You get as many different accounts of what happened as there are students. The point is to make the students realize that eye-witness reports are not the absolute description of what happened.
I read "Son of the Morning Star"
Very good account of this.
Its interesting actually, my adoption great relatives were there with the Cheyenne and it was always passed down through to family and from mom that Custer was shot whilst riding down from one ridge to another. They spoke about a few of the white soldiers wearing tan coats but one they said was leading the others when he slouched onto his saddle and someone lead the horse with him along a bluff. Considering the actions of the soldiers during that fight, id say they had a sudden jumble in leadership. Some confusion which lead to some soldiers bunching up, some moving and others taking ground. The Warriors won the day as soon as Custer decided to attack. That was no Sand Creek with women and children, but men ready for a fight.
@Hardrada88 I read long ago that one Woman came upon Custer's body and took her awl out and perforated his eardrums so that he could hear better in the next life. 🙃
The Americans defeated the foreign U.S. forces! The Natives need to be celebrated for defending their land!
You mean the scouts. Right?
lol you sound retarded
Until they were conquered! They were savages scalping and raping
We conquered them. Simple as that. Shit deal for us for sure. Do we go back in time? We can't. Study it. Learn about history. Thats all we can do
@machstem6390 the foreign government is still here idiot, you are a U.S.Citizen (slave) created by foreign legislation 14th amendment, i am an American and am their employer WAKE UP
According to what I've read ( an excellent book by the historian Stephen Ambrose entitled ' Custer and Crazy Horse ' ) there were survivors from Benteen's and Reno's detachments but none from Custer's force. Ambrose described a scene where Custer was outflanked and trapped in a small valley. It was Crazy Horse who outmaneuvered him. Crazy Horse had learned battle tactics from previous encounters with the U.S. Cavalry.
Read that one years ago. Must re read.
What gets my goat, the Sioux lobbied and eventually changed the name of Haney Peak in the Black hills because Haney was in battles where Women and Children of the Sioux tribe were killed. Now there is a monument to Crazy Horse being carved out of a mountain in the Black Hills, but Crazy Horse not only killed US Troopers at this battle but also was responsible for the killing of women and children on homesteads in the Dakota's during his days as a warrior. Good for the Goose, good for the Gander, let us stop this monument to a killer being raised in our South Dakota treasure, the Black Hills.
The correct name is or was HaRney peak (after the general William Selby Harney who had massacred Sioux women and children in 1855...), It has been changed in 2016 for Black Elk, a noted Lakota medecine man. The Black Hills were a Sioux sacred territory stolen by the US not respectifs the treaties. If the Indians have been responsible for lots of atrocities, do not forget the whites have committed massacres as well including mass murders (Sand Creek, Washita, Wounded Knee etc), and who was leading the troops at Washita ? George Armstrong Custer.
I think this name's change is a deserved symbol of reconciliation.
Ambrose is a proven plagiarist. Find out Ambrose's sources and read them.
@@JerryEricsson What does that mean? Crazy Horse killed noncombatants himself? Crazy Horse was present and a leader when such killings took place? Crazy Horse was not present, but ordered such killings to take place? Or just that he was a leader during a time when such killings take place, and was responsible to the same extent that generals and the US president were responsible for massacres of native American noncombatants?
I remember about 20 years ago standing there, on Reno Hill, looking down into the coulees toward the bend in the river and back again at the rifle pits still visible. I felt a sort of a chill for a moment.
my great grandfather was in the infantry that Custer did not wait for (Terry ?) -- his unit "found" Custer and he collected a couple of arrows actually from the battlefield (as I remember they had metal arrowheads - tin?). He joined up in 1876 ... He claimed he was 18. But he was 16. My grandmother claimed that the army knew he lied and made him into a "musician". gave him a bugle apparently as well as a rifle.
Natives employed barrel hoops to fashion metal arrowheads.
The Indians had stopped using stone for arrowheads for some time. They cut their iron arrowheads from the metal tires used on all wagons at the time. The iron made a much better arrow.
Yeah, right. Archeological evidence shows that Custers men ran and were massacred when running
The cartridge used by the cavalry is pronounced "forty-five seventy", not "forty-five to seventy". It refers to a 45 caliber bullet propelled by 70 grains of black powder.
