GDG- Custer (and Gettysburg) On the Tube Again

[Batrinque at aol.com]

In a message dated 1/19/2012 9:01:37 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
jlawrence at kc.rr.com writes:

I think  not dividing his command and moving more cautiously would have 
been more  prudent.
 
Certainly more prudent.  Of course to be really prudent, everybody  should 
have stayed home at Fort Abraham Lincoln.  Unfortunately, their  orders were 
to find and defeat the Indians.
 
If Custer had believed the Indian camp would remain intact and in place  
while he advanced over several miles of rather rough terrain to being the 
battle  (and had been confident that the Indian camp was unified in one spot on 
the  river), then perhaps he would have kept the regiment together until 
making the  actual attack.  As it was, he was facing too many uncertainties and 
 misunderstood the intentions and capabilities of the enemy.  His actions  
were appropriate if the Indians had acted as Custer (and almost every other 
Army  officer) expected, but they led to disastrous failure in the situation 
as it  actually developed.  

Bruce  Trinque
Amston, CT