DP 12. Luce Ridge

[Deleted]

DP	Who	Timeline	Location	Local Time	Clock Time	Event
12	Custer	R	VIC Luce Ridge DD: -107382 45.556 MGRS: 13CTL13084766	1345	1442	Custer, Keogh and Yates assess Boston Custer's Information about Benteen. Custer decides he has betweein 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hours before Benteen arrives, so he needs to hurry his reconnaissance and position himslef where he can meet Benteen

Special Situation:  About this time, according to Wagner, Boston Custer tells his brother where Benteen was and that he met Martini, so Wagner thinks Custer thinks he has abut 1.5 to 2 hours till Benteen comes up. Little does Custer know his battle will be essentially be finished by then. I don't think he has a clear idea of the situation. Benteen should be coming up, but our discussion group has markedly different opinions about what Custer said and meant, what Benteen thought, and what Custer should do. When the Regiment seperated, there was no subsequent plan except find the enemy and attack.

Notes: 

(1) I have selected the Reconnaissance one as what Custer really did be meandering from vicinity of Luce Ridge, up Battle Ridge, over to Ford D, and back again.  Your value may differ.  

(2)  Unlike the other DPs, I have provided for a fourth choice in which people choose their own.  If you want to do that, then propose it, list the advantages and disadvantages and state why you think it is better than the others.

 




Course of Action 1
Attack across Ford B
Advantages
Carry the fight to the enemy; seize the initiative.
Splits the village.
I can gain protection by seizing women and children as prisoners.
Benteen can follow my trail to link up. Martini should be able to guide him.

Disadvantages
I probably need more combat power.
Open to being encircled and isolated.
Indians may be between me and Benteen.
Benteen may get encircled as he comes up.
If I am defeated, then I may not be able to defend and Benteen or Terry may not be able to get here in time.

Course of Action 2
Find a Defensive Position.
Advantages
That rise I went over (Reno Hill) looks good. Although right here looks pretty good. I could even go back to where Reno forded and perhaps link up with him.
Benteen can follow my trail to link up. Martini should be able to guide him.
I can assure mutual support of companies on the right ground.
Benteen will have a shorter distance to travel, therefore we can unite faster, and reduce chances of encirclement for both of us.
Terry is coming. He can ride to the sound of the guns. Perhaps he will be early.

Disadvantages
While I am okay on ammunition now, I will probably need more.
Open to being encircled and isolated.
Indians may be between me and Benteen.
Benteen may get encircled as he comes up.

***Course of Action 3***
Conduct Reconnaissance to find a good place to attack.
Advantages
Can find a better spot and gain to gain a decisive advantage.
Benteen can follow my trail to link up. Martini should be able to guide him.

Disadvantages
Need to provide all around security and am open to being strung out and having individual companies cut off, losing mutual support.
Not decisive.
Benteen may get encircled as he comes up.
We may have to fight just to link up and get itno a good position.
It will take longer to link up and attack (or defend) if I do not close the range between us or stay put.

Comparison. Defending is not decisive, but apparently there is a large enemy force and I do not have enough strength or ammunition to fight them in mass. If I attack across the Ford here, I split the village, but I set myself up for encirclement. If I look for another attack position, I am moving further away from the rest of the regiment and I risk the Indians chopping me up like a sausage. I think if I choose good ground, I can hold out against the Indians until Benteen comes up or we can unite before we are heavily engaged. Then with 9 companies, the trains, and maybe Reno, we should be able to defend successfully. Terry is coming.

Recommendation: Course of Action 2. Move along the backtrail toward Reno Hill. We will be able to unit faster, might even pick up Benteen. I'm confident the whole regiment can successfully defend until Terry comes close.

Commentary: Reno will soon be moving to his namesake hill, although nobody knows this and if they are able to unit, they will have eight companies and the deployment should be obvious to Benteen as he closes.  They will then have 10-11 company equivalents given possible losses and the regiment's understrength status. Of course it is possible Benteen will be intercepted and prevented from linking up, but even that may present an offensive possibility as the pressure may ease on Custer, Reno, and/or Benteen allowing a break in or break out and reuninting.  (A tough proposition.)