Technically, the cavalry carbine cartridge would be a .45-55, as it carried 15 fewer grains of powder than that intended for the infantry rifle. The two types of cartridge were outwardly identical, until in March 1877 the marking of the casing head with the month and year of production and either "C" for carbine or "R" for rifle began. (Some soldiers considered it a good joke to slip a full-power rifle cartridge into an unsuspecting cavalryman's carbine before he fired it.)
Those computer generated voices just read they have no smarts at all.
Thank you
I will never understand why the people who put out these videos don't check for accuracy before they post. So disheartening.
@@klcflyer these videos are "accounts" of the people who were there. no one is saying they are 100% accurate, they are just telling someone's story of events. all people involved in events will have different versions depending on place and time they were involved. in one case the narrator even mentioned the story teller was know to tell "stories", so the listener to take everything with a grain of salt. what's with the whine in the first place? life that bad?
Thank you for the vid!!!//Lars
A good recounting of the event clearly from the defeated ones' points of view. It would have been better to give the backdrop of Custer's mistreatment of Native Americans and the atrocities he committed prior to the Battle of the Little Bighorn and the history of the greed of European Americans who stole Native lands, the economic depression, the invasion of the Black Hills by Custer and his troops in an attempt to acquire the gold "in them thar hills." There are many other atrocities including the decimation of the American Bison in an effort to starve out the people who depended on them for survival. Like so much in war, language is often a contributing factor to such conflicts, whereas with both sides truly understanding one another and respecting one another, such things would not happen.
What they dont talk about is that custer had 2 gatling guns at his disposal but did not use them because he thought that they would have slowed him down having to haul the guns.
Anybody with knpwledge would know you cant manuever Gatling guns along those steep banks. Thats why Custer left them behind
Who thinks that the graphics with this are not only inaccurate but simply ridiculous!
Ridiculous, no. Innaccurate, yes.
Custer's encounter with the Indians is talked about in the last minute of the video with no details of the battle.
Thank you
One of my Lakota ancestors, Little White Man, took part as a young teenager.
@@tedecker3792 My Jewish-Arapaho grandparent Never Buys Retail did that too.
Great movie!!!
Native American accounts are the most accurate
You are correct !
I've listened to a few and they don't always agree with each other. different perspectives from different angles. one guy says he shot Custer, another was credited with shooting Custer, but says he didn't and that no one knew who, nor did the indians ever find his body. I've even heard Custer shot himself.
That’s a huge unverifiable stretch.
Well . I'm a native American and we were just as good at propaganda and making stuff up after a good puff of goodness knows what. Picking up white man terms like .....bollocks.😂😂😂
Yes as to what happened to Custer & his troops! Which is obvious no survivors except a horse! Numerous surviving calvary with Reno & Benteen to tell their parts
In the first sentence, “…one of the few survivors.” There were ≈ 700 calvary and scouts. Of those about 475 survived. So a lot were killed, but almost 500 is not “a few.”
Exactly.
AI hard at work.
The paintings depicting this story are excellent.
It's AI generated
I visited the Little Big Horn site.
The landscape paintings are inaccurate.
Thank you for the article, very interesting. However the natives were fighting to protect their land and people from hostile immigrants. The same thing was done to my tribe on May 26, 1637 in the early morning attack at now Mystic, CT. The Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876 was a significant event during westward migration because it represented a major Native American victory against the U.S. Army, marking a turning point in the conflict over land as settlers pushed westward and Native American tribes resisted their displacement from their traditional territories; it is also widely known as "Custer's Last Stand" due to the death of Lieutenant Colonel George Custer and his entire command. Following the period of Manifest Destiny in the United States from 1812 to 1867, which was the idea that white Americans were divinely ordained to settle the entire continent of North America. The ideology of Manifest Destiny inspired a variety of measures designed to remove or destroy the native population. The good guys won this one, yay! ... In 2005, Northern Cheyenne storytellers broke more than 100 years of silence about the battle, and they credited Buffalo Calf Road Woman with striking the blow that knocked Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer off his horse before he died. ... Custer's brigade lost 257 men at Gettysburg; the highest loss of any Union cavalry brigade. ... Custer was known by his fellow cadets at the U.S. Military Academy as the “dare-devil of the class” who devoted more energy to pranks than to his academic studies. Custer graduated last in his class at West Point. Custer’s voluminous record of demerits earned him extra guard duty on most Saturdays, but he did manage to graduate from West Point in 1861, albeit as the lowest-ranking cadet, now known as “the goat.”
