The Springfield's .45-70 cases were expanding in the chamber, the troops were forced to use pocket knives (if they had any) to get the cases out.

Pocket knives and broken knife blades were later found on the battlefield.

The US Army was selling war surplus Spencer's & Henry's at Amerind reservation trading posts, that also sold Colt revolvers, Winchester repeaters and etc.

Henry was the for-runner of Winchester. Oliver Winchester, a shirt maker, invested in Henry, when they went broke, Winchester bought the company.

The model 1866 was an improved Henry, both were in caliber .44 Henry Rimfire. A few late 1866's were in .44 WCF aka .44-40.

 

Well Ok, was the ammo real old or corroded or something? Normally the extractors work fine. The unit had a Gatling gun they could have brought too, but they didn't. That woulda been kinda handy I bet.

 

The ammo was fresh, but the cases were bronze, split and got stuck in the hot chambers.

There were two Gatling guns, both were left behind at Fort Lincoln because the mules used to pull them were spavined.

How much good the Gatling's would have done in the tall grassy slopes adjoining the Little Big Horn River is questionable. Plus Custer divided his troops.

Those under Reno charged the south end of the village, then when Reno panicked, had to retreat across the river, then up a hill.

Custer sent Benteen out to scout west of the river. His troops ended up on what became Reno Hill.

The pack train was left behind, then Custer rode across the ridge, was planning to attack the north end of the village. One could only guess what he said when he saw the HUGE village.

Indian agents had underreported the number that had left the reservations. Custer was expecting between 1,000-1,500 total indians, but there were about 10,000 Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, Sans Arc, Brule, plus a few Arapaho there.

One of the Arapaho was named 'Goes in Lodge.' In the 1910's he met Tim McCoy, who was working as a ranch hand in Wyoming. McCoy could converse as he knew indian sign language. McCoy served in WWI, then was appointed the Adjutant General of Wyoming. In 1922, he was hired by Jesse Lasky of Famous Players-Lasky (became Paramount Pictures in 1923) to provide Indians for the battle scenes for "The Covered Wagon" (Paramount: 1923).

When the film was shown in London, McCoy took Goes in Lodge, the other indians along. They made a ruckus in the boarding house they were living at.

McCoy later became a star in Western films, had a local TV show discussing indian history in the early 50's here in LA LA Land on KTLA Channel 5.

In 1977, he wrote a book "Tim McCoy Remembers The West." It has little to do with his Hollywood career, it's mainly on his experiences involving Indian lore.

btw: When Goes in Lodge first viewed the Atlantic Ocean, he commented: "Big lake, cannot see across."

 

I agree with GenX66...always a pleasure to listen and learn a little about other topics while on this site. While I don't consider myself a history buff, I do really enjoy learning about certain important events. I've got the good fortune where I live here in Ohio to be very near a few tie-ins to the Civil War: I work in Lancaster and drive past the Sherman House 2x every day (his childhood home) and live just outside of Somerset which has a statue of Little Phil Sheridan on a horse in the middle of town. Grew up in a town that was home to the Fighting McCooks which is an interesting family history where 15+ members of the same family fought in the war. Good stuff...carry on!

 

General William Tecumseh Sherman's famous quote: "War is Hell."

When friends urged him to run for president, he said something like this: "If nominated, I will not run. If elected, I will not serve."

 

And for the opposing view (sorta) by J.S. Mill

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth a war, is much worse. When a people are used as mere human instruments for firing cannon or thrusting bayonets, in the service and for the selfish purposes of a master, such war degrades a people. A war to protect other human beings against tyrannical injustice; a war to give victory to their own ideas of right and good, and which is their own war, carried on for an honest purpose by their free choice, — is often the means of their regeneration. A man who has nothing which he is willing to fight for, nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety, is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. As long as justice and injustice have not terminated their ever-renewing fight for ascendancy in the affairs of mankind, human beings must be willing, when need is, to do battle for the one against the other."

 

I had never heard of J.S. Mill, so I looked him up on wiki-wiki.