How much different would the outcome have been if Custer's men had been armed with decent rifles instead of the crappy single shot Springfields that they had? True, they were breechloaders, but the black powder tended to collect in the barrels during a battle, causing problems if enogh shots were fired.
I realise that the Henry was a very expensive [$300?] weapon, but it fired 16 shots; the Spencer would discharge 7 without reloading, not sure how many the Winchester '73 model held in its magazine. Surely the generals had gotten over 'the soldiers will waste too many bullets' foolishness by then; after all, it was 11 years after the civil war ended. I presume they were just being cheap, making the men fight with an inferior weapon. Many of Crazy Horse's warriors did have Winchesters, unlike a movie I saw when I was a kid [The Great Sioux Massacre] I don't believe many of these braves had to face the &th Cavalry with just bows and aarrows. [In the movie, Custer got an arrow in his back, in real life bullets killed him]
So for the sake of arguement, say they are all armed with Spencers; can that change the outcome of the battle? For sure, Crazy Horse will lose a lot more men. I read somewhere that only 43 Indians were killed, then I also heard that the true number was 169, which seems more realistic, considering they not only had to deal with Custer's 5 companies, but those with Reno and Benteen as well. And if Custer is successful, do they just drive the warriors off, or do they surrender en masse? The latter, I suspect, since the women and children can't easily flee. What happens then, probably something similar to what happened in OTL, except it begins 5 years earlier. In OTL, Sitting Bull took most of the Lakota up into Canada, and returned in 1881, to go onto the reservation and a miserable life. I don't know it this butterflies away Wounded Knee or not, come to think of it, probably not, that crazy Paiute will likely do his ghost dance in TTL also.
I realise that the Henry was a very expensive [$300?] weapon, but it fired 16 shots; the Spencer would discharge 7 without reloading, not sure how many the Winchester '73 model held in its magazine. Surely the generals had gotten over 'the soldiers will waste too many bullets' foolishness by then; after all, it was 11 years after the civil war ended. I presume they were just being cheap, making the men fight with an inferior weapon. Many of Crazy Horse's warriors did have Winchesters, unlike a movie I saw when I was a kid [The Great Sioux Massacre] I don't believe many of these braves had to face the &th Cavalry with just bows and aarrows. [In the movie, Custer got an arrow in his back, in real life bullets killed him]
So for the sake of arguement, say they are all armed with Spencers; can that change the outcome of the battle? For sure, Crazy Horse will lose a lot more men. I read somewhere that only 43 Indians were killed, then I also heard that the true number was 169, which seems more realistic, considering they not only had to deal with Custer's 5 companies, but those with Reno and Benteen as well. And if Custer is successful, do they just drive the warriors off, or do they surrender en masse? The latter, I suspect, since the women and children can't easily flee. What happens then, probably something similar to what happened in OTL, except it begins 5 years earlier. In OTL, Sitting Bull took most of the Lakota up into Canada, and returned in 1881, to go onto the reservation and a miserable life. I don't know it this butterflies away Wounded Knee or not, come to think of it, probably not, that crazy Paiute will likely do his ghost dance in TTL also.