No one on this earth has EVER been treated as inhumane as Native Americans. And the real heartbreaking fact is that it's still the same TODAY.
'Modern repeating rifles' - How interesting speaking
about future machine guns. This vid is fascinating!
Repeating rifles did exist and were carried by the natives as stated. A repeater is Not a machine gun.
For as long as I've been alive it was always rumored in history circles that Custer was not a nice person. Time has not been kind to old Custer in the History books.
Great narrative, thanks for posting. Odd photos and images, however (most of which have nothing to do with June 25-27, 1876 in Montana).
If you read the book No More Heroes Madness and Psychiatry In War, by the author Richard A Gabriel. There is an excellent account of the battle by Sioux warriors. This book one of my personal favorites, depict the realities of warfare long after the reporters, and noted biographers have left the battle field for their respective comfy chairs by the fire. Graphic in nature in describing the opioid crisis during and after the US Civil War. It is a must read for any serious historian. Custer is often depicted as some type of American Hero? but in reality, he finished dead last in his class at West Point. And in regards to this battle? his rock star sized ego clashed with the anger of Native Americans, in his ever lasting search for military glory
Custer has been viewed as incompetent and arrogant by most Americans since at least the 1960s.
History is always written by the victors. You have to dig if you want to find what really happened.
Thank you for your comment here. I remember all through school being told what a hero Custer was and all that jive. When I got out of school and did allot of my own research, I learned what Custer was really like. An arrogant and cruel bastard that more people despised than respected. I learned how he treated the Native people and my whole opinion of him changed very quickly. He got what he well deserved. Too bad he had to take so many good men with him!!!
The current trend is not view Custer as a hero, but to pretend his ego and poor tactical skills were the root of his demise. The simple fact is, with what Custer knew and what he didn't know, he made sound decisions, the only one, that with the benefit of hindsight, was questionable, was the decision not to combine forces with Reno in the valley and, instead, to continue attack from other direction.
@@deezynar ....Doesn't mean it's true. There has been an ongoing war against anything White, and American, by the "tribe". for decades. Their goal is the destruction of America, in fact, ALL of Western civilization around the world. Genocide, mass non White "immigrants" and "refugees" flooding into ALL White countries are the weapons they are using as well as the destruction of all traditions, legends, and heroes of our past.
One of my Great, Great, Great Uncles died at the battle of the little big horn. He was camping in the other valley and went over to find out what all the racket was about.
Good idea to mind your own bussiness i'd say!
Did you ever get a refund on his site fees?
@@DrStrangelove-w9w 😅
That's a joke right?
@@CharlesMooradian He was really there. I saw him. I was too lazy to go over with him, though.
RIP great, great, great unc.
"Pleeease Mr. Custer, I don't wanna go..."
"I had a dream last night...." always loved that song.
I remember that from Dr. Demento.
I remember that show.
Good one
LOL ! Ray Stevens!
Excellent presentation. Thanks for sharing
Custer finally got the point.
WOW . . . Chapeau !
This private was not a witness; it's hearsay from a few soldiers that somehow managed to cower away. Gotta say, this is beautifully illustrated!
As long as you don't look too closely at the many distortions and weirdness of AI generated art - like soldiers with skull faces, or revolutionary war soldiers appearing at LIttle BIghorn, nonexistent flags & insignia, etc.
Custer's whole career was based on daring sometimes illogical moves that often surprised foes and he was able buck the odds against overwhelming odds again and again. No surprise his luck ran out on him. He was outnumbered and surprisingly outgunned at the Little Bighorn. A person who never knew defeat can come to believe they cannot be defeated.
I’ve read the highly detailed Native American version of this battle. It simply reads - We won.
Indeed they did, but not for long.
@@JonDingle … more’s the pity.
I think you read the short version
I'm sure your pea brain was happy to find an account with 5 letters divided into 2 words.
Son of the Morning Star by Evan S. Connell is a good one. I have one I can't find from the POV of the Sioux and Cheyenne. Custer cut his hair before the battle because he feared being scalped. Apparantly he got shot as they cross the river and possibly even dead by the time of the "last stand". This battle is a prime example of everything that can go south if your commander (Custer) is so egocentric he disobeys HIS commanding officer and underestimates the enemy.
