03-07-2011, 03:14 AM
Phil,
The Gatling guns were, in the words of the under-appreciated novelist Douglas C. Jones, more effective "shooting fish in the Yellowstone.
Put aside for a moment the fact that the terrain and the circumstances of the LBH engagement as it unfolded would have precluded use of the G-guns. Even if the terrain had been ideal for their application, the betrayal of Custer by Captain Benteen makes it all moot.
I won't rehash here what I've written elsewhere. Suffice to say that, like all intelligence operations (although they weren't referred to as such in the period), the betrayal of Custer had at least two objectives. And while your Oswald/Custer comparison breaks down at secondary levels, it is most valid and eloquently applied to the degree that you do so.
Custer was indeed martyred at LBH, and subsequent abominations including but hardly culminating in Wounded Knee were justified by the "massacre" of his command.
CD
The Gatling guns were, in the words of the under-appreciated novelist Douglas C. Jones, more effective "shooting fish in the Yellowstone.
Put aside for a moment the fact that the terrain and the circumstances of the LBH engagement as it unfolded would have precluded use of the G-guns. Even if the terrain had been ideal for their application, the betrayal of Custer by Captain Benteen makes it all moot.
I won't rehash here what I've written elsewhere. Suffice to say that, like all intelligence operations (although they weren't referred to as such in the period), the betrayal of Custer had at least two objectives. And while your Oswald/Custer comparison breaks down at secondary levels, it is most valid and eloquently applied to the degree that you do so.
Custer was indeed martyred at LBH, and subsequent abominations including but hardly culminating in Wounded Knee were justified by the "massacre" of his command.
CD