WI Little Big Horn

What if Custer had put Benteen in charge of Reno's Battalion and send Reno on the scouting expedition to the left? Benteen was one tough soldier who was a dynamic, gifted leader, imbued with a killer's instinct. In spite of his intense hatred for Custer, he would have carried out Custer's orders to the letter, come hell, highwater or Indian resistance.

Would Benteen had charged the Indian village and scattered their ponies? Could he had the massive pony herd geting stampeded, leaving the overwhelming majority of warriors to fight on foot?

Or would he had ended up slaughtered by the Indian counter-attack?
 
According to the versions I have read in various books he definitely had surprise on his side according to the Cheyenne and Sioux who gave oral accounts later. He might have pulled it off. However those same accounts say that there was a lot of anger and confidence from the fight the previous week at Rosebud with Crook, and at Washita the Cheyenne at least recovered very quickly. I suspect Benteen would have scattered the herd all right, and then would have been shoot to ribbons by the response. Those accounts say a lot of the fighting took place on foot on the part of the Native American warriors, who were using cover and concealment to deal with the the troops once they stopped. A lot of the command was lost in a "Buffalo Hunt" type pursuit on horseback, but once they stopped, it was a light infantry assault with some horse back charges at the end.

It is how they attacked Reno when his command took cover in the woods too.

My guess, Benteen loses most if not all of his command, and then Custer charges in and a general battle occurs in the encampment itself. It would have been bloodier for the Native Americans but I suspect we might have lost the entire regiment instead of merely over half of it. Poor Reno then comes up with the pack train (or both arrive independently) and possibly survives but also possibly gets wiped out too.

A big problem is that the Army horses were extremely fatigued after forced marches leading to the battle and they don't have much endurance. A quick charge and then break out on horse back seems unlikely because of the condition of the Army mounts.
 
Yes, I agree.

The horse and the men were exhausted from the marches, so a day of resting would have been great. However, the Indians may had run away, and that's something Custer wanted to avoid at all costs, thus the attack, with tired troops

Benteen would have been annhilated, because of the massive numbers of the Indians. Once the surprise is lost and the Indians counter-attack, Benteen is finished, unless he manages to do some kind of lighthing attack, scatering the herd and then running away as fast as possible, loosing some men in the process. Could that be possible?

And as soon as Custer charges, he's still a in difficult position, even if the Indians are unhorsed, again, numbers are on their side, even if a part of them are racing behind Benteen. Unless he manages to do a Washinta again and get some dozens of women and children to use them as human shields to cover their withdraw, he's doind a death ride.

Perhaps the best option for Custer to win at LBH is not to fight at LBH at all.
 
Understand Custer, Reno and Benteen combined were 1/3 the force of the Lakota and Cheyanne which a good number had better repeating firearms than the any of the soldiers, you are looking at 500 dead instead of the 250. The only way Custer and Company win is A) they do not charge head long at the encampment and B) they have repeating rifles. The single shot carbines jammed by using faulty ammo, the horses which had reserve ammo were chased off leaving many to fight with their revolvers against rifles. It was no contest. The only difference would be that women and children would be dead now, not just warriors.
 
Indeed. Even if, as I've read, only a quarter of the Lakota and Cheyanne had firearms, that's a huge number of them.

If just the 7th Cavalry had it still used the seven-shot Spencers it carried at the Washita battle in 1868, perhaps tthe LBH could have ended in some other way. Or with just a few more Indians casualties and little else.

But weapons are no better than the men who use them, and markmanship training in the 1870s was almost nil.
 
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