Yes, and if I remember correctly, the book says that the Indians didn't know it was Custer till after the battle.
But remember Custer graduated last in his class, so what he did was pretty predictable. If he hadn't f*cked up at the Little Big Horn he would have f*cked up later.
Nice content, HY89 Studio. Looking forward to see more posts from you. I broke your thumbs up symbol on your creation. Continue to keep the excellent work.
The key element to this battle was the unlikely and unexpected alliance of the Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes. The level and coordination of this alliance was unknown to the US Army. Indian scouts working for the Army erred in their reports that around 800 hostiles were in the Little Bighorn area. Their mistake was using numbers that had left the reservation under Sitting Bull, but were unaware of efforts to organize an alliance with the other tribes leading up to the battle. If the Army had good intelligence, it's likely they would have had a larger and more powerful force and certain decisions would have changed. Custer, for example, refused to take Gatling Guns with him as he forded the river to outflank the village. With Gatling crews, his men might have withstood the attack by a much larger force. Also, the strategy taken by Custer was not to really fight the indians, but to prevent their escape. He was sure that his forces were greatly superior, and had no fear of dividing his forces or leaving supply trains in the rear.
Which was a huge mistake
Dead men tell no tales, witnesses tell no lies, all others spin and dance.
Always read your mileswmathis updates daily.
"The Rest Is History" podcast dedicate a couple of episodes to this battle and the aftermath. very informative.
A badly wounded horse survived Custer's last stand. Subsequent claims of cavalry survivors are tall tales/fiction (as in the survivor who narrates in the Little Big Man movie)
I saw that horse when i was a child. His body was stuffed and in a museum in, I believe, KS.
Archeological evidence shows that troopers on Last Stabd Hill were panicked, understabdably.
I didn’t know about the stampeded horses with ammunition loaded on them.
The last fighting was most likely in the ravenes downhill from the hilltop.
However, no skeletal evidence has been found there.
Apparently, there wasn't gunpowder on Custer's temple, which would rule out suicide, unless someone else in his command did it.
The mindset of overwhelmed and terrified troopers harbors a lot of questions.
The thing that almost never comes up related to Little Big Horn is that Custer was one of three generals there, and he was NOT the ranking officer. He was the lowest ranked General. The other two generals were within ear shot of the battle but chose not to advance in the battle's direction. A review board was convened and covered in the Chicago newspapers of the time. The other generals kept quiet as much as they could and Custer came out looking the worst. The army never covered up what happened. But they were embarrassed enough that they never corrected the future reporting and stories, and they never really gave any help to Custers widow as she worked to clear his name.
Which Generals and where exactly were they?
@@davidforbes7772 Brigadier General Alfred Terry and Brigadier General George Crook. Terry was there, Crook was delayed.
George Custer was a Captain for the Union Army in the Civil War. He was soon given a 'brevet' Commission to Brigadier General, and later Major General, which were 'war time ranks'. After the Civil War he returned to his rank of Captain , which many other officers did as well. He was promoted to Lt. Colonel when he was sent out West. The other two officers, Reno and Benteen had their hands full and were unable to help. Custer's 'arrogance' pretty much got his Troops killed...
The commanding officer at the Alamo was not Col Travis.THE comm anding officer was absent when the Alamo fell.
@@larrywest538 Sort of like Kilpatric.Union calvary named him,"kill calvary".
Since visiting the battlefield, I’ve always thought that the Crows were missing an opportunity to organize two day trail rides from the Redbud to the Little Big Horn where those interested in history could better understand the story and how Custer missed 5,000 men and 15,000 horses.
I just visited the battle site and it looks nothing like the pictures used here. It is hills and grass land and no place to take cover. All of the advantages of the battle belonged to the Indians. Many mistakes at many junctures were made by Custer and the ultimate price was paid whether for his ego or his ignorance. I strongly recommend the battlefield tour to understand how the battle unfolded over 18 acres.
Custer didn't go there by his own volition. It was a seek and destroy mission courtesy of US Grant's infamously corrupt adminstration.
The "pictures" used here are from an AI's imagination. Someone put in text prompts and added whatever they got out of the AI in order to make this video. The narration was also AI - obvious once you notice the mispronunciation of certain words. I imagine that the entire narrative was done by someone instructing an AI bot to summarize the LBH battles. So take it all with a grain of salt.
