26-06-2012, 04:13 AM
It's been a long time (obviously) since I visited this thread but I couldn't help return when the article at Salon [cited at the bottom of this post below the asterisks divider] came to my attention. I haven't read it thoroughly or seriously; I post it here on the off-chance that someone will find it of interest. I do not suggest it has serious insights into Drago'a hypothesis.
OTOH, the book by Lieutenant-Colonel (Retd) Roman Jarymowycz, OMM, CD, Ph.D., a decorated Canadian soldier and military educator.
[ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Jarymowycz ] entitled "Cavalry: From Hoof to Track" [Stackpole Military History Series, 2008], on pages 113-117, makes the point [color emphases by Jewett] that the Plains Indian had access to very high caliber of horses: "the Comanche like to boast that they permitted to Spanish to stay in Texas simply to raise horses for them." [He cites Dennison's a history of cavalry, page 497]. These breeds included Arabians , Lippizaners and others introduced by the Spanish and which eventually produced the Mustang.
"The Apache and Sioux… proved masters of maneuver warfare and [were] expert guerrillas". Citing Swift's "history of the 5th US Calvary", he speaks of their expertise at securing "the advantage of surprise": "the preferred method of engagement was to lure American cavalry into a killing zone in rough terrain and then attempt a close-quarter battle".
Citing 3 references, he notes that "U.S. Army officers, who fought them, called Comanche Indians 'the finest light cavalry in the world.'
"Custer's command penetrated deeply into Sioux (Lakota) territory and fought a series of skirmishes against a Sioux-Cheyenne alliance led by Chief Sitting Bull. Finally, Custer set out to find and destroy the main encampment. The raid was a series of blundersineffective reconnaissance was the greatest failure. The 7th Cavalry of the 1870s was not a crack unit. Custer relied on hired Crow Indian scouts and not his own troopers. He tend to suspect the information he could get, and for all practical purposes, he was tactically blind. Custer's skittish command stylequite the opposite of his… exploits in the Civil Warproved him less adept in maneuvering a single horsed regiment than a brigade of Union cavalry. Brig. Gen. Frederick Benteen, who commanded a reinforced squadron at the Little Big Horn battle, found Custer "vain, arrogant and egotistical". [Benteen added later: "I'm only too proud to say that I despised him."
Sitting Bull caught Custer's force deployed piecemeal. The 7th cavalry's notorious battle was actually a series of uncoordinated dismounted dragoons actions far from skirmish lines and, in some cases, rough shell scrapes. [Benteen's] initial failure to reinforce Custer has been criticized in a battle when no American cavaliers demonstrated fingerspitzengefuhl."
That last term is defined on page 3 of the book as "a sixth sense, intutive comprehension: 'thinking in the saddle' ".
****
http://www.salon.com/2010/05/07/philbric...ast_stand/
THURSDAY, MAY 6, 2010 09:01 PM EDTGeorge Custer: An American embarrassment
An award-winning author exposes gruesome details about Little Bighorn and revisits the story of its much-hated hero
BY TOM CARSON, [URL="http://bnreview.barnesandnoble.com/"]BARNES & NOBLE REVIEW
http://www.salon.com/2010/05/07/philbric...ast_stand/[/URL]
OTOH, the book by Lieutenant-Colonel (Retd) Roman Jarymowycz, OMM, CD, Ph.D., a decorated Canadian soldier and military educator.
[ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Jarymowycz ] entitled "Cavalry: From Hoof to Track" [Stackpole Military History Series, 2008], on pages 113-117, makes the point [color emphases by Jewett] that the Plains Indian had access to very high caliber of horses: "the Comanche like to boast that they permitted to Spanish to stay in Texas simply to raise horses for them." [He cites Dennison's a history of cavalry, page 497]. These breeds included Arabians , Lippizaners and others introduced by the Spanish and which eventually produced the Mustang.
"The Apache and Sioux… proved masters of maneuver warfare and [were] expert guerrillas". Citing Swift's "history of the 5th US Calvary", he speaks of their expertise at securing "the advantage of surprise": "the preferred method of engagement was to lure American cavalry into a killing zone in rough terrain and then attempt a close-quarter battle".
Citing 3 references, he notes that "U.S. Army officers, who fought them, called Comanche Indians 'the finest light cavalry in the world.'
"Custer's command penetrated deeply into Sioux (Lakota) territory and fought a series of skirmishes against a Sioux-Cheyenne alliance led by Chief Sitting Bull. Finally, Custer set out to find and destroy the main encampment. The raid was a series of blundersineffective reconnaissance was the greatest failure. The 7th Cavalry of the 1870s was not a crack unit. Custer relied on hired Crow Indian scouts and not his own troopers. He tend to suspect the information he could get, and for all practical purposes, he was tactically blind. Custer's skittish command stylequite the opposite of his… exploits in the Civil Warproved him less adept in maneuvering a single horsed regiment than a brigade of Union cavalry. Brig. Gen. Frederick Benteen, who commanded a reinforced squadron at the Little Big Horn battle, found Custer "vain, arrogant and egotistical". [Benteen added later: "I'm only too proud to say that I despised him."
Sitting Bull caught Custer's force deployed piecemeal. The 7th cavalry's notorious battle was actually a series of uncoordinated dismounted dragoons actions far from skirmish lines and, in some cases, rough shell scrapes. [Benteen's] initial failure to reinforce Custer has been criticized in a battle when no American cavaliers demonstrated fingerspitzengefuhl."
That last term is defined on page 3 of the book as "a sixth sense, intutive comprehension: 'thinking in the saddle' ".
****
http://www.salon.com/2010/05/07/philbric...ast_stand/
THURSDAY, MAY 6, 2010 09:01 PM EDTGeorge Custer: An American embarrassment
An award-winning author exposes gruesome details about Little Bighorn and revisits the story of its much-hated hero
BY TOM CARSON, [URL="http://bnreview.barnesandnoble.com/"]BARNES & NOBLE REVIEW
http://www.salon.com/2010/05/07/philbric...ast_stand/[/URL]
"Where is the intersection between the world's deep hunger and your deep gladness?"