Custer's Decision to Attack the Lakotas

I think anything that gets you and everybody with you killed deserves a 5.

And the Souix had repeating rifles too.

Pretty much what Randy says, except for this small quibble. The bulk of the military credit on the Sioux/Cheyenne side of the equation should go to Gall and Lame White Man, not Sitting Bull.

UPDATE: I hold no brief for Custer, but I point out the definition of massacre: The act or instance of killing a number of usually helpless or unresisting human beings under circumstances of atrocity or cruelty. The Battle of the Bulge is a Battle--Malmedy was a massacre. Little Big Horn started out as a battle but when the wounded and prisoners were killed without mercy, that is a massacre. As to Wounded Knee, two or three dozen soldiers were killed in that fracas. The reason why so many non-combatants died is that the warriors who were shooting at the troops were mixed up with the others. The Hotchkiss Guns and Springfields that replied, were unable to differentiate. Unlike Little Big Horn, hunreds of prisoners and wounded survived the battle. It has only been the last thirty to forty years that Wounded Knee moved from a battle to a massacre. For my money that is political correctness when you look at the facts. Thanks for the discussion! END UPDATE If he'd kept his com... Read more

I don't know, would he have done anything of weight if he had lived? I doubt it! Custer was a hack who died a hacks death, that being one that was the direct result of his own screw ups. After his death he was improperly enshrined as a hero instead of the bozo we now know him to be.

Personally, I think we should've kept our asses in Europe and never attacked ANY Indian people. As for Custer, MORON! Scouts tried to tell him..................he did it anyway. Now, I think Indians were and are smarter than any of us ever were, but if we wanted to call them savages, I guess they showed our dumb asses how savage they could be? They didn't see anything civil about war after dealing with us a few times. I guess they figured, hell, you wanna fight? Let's go. What use did they have for a dumbass American prisoner? You don't wanna die, you wanna whine about massacre?.......................then don't cross the country destroying everything in your path.

Genghis my friend, I'm going to have to repectfully disagree with you on this one. Wounded Knee was a massacre. Custer's devastating defeat at the hands of Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and the entire Souix and Cheyenne nations were the direct result of his own inflated ego, and his own miscalculations. Had Custer been attacked unprovoked, maybe it could be called a massacre. What was sitting Bull to do. Send away half of his men, so as better to ensure a more balance battle? No, Sitting Bull out manuevered him, out flanked him and assured himself a victory, something all great generals and war chiefs are supposed to do. The Native Americans were not the bad guys here, and for the same token niether was Custer. It was a clash of cultures, and as far as Indians were concerned, a battle for survival. Using the logic of sheer numbers as being unfair, were the Native Americans over the course of history defeated fairly? I don't think you can make the case that they were. In the long run, it wa... Read more

If he hadn't had his head up his politically ambitious bum he might have been able to figure this out. But he was blinded by the dazzle of fame and glory. What an egomaniacle dumb ass.

Certainly the worst career move in American history. The wise course would have been to withdraw and wait for reinforcements, but the Democratic convention was only a couple of weeks away and Custer was sweaty for a splashy victory to ignite his candidacy. The result of the battle ruined his political hopes.