Was there in July of this yr and concur. Hustled up to the Last Stand hilltop for the talk by the nps staffer about the events, he was awesome
@@michaelm.1947 The pictures are wonderful, but they don't represent the land around Custer's last stand.
@@StanfordCrane Please re-read what I posted. That's basically what I said. It's just random AI-created scenes that have nothing to do with the story.
The Springfield sounds like the M16A1, we issued in Vietnam! Wrong powder caused many a Marine’s death. Semper Fi, medically retired in 1970.
Worse. It was the same problem the Brits had at Islwanda about the same time: no repeating rifles. Although repeating rifles were over a decade old at the time, both the War Department in the US and the War Ministry decided on single shot Enfields - if memory serves... at least one army used Enfields. Hrnce, cartridges were loaded one at a time and fire rates were far less than US Cav units in the Civil War.
Cherokee accounts of the Battle are extremely accurate. No one knew who Custer was. That entire myth grew over time. Custer was a fool
No Cherokee were involved.
Arm-Chair Generals with the benifit of biased hind-sight still don't yet understand what happened or why.
@@HTub-bo2yl Your 100% right. It could be argued he very well may have saved the union army at Gettysburg.
He screwed up at the Little Bighorn costing the lives of those under his immediate command, but he non the less should be remembered as a hero that may have saved the Union.
@@larryhume2215 Think he means Cheyenne!
Custer was well known, as the youngest brevet general in the Union Army, then as a soldier who accused Grant's brother of corruption.
Interesting, to say the least. Thanks for making the informative video.
Charles Windolph, survivor of the battle of Little Big Horn, who fought Native Americans using bows and arrows, died in 1950, five years after atomic bombs were dropped on Japan by high altitude American bombers.
You do know that the men with Custer were significantly outgunned by the Indian warriors at Little Big Horn? They had repeating rifles. Custers men had single shot. What a sad sight it must’ve been for that small group of brave, overly confident men.
@@toman7957a lot were also killed by arrows
@@toman7957 [ men with Custer were significantly outgunned by ] Umm, plus, umm, they crested the last hill, and saw more Indians in one place than they had ever seen in their lives.
No soldiers survived battle!!
Just looked this up to fact check - sorry! Gosh!
Do not use graphics that have absolutely no contexts with the time period or geography of the story that you were trying to tell. It doesn't disservice to the story.
You're wrong. Try again.
@@avalanche3084 He's right. Minute 2:14 being a perfect example. Listening and watching at the same time can be tough man, but come on.
My thoughts as well!👍
I agree
The sheer numbers of Indians, many of them better equipped with repeater firearms, signified only one outcome in a dustup. Had Custer only done his homework and properly reconnoitred the environment and village he would have realised that he had bitten off more than he could chew. Had he not split up sections under Benteen and Reno and sent in different directions it is distinctly possible that they would all have been wiped out to a man.
This is certainly possible, and yet it's hard to think what Custer was thinking. He wanted desperately to change his own status in the army back to what he thought it was in the Civil War, when he was the "Boy General" and the Hero to everyone. When he saw the Indian village he thought that this was another meeting of half-beaten Indians ripe for a quick and decisive whipping, and he was mostly afraid of them getting away. He knew how good he was, and that a quick charge would often result in victory, and also he was kind of used to having the other soldiers having his back in a pitched battle.
The Indians, unfortunately for Custer, were gathered in a large-scale convention, summoned by Bull Who Sits Down's vision and wishing to decide what to do about it; with other tribes watching, the tribes present were quite unlikely to run away and fight another day. Vastly outnumbering the 7th Cavalry soldiers, and using white soldier tactics, the Indians reacted and attacked swiftly - lots quicker than the unfortunate Army troopers could handle -- killing all of the US horse soldiers and then getting away as fast as they could; knowing the Whites would strongly retaliate if they were to stay with their families. The Indians mostly knew this victory would bring terrible retribution, and the American Army didn't let them down.
I believe that Custer asked for what happened to him. I also think that much of what most of America knows about this event is colored by Hollywood's(mostly Eastern-European) writers, the American public's desire to believe in the Manifest Destiny we learned about in school, and the US Military's unfortunate habit of thinking that they never make mistakes. I was in the US Army and have learned a lot of history, and I've learned a lot of the story from the Indian's perspective by living near First Nation communities and also Canadians.
