Post by tbw on Mar 26, 2011 8:49:08 GMT -5
Custer's personal estimate of the number of warriors at the LBH was around 1800. How far off was he?
Custer had about 225 men in his battalion. If every man fired their Trapdoor Carbine's just once and fired all the ammo in their pistols just once, without reloads, how many Indians would they have killed? The answer - If every man hit their mark - 1,575 Killed or wounded Indians.
If they hit half of what they aimed at? 778 killed or wounded.
If they hit a quarter of what they aimed at? 384 killed or wounded.
I could of course continue this exercise. But I think it highlights an important fact. 1) Either they were poorly trained and couldn't hit the broad side of a barn, or 2) It was as the Indians said, that this battle was over in about 20 minutes... AND some, if not most of these men didn't even get to fire a round, that is, if one believes that there were less than 100 Indian casualties inflicted by Custer's men. And if they actually stood there and fought for an hour or more? Just how preposterous is that? Well, Reno stated that on his field there was what he described as "heavy firing" of his skirmish line for about 20 minutes. When timed, and properly researched, this figures out to be about 3 rounds per minute. If Custer's men were 'heavy firing', and some men in Reno's command said they were, and they were firing "heavily" for an hour or perhaps more, how many bullets would they have had to have expended in just that hours time? For one man, at 3 bullets per minute, that figures out to be 180 bullets. They didn't have 180 bullets per man, they had about 100 for their Carbines and 25 for their revolvers. And the number of Indian dead or wounded if they had hit just 1/4th of the targets they aimed at for those 125 bullets? 125 X 225 = 28,125 bullets fired / 4 = 7,031 killed or wounded Indians in less than 1 hours time. Pretty bad shots I'd say, OR was it those blasted Trapdoor Carbines that had the range and the power to drop those Indians at long range? Hmmm.... Food for thought....
Custer had about 225 men in his battalion. If every man fired their Trapdoor Carbine's just once and fired all the ammo in their pistols just once, without reloads, how many Indians would they have killed? The answer - If every man hit their mark - 1,575 Killed or wounded Indians.
If they hit half of what they aimed at? 778 killed or wounded.
If they hit a quarter of what they aimed at? 384 killed or wounded.
I could of course continue this exercise. But I think it highlights an important fact. 1) Either they were poorly trained and couldn't hit the broad side of a barn, or 2) It was as the Indians said, that this battle was over in about 20 minutes... AND some, if not most of these men didn't even get to fire a round, that is, if one believes that there were less than 100 Indian casualties inflicted by Custer's men. And if they actually stood there and fought for an hour or more? Just how preposterous is that? Well, Reno stated that on his field there was what he described as "heavy firing" of his skirmish line for about 20 minutes. When timed, and properly researched, this figures out to be about 3 rounds per minute. If Custer's men were 'heavy firing', and some men in Reno's command said they were, and they were firing "heavily" for an hour or perhaps more, how many bullets would they have had to have expended in just that hours time? For one man, at 3 bullets per minute, that figures out to be 180 bullets. They didn't have 180 bullets per man, they had about 100 for their Carbines and 25 for their revolvers. And the number of Indian dead or wounded if they had hit just 1/4th of the targets they aimed at for those 125 bullets? 125 X 225 = 28,125 bullets fired / 4 = 7,031 killed or wounded Indians in less than 1 hours time. Pretty bad shots I'd say, OR was it those blasted Trapdoor Carbines that had the range and the power to drop those Indians at long range? Hmmm.... Food for thought....