[Beth]

I voted find a defensive position and wait.
1) fear of the village feeling--it will take time for a village to flee, there are women, children and aged. The time waiting for Benteen will give the horses rest and they will be able to move faster.
2)If Benteen is estimated ~2 hours behind Custer cab follow probably with a larger force plus wouldn't be as far from the supplies.
3)From the Reno hill area Custer would be able to monitor Reno in the valley while waiting for Benteen and if needed re enforce the valley fight.
4)A small force could be sent on to do recon if needed and report back plus they might get a better feel where Terry and Gibbon are.

[quincannon]

COURSE OF ACTION 4 - UNITE THE REGIMENT:

Wagner has no earthly idea that Boston Custer informed his brother of anything. He may have, then again it may not have entered the pea brain of a kid who was only there for summer vacation. That would be nice to know if he did or did not, but seeing as we will never know it, it should not in my view even be part of our deliberative process.

Additionally we have no knowledge that Custer knew of any trouble Reno was having, Again maybe he did and maybe he did not. What we cannot do though in either instance is assume that Reno once he breaks out is going to head for Reno Hill. He was not heading there when he broke out, rather he was heading back to Ford A and got cut off. Reno got to Reno hill by virtue of accidental necessity.

By the same measure we do not know what Benteen would have done upon the receipt of the note, unless Custer took more proactive measures to insure that Benteen was directed to Custer's location, wherever Custer chooses that location to be.

This is not the time for defense. This is a time for reuniting all of your previously frittered away combat power, into a cohesive fist and hit the enemy as hard as you can at the first opportunity that presents itself. If that is this afternoon, OK. If it is tomorrow or the next day that's OK too. The only people that should be pussy footing are pussy cats.

Choose a place, bring you people in, turn them around, put some fight in those that need it, and act aggressively. Those Indians are not going to scatter, not with a regiment of cavalry at their back door, and another considerable force about to knock on the front. Going into a defensive posture as suggested in one of these courses of action is a guarantee that the Indians will take what is given them by your own inaction and do just what the campaign planners (and I am being very generous calling them that) feared - scatter to the four winds in the Big Horns.

NOTE: The pea brained comment was deliberate on my part. Boston Custer rode away from a job he was being paid well (for the times) for, to  hang out with his relatives. I would call anyone who walked off a job just to hang out with his buddies on a street corner a pea brain too. Under the Articles of War in force at the time a civilian employee is subject to the same rules of conduct as a soldier. Leaving your place of duty is desertion at worst, and dereliction at best, Both are serious, and Boston Custer's place of duty was with the trains, and no responsible authority gave him permission to leave his place of duty. To do so makes calling him a pea brain quite mild in my estimation.  

[mac]

Looking at the sequence of events so far;

Custer has sent Reno into the valley, ostensibly as an Advanced Guard, but has then chosen to veer right rather than enter the valley.

Purpose: There can only be one and that is to bypass the Warriors left flank.

Consequence: Custer must re enter the valley further North. The obvious place is Ford B.

Conclusion: Custer intended to move down MTC and enter the valley at Ford B expecting to be past the Indians.

Custer looks into the valley and sees the Big Village but cannot see how far North it goes. Soon after this he sends Martini back to Benteen with a note that can certainly be interpreted as calling Benteen to bring the pack train and join him. The only reason for this would be for Custer to attack at Ford B in greater strength.

Fact: one does not have to go to Ford B to see that there is a village straddling it. This is easily observed from higher up MTC.

This raises the question; Why is Custer even on Luce Ridge? Why put MTC in between you and the extra troops and supplies you have just called forward?

The further North Custer goes the more perplexing this becomes.

This is the key question.

Thoughts?

Cheers

[yanmacca]

Mac, the only reason I think why Custer took the actions he may have done in MTC, was that things must have changed when he entered the place.

I think that he did divide and a large portion went to Luce.
I also think that he crossed deep coulee in two groups or columns.

What he saw from leaving the heights of the bluffs and what encountered in MTC, made him Change tactics.
But what?

Mike, I would add another choice to the list, and it would be;

Would you make hell with what you got, because I don't think he went on the defensive or did reconnaissance work, he was Custer after all and he maintained offensive actions.