You HAVE to also remember that America was celebrating it's Centennial in Philadelphia when news of Custer's debacle reached his fellow Americans -- horribly embarrassing us in front of Representatives of the rest of the world; there was a working example of Alexander Bell's telephone, and many other impressive achievements we could be proud of -- when America was made to look REALLY bad, especially the Army. The American Indians were mostly doomed, and were considered Bad Guys in America long into the 20th century. They were the "others" we fought as kids when we played "Cowboys and Indians" up until the mid-1960s. And even though they have casinos and now are considered grudgingly accepted as fellow Americans, they'll never be considered not guilty of somehow unfairly murdering Custer's gallant band of dashing horse soldiers.
@pdubya. ...and listened to his Indian scouts, instead of calling them cowards.
Custer led his men around to the northwest side of the encampment. His plan was probably impromptu and certainly not well thught out. He intended to attack the women who were holding the horses for the men. He found out they weren't exactly the dainty types. This soldiers account doesn't even make reference to Custer's foolish tactical plan, nor does it refer to Captain Benteen's wise refusal to come to Custer's aid when it was far too late. Capt. Bentern was out on trial but acquitted of disobeying Custer's order to "come quick."
Ego maniacs don’t care about anything other than their own thoughts!
Splitting up his command was his biggest mistake.
Hardly a tragedy. Custer was intent on wiping out an Indian village and got the shock of his life. Live by the sword, die by it……
Custer was ignorant
Another "expert".
Didn't all the prominent Indian leaders of the Plains tribes also "live by the sword""? (Or bow and lance and gun and hatchet, anyway.) Check out the Battle of Massacre Canyon in 1873 to see how the Lakotas were amusing themselves a few years before Custer's last battle.
How do you figure he was intent on wiping out an indian village when he was supposed to round them up and send them to reservations, he had no intention of wiping them all out
@@bustedford. To the reservations? In your dreams. He was there to deal with ‘the Indian problem’.
A nice recount of events. Like others, the whole story is not shared. One correction. Custer, at the Little Big Horn was a Lt. Colonel, not "General" as the story teller says. He was a foolish and ambitious commander who put self above soldiers; disobeyed the orders of his commanding general. He had been directed to scout and report back the location of the Indians, whom Gen. Terry was trying to coax into returning to the reservation(s). Instead, he engaged them in combat with a disastrous outcome. Lt. Col. Custer was no hero as he was depicted in this story. Brig. Gen. Stan Flemming
The eventual outcome of the 'Indian Wars' was inevitable. In fact, the tribal leaders that were party to this battle only hastened their own defeat, their assimilation into reservation life. In the grand scheme of this country, it was the tribal leaders that underestimated their enemy, not the US Army. Everyone tends to forget that the 'natives' were just as brutal and ruthless to pioneer farmers families as Custer was to the tribal villages. War is hell, I've been party to it firsthand as a combatant. You tend to view things objectively when you live through a violent struggle. Someone in an earlier comment stated that highly detailed Indian accounts simply stated 'we won'. Evidence- nor truth- is your friend if you believe that.
Red Cloud defeated the army nearly every time he fought them. After a treaty and a trip to Washington DC he refused to fight any longer. He said the whites were as numerous as, "sand grains on a beach" and trying to fight all of them was hopeless.
Excellent, thanks.
To me, Custers biggest mistake, as mentioned by someone below, was going off without his machine guns, (Gatling guns). The firepower of those weapons would likely have made a huge difference in the outcome. Of course I'm biased. I was a US Navy machine gunner on Mekong riverboats 1968-1969, River Assault Squadron 13. 20mm aircraft cannons, MA2 50 cal, M1911 30 cal (7.62 NATO), MK19 40mm grenade launchers and M16s in a pinch. I loved my guns. They saved our butts. The knowledge of Custer leaving his most powerful weapons behind dumbfounds me. SMFH.
Custer was a moron, he got everybody killed! And some people talk of him like he was some kind of hero? He was one ignorant bastard!
I have heard this argument. I disagree sir.
Those weapons are defensive, heavy and cumbersome.
The whole point of cavalry is to be fast and mobile.
Custer was on point leaving them behind.
The Americans had the advantage of firepower in Vietnam , how did that war work out? Superior firepower is no substitute for superior willpower.
