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I suspect if you look at the bibliography of those works, you will see "The Washing of the Spears" listed.
Advice on where to find a source is the last thing I expected from a man who knowingly posted a spurious fact.
Acknowledgement of the "error" might just restore your credibility.

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Question.Where did the idea come from to place markers?Was the idea to mark the burial sites or as some sort of historical exercise?I don't think there are any other battlefields where the dead were buried where they had fallen.

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The C&GSC text ;has a very detailed account of the action.Quote the relevant section or acknowledge that you posted spurious information in support of your position.

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First of all, Smith, Yeates and TW Custer's combined front is about 900 yards, not 1300. That's not at all excessive for three companies. A modern infantry company of about that size would be expected to hold up to 1500 meters (1650 yards, or thereabouts.)

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if they receive command, prepare to fight—ONFOOT, would instantly dismount, leaving their horses with the numbers 4, who remain mounted, and form a line of skirmishers, with from two to three paces intervals, faced toward the enemy.

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In practice, defensive lines are not built up by placing individuals, but by placing units. The cavalry company of that era had two platoons, and the best approach would be to base the line on platoons, with gaps between platoons covered by fire. Within the platoons, the best approach would be by threes -- with one being the horseholder.

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A hundred years earlier, British Infantry prided themselves on firing 5 shots a minute -- with flintlock muzzle loaders! The '73 carbine could be shot faster than that.

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I fully admit that the battle dynamics you imagine are not the same as those I have seen and experienced. But I point out that Custer fought a real battle, not an imaginary battle.

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An Eyewitness Account by the Lakota Chief Red Horse
All the Sioux watched around the hill on which were the soldiers until a Sioux man came and said many walking soldiers were coming near. The coming of the walking soldiers was the saving of the soldiers on the hill. Sioux can not fight the walking soldiers [infantry], being afraid of them, so the Sioux hurriedly left.

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two to three paces is not much of an interval between trooper

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Manual states:

leaving their horses with the numbers 4,

I believe 4 is the horseholder

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My point is that infantry tactics seemed to have frightened the Indians. If one is highly knowledge in those tactics, it does not imply that it carries over to cavalry tactics and Indian methods of fighting. There are some that remain the same but that does not mean all the tactics and strategies are the same.

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The banks of the Little Bighorn river were high, and the Sioux killed many of the soldiers while crossing. The soldiers on the hill dug up the ground [i.e., made earth-works], and the soldiers and Sioux fought at long range, sometimes the Sioux charging close up. The fight continued at long range until a Sioux man saw the walking soldiers coming. When the walking soldiers came near the Sioux became afraid and ran away.
[TEXT: Garrick Mallery, Picture Writing of the American Indians,
10th Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology (1893).]

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Vern the big difference between cavalry tactics and infantry tactics should be intuitive. The horse has a mind of its own and adheres to fight or flight survival mechanisms unless properly trained. Also you would have to dig a big hole for your horse. (JOKE)

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DC here is where the statement came from including the text.


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The banks of the Little Bighorn river were high, and the Sioux killed many of the soldiers while crossing. The soldiers on the hill dug up the ground [i.e., made earth-works], and the soldiers and Sioux fought at long range, sometimes the Sioux charging close up. The fight continued at long range until a Sioux man saw the walking soldiers coming. When the walking soldiers came near the Sioux became afraid and ran away.
[TEXT: Garrick Mallery, Picture Writing of the American Indians,
10th Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology (1893).]

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Do i believe it. I don't know enough about the author or the Indian interviewed making the statement to answer that question. If it were true though then infantry tactics were different. Why either person would make this up in 1893 doesn't make sense to me either.

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But dismounted cavalry fights pretty much as infantry does.This is of course is straight out of Harry Potter's C&GSC manual of legless infantry tactics which gave us that super dooper 900 yard long Custer's very own Seigfrid line.Matched only by the 700 yard thin red line at Rorke's drift.
DC you are far too dismissive of Military etiquette.Take for example the killing zones as outlined in the SG&CC manual[don't ask me for the quote].There is a drill for the two troopers at each end of the gap to turn inwards if a breakthrough should occur and to pour a deadly hail of two rounds into the mass of unfortunate savages milling around in great confusion in this death trap.

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BJMarkland Colonel- July 07 2005 : 5:24:18 P

Every fourth trooper acted as a horseholder not third. There are some Indian reports from the Custer battle of single troopers on Calhoun Hill holding more than four horses indicating that some horseholders may have been detailed to either reinforce the line or take ammunition to Calhoun's company.

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But one of the reasons the Indians always lost in the end was their warriors' Short Attention Span Theatre approach to war. Drudgery and slow, incremental steps were women's work, their attitude towards farming and civilization.

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Also you would have to dig a big hole for your horse.
AZ you are so out of touch with advanced tactics for riderless horses.Before going into action the horse is given an extra feed of oats.The resultant gas is utlised to inflate its own hole.

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