Custer captured

Would they even try? IIRC they considered Custer an oathbreaker because he had promised he would never fight the Indians again.
 
WI, instead of being killed at the Little Big Horn, Custer is badly wounded and captured by the Indians?

Is the magnitude of Custer's OTL loss unchanged? If so, then a badly wounded Custer will die on the battlefield and will die a gruesome and painful death.
 
The Sioux and other Western tribes of that era generally didn't take prisoners, and when they did, it tended to be women and children who they planned to adopt into the tribe rather than adult males. Adult males taken prisoner were usually taken prisoner for some special purpose...usually to be tortured to death as part of a victory celebration.

So if he's well enough to travel, they might take him and make a really horrific example out of him at some point later on...no more than a few days after the battle. If he's badly wounded enough that he can't travel, they'll just kill him on the field.
 
The price of failure

OK say Custer decides that the battle is lost and manages to escape and make his way back to Reno's position?

I forsee newspaper headlines saying:

CUSTER EXECUTION SET FOR JUNE 3O!

I mean he pushed his troops and horses into battle against overwhelming odds after denying them food, water or sleep for 24 hours and got half his command killed. He wasn't supposed to go in alone, he was supposed to wait for Crook. That, unknown to Custer, Crook had already been defeated was hardly a justification for attacking a force of unknown size under the circumstances.

A courtmarshall prosecutor - or just an eastern editorial writer - would argue he let his ego overide good sense to a totally inexcuseable degree. It would have been a circus, and everyone involved in organising the 1876 campaign would have been trying to shift the blame onto him. Given that all the people in the 7th who actually LIKED Custer were at the last stand with him there would be no one knowledgeable to defend his conduct.
 
We've received an ultimatum from Sitting Bull! They've captured General Custer and unless we agree to their demands he will be released!
 
I wouldn't say Custer was -that- bad of a commander. He did alright for himself in the Civil War.

His two main problems during the Indian Wars were that he didn't respect the opposition and that he was out for personal glory. Both these blinded him to the fact that he was in over his head.
 
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