@@laohu5511 Just as Ukraine is a proxy for the West, Vietnam was a proxy for the Soviet Union and Communist China. Short of nuclear war, there was no winning, unless you claim that the Vietnam War stopped the expansion of communism throughout southeast asia.
The bravery and excellence belongs to the Native Americans. I wish all native nations would have put up this kind of fight . This nation and the world would have been a better place.
At 2:00 minutes they look like revolutionary war soldiers...
Yeah, I laughed at that too! I suspect, that image came from AI.
I noticed that too. I had to look twice, I thought I was imagining things. The figure second from the right. looks like he's wearing a kilt, ha ha.
Many of the pictures have nothing to do with the battle.
@@gfblack5307 [ have nothing to do with the battle ] They are simply filler.
The knife work done to Custer by the Indians was said to be posthumous , But as one Indian scout said " if he was already dead, they wouldn't have bothered."
I bet the Battle of Little Big Horn remains a tragic event in Native American history too…! 😮
My thoughts exactly, no mention here of what the actual losses were for each side. Which would have given the account greater perspective. I grew up with a skewered view of events courtesy of 1950's Western movies and 1960's television shows. As an old dude now I have a completely different view of who were the victors and who were victims. It is true that the Indian tribes were fighting amongst themselves and taking lands from each other well before the arrival of the British in Plymouth. But the genocide that occurred later makes it pale into insignificance.
@@coolhand1964 Very much so...
Cowboys and Indians Magazine: Near the end of his life, Custer began a second serialized memoir in [The] Galaxy magazine. He tried to explain the failure of his hero, Gen. George B. McClellan, in part by noting that he was elevated to high rank without an internship at lower levels of command. The same was true of Custer, though his personal strengths and flaws were the mirror image of McClellan’s. Custer excelled as a combat commander - inspirational, courageous, and highly competent. In wartime his men loved him. But he failed as a manager under routine circumstances. He compensated with a high-handed manner, alienating subordinates and superiors. In this he resembles other controversial combat leaders, such as Patton or Col. David Hackworth. Custer had confidence in himself in battle, but he suffered insecurities that led him to lash out recklessly up and down the chain of command.
Custer was shot down in the battle, dont try to make him a hero, custer was an expert in attacking unarmed women and chidren.
So were the Indians in tribal wars long before Europeans arrived. Also taking slaves.
Pretty sure the Indians weren’t unarmed. Custer was pushed by General Sheridan and General Terry to attack. His orders were also not followed by Reno and Benteen. A number of failures lead to his slaughter. Ultimately Custer underestimated the Crows and paid for it.
He was nothing but filth
Most Indian tribes were expert in killing white babies, toddlers and small children - then removing their scalps while still breathing.
Were you there? Custer was an expert in Cavalry tactics. He knew that if he held the village of women and children, the warriors would lay down their weapons and surrender. It worked ALMOST every time.
@9:50 The reason the warriors have two hands on their bows is because these arrows were the earliest missiles ever used in battle. A huge upgrade from meer projectiles. No wonder Custer's men were under-armed. Natives had superior technology.
I love the scene at 9:50 with the native holding bow with BOTH hands, but what is he using to pull the bowstring back????
There's a hand on the bow string. I guess he's a special kind of Indian.... with THREE hands 😄
Custer commited every cardinal sin of warfare, divided his forces and underestimated his enemy..
I don't know Windhoff would have described Garibaldi as having fought for Italian independence because that's entirely wrong. He was fighting for Italian unification. Prior to that there was no Italy as a single nation. It was a collection of separate states which were brought together under the leadership of Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour and the house of Savoy.
Not Windhof but Martini !
My Uncle's last name is Martini originally from Italy. I believe this Martini bugler is a relative.
@@goaskmymom1350 he was spared by the sauvages because ha was rosso like them. It would have been different if he had belonged to the bianco branch of the family...
Unification is often equated to independence.
@@MD-pu6tl Not in this case and not in the case of Germany which was completed in 1871. In both cases it's called unification. Italy wasn't striving for independence from any other country. It united several separate states to become one kingdom and Rome became its capital city in 1871.
Do you have a documentary on the Village Creek Massacre?
Custer had it coming.
His luck ran out. Go check out The Far Side comic called Custers Last View.
Custer was a reckless glory-hunting fool who disobeyed orders in his attempt to attack before the rest of the army came.
"We all have it coming kid."
but not his troops.