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Anonymous Poster1730
Forum Guest
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 Posted - March 18 2003 : 10:16:14 PM
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Assuming that Custer was in a rush to get to the Indian Village before the 7th was noticed and to get a supprise attack, then why did he order the lone tepee burned? To me it looks like this would have created smoke that could have been seen for miles.
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Angie
Recruit
USA
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 Posted - March 23 2003 : 1:51:52 PM
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Custer was aware that his troops had been spotted by hostile Indian scouts when he was at the Crows Nest. This was the reason he dicided to go ahead and attack the village on the 25th instead of waiting for Terry as planed. By the time he had gotten to the Lone Tepee, the dust from his troops and trailing pack train, had further forewarned the village of his position. The smoke from the burning Lone Tepee simply did not matter.
There is some question as to who actualy set fire to the Lone Tepee. Sgt. Knaipe said he heard Custer give the order to fire the tepee, but there is some evidence that the Indian scouts did the firing.
Angie |
Angele Primmer |
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Anonymous Poster2374
Forum Guest
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Posted - April 25 2003 : 4:35:21 PM
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And yet the camp WAS surprised. The Sioux had their incompetencies as well as the soldiers. The relatively few Indians who knew of an approaching army apparently didn't notify enough folks, many of whom were asleep when Reno's bullets zipped through the camp from his attack in the south.
The story of the West is full of tales of Indians and wasichus surprising and butchering each other in circumstances that do not precisely correlate to the "as one with nature Indian" (the guards at Sand Creek and the Wa****a apparently said to hell with this and went to bed. Look, a cavalry regiment is noisy as hell)or the Heroic Frontiersman (really, try to explain how Fetterman got nailed with a straight face. The Sioux waved their genitals at him and he raced off after them to avenge this apparently meaningful slight)or how Mrs. Blynn got kidnapped with her child amidst so many uninjured white men, or any number of fiascos.
The one sure way to coverup your incompetence is to insist that the enemy was superhumanly brave, strong, or bright. That makes whoever eventually beats him look so much better. We did this to Yamamoto, who hardly ever won a battle when he wasn't attacking a nation at peace, and to Saddam (the Mighty and Feared Republican Guard! Please.), and to the incredible morons who waged our Civil War. (News Flash: Stonewall Jackson was a psychotic nut job who moved quickly, Hood was an idiot, vainglorious stupidity was apparently a criteria for Union generalship...)
We have done this to Crazy Horse. He beat us so often (Custer, Fetterman, Rosebud)he must be Napoleon. Rather, he was just there. Crook's men fired off 2500 rounds at the Rosebud, killing about four guys (the other three or whatever were killed by his scouts). Was that a trained army? Was that a force to be reckoned with? Was that a joke, or what? And the Indians didn't accomplish much either, for all the blather and running around.
So many people start discussions of the Little Bighorn with the idea that these were Great Men fuelled by Great Social and Historical Forces who collided in Heroic Battle and who then met Meaningful Ends from which we can all draw Inspiration and Consolation. This, whether Sioux or Anglo. This flies in the face of common sense or the facts or human beings as we know them. These were Joe Blows doing a Job whether trying to Police the Aborigines or Protecting Their Wives and Children. As a rule, after they fired the first few shots they could give a Flying Fungo Bat about Glory and Honor if they could just go home and be sure everyone was safe.
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lorendead
Lt. Colonel
USA
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Posted - June 13 2003 : 11:03:55 PM
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Custer had the Lone Tepee burned to anounce his arrival.The question of the Lone Tepee has been misunderstood for years. The Lone Tepee refers to a burial site,Custer was attempting to capture the Sans Arc tribe members that had gathered there to mourn those warriors killed at the Rosebud battle.
If I recall this right there was a small village there Sans Arc tribe mourners fifty or some.
This tribe is what he (Custer) was attempting to capture to hold them as hostages against the larger village.Theory from To Hell With Honor.
I have always wondered the discrepencies from the scouts to troopers as to identifying this site.Skelnar clears this up in his book,stating they were all describing a small village,not one Tepee. Loren Dead. |
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joseph wiggs
Brigadier General
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Posted - August 21 2004 : 10:27:38 PM
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| Custer was so afraid of a "scatteration" of the village that it is unlikely that he would have done anything to warn the village of his approach. Curly, interviewd by Hugh Scott(1919), advised that the soldiers set the tipi on fire. "The scouts knew better than to broadcast their presence." Perhaps over, enthusiastic troopers were responsible for the torching rather than a command from Custer. At the time of the torching of the Lone Tipi, the chase was on. Ironically, despite this Faux Pas, the village was caught by surprise. |
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Lone Tepee question..
