Post by Mike Robel on Jul 1, 2022 2:19:14 GMT
This very interesting thread got started on Board Game Geek covering so.e civil war maps that I think bears on many of our discussions about the LBH.
The thread talks about the lack of good guides and accurate maps and the results of not knowing where you are or where anyone else is.
Today's game maps are more accurate than period maps. Maps were frequently drawn after the battle and commanders did not have that detail.
Even with guides, i believr no one in the 7th knew where they were going or their actual location or even really what time it was beyond looming at the sun.
There were no accurate maps showing the course of the Rivers. They had no idea where the natives were until maybe they got to the crows nest.
Thus, Custer sent Bentsen without scouts, maps, or a doctor on his reconnaissance to the South. Benteen probably had no idea where he was, where the enemy was, where the Regiment would be, or which stream or river course would take him to the LBH and he had no way to know when he reached the LBH. He only found the regiment because he turned north. I don't think he mentions even using a compass.
Thus our reliance on using maps drawn after the battle, whether sketch maps by soldiers, engineering maps drawn after the battle and revised in some cases, or the difficult to interpret Native maps only shed partial light on the battle
The only maps that we can really use to understand the battle are those which place artifacts on the map showing their found location. The markers have some utility, but not enough precision to really help. Artifacts and markers do not show direction of movement. Even the ground lies to us, perhaps not as much as Thermopylae or Cannae, but enough to distort our understanding. Lack of Surviving orders does not show us the regiments task organization or clusters intent except to "attack" A "village".
The whole conduct of the battle is an enigma wrapped within the very dense fog of war.
The thread talks about the lack of good guides and accurate maps and the results of not knowing where you are or where anyone else is.
Today's game maps are more accurate than period maps. Maps were frequently drawn after the battle and commanders did not have that detail.
Even with guides, i believr no one in the 7th knew where they were going or their actual location or even really what time it was beyond looming at the sun.
There were no accurate maps showing the course of the Rivers. They had no idea where the natives were until maybe they got to the crows nest.
Thus, Custer sent Bentsen without scouts, maps, or a doctor on his reconnaissance to the South. Benteen probably had no idea where he was, where the enemy was, where the Regiment would be, or which stream or river course would take him to the LBH and he had no way to know when he reached the LBH. He only found the regiment because he turned north. I don't think he mentions even using a compass.
Thus our reliance on using maps drawn after the battle, whether sketch maps by soldiers, engineering maps drawn after the battle and revised in some cases, or the difficult to interpret Native maps only shed partial light on the battle
The only maps that we can really use to understand the battle are those which place artifacts on the map showing their found location. The markers have some utility, but not enough precision to really help. Artifacts and markers do not show direction of movement. Even the ground lies to us, perhaps not as much as Thermopylae or Cannae, but enough to distort our understanding. Lack of Surviving orders does not show us the regiments task organization or clusters intent except to "attack" A "village".
The whole conduct of the battle is an enigma wrapped within the very dense fog of war.
