William O. Taylor

[joewiggs]

Taylor was a member of the 7Th. cavalry. He was a member of Reno's battalion and,of course, participated in the "Timber" action. Taylor developed a manuscript sometime after the battle in hopes of having a book published. Sadly, he was unable to accomplish that feat before his death A mere 5'4" inches in height, this young man had numerous comments of great interest regarding the participants in the battle.

He was actually there! I think it will be an informative object lesson to discuss and share some of Taylor's worthy insights"


"When the roses bloom again along the river,
and the war cry of the Sioux is hushed for aye,
as in the days of Auld Lang Syn I'll be with you comrades mine,
on the Little Big Horn River,far away.

William O. Taylor


"For over two hours after the arrival of Captain Benteen's command we remained there on the bluff, unmolested in any manner.....We had heard firing off in the general direction Custer was suppose to have gone. 'Why don't we move?' was a question asked by more than one.

The three troops that had been engaged in the valley were, it is true, somewhat demoralized, but there was no excuse for the whole command to remain inactive."

Taylor's lament resonates through the corridors of time to this very day yet, remains unanswered to this very day.

[whitebull]

Now here's a dude who managed to escape from the timber, climb up the bluffs, and get shot at by a whole lot of Indians asking why he was not moving out to help Custer. We are talking about a grunt! A man on the bottom of the totem poll wanting to help but the officers did nothing until it was too late. Man that is sad!

[joewiggs]

Being psychologically overwhelmed in combat may happen to the bravest as well as those not so brave. A critical combination of training, equipment, close proximity of the enemy, and most importantly;leadership!

Firm leadership is critical during critical moments. The ability for Euro-American armies to effectively commit to battle is predicated upon training and honed on the edge of strong leadership and presence.

Had the men under Reno been led with confidence and determination, there exist an outstanding possibility that these men would have fared much better than they did.

Indians were not prone to rush a well defended area such as occupied by Reno and Company. Reno's inability to secure the flanks within the timber allowed several warriors to enter from the rear and fire at close range which killed Custer's favorite scout and, at least, one soldier. The warriors responsible for this immediately fled, were not pursued and escaped. Reno exited the timber shortly after.

Given the same set of circumstances but, substitute Benteen for Reno and the out come would have been different;no question!

[tbw]

Joe,

I'm wondering about a statement Taylor made. I'd like to know if that statement was ever confirmed. He stated, "The warriors responsible for this immediately fled, were not pursued and escaped...." I'm not sure that was the case. Can this be confirmed? I believe it was Herendeen who held off about some 20 odd warriors by himself before he fled back to the assembly area, and I believe this was, as he described it in a different area of the battlefield giving the impression that they were being surrounded. If that was the case and the Indians knew this, I doubt they would have "fled" but would have pursued their quarry as they did on Custer's field.

Where I'm going with this is that statement in particular really lends a for certain truth as to why Reno could have done what else he was reported to have done and had been berated for. I'm speaking in particular here about that "mount, dismount, mount" business. If it was as Taylor reported, that these Indians took flight after firing then Reno's orders make sense; to paraphrase, "Alright boys, mount". The Indians begin their firing and he decides to immediately confront them and announces, "dismount". BUT, they immediately run away after firing. "Oh what the$%#^&&**(, Mount". If he was saying all of that to discredit Reno, it wasn't going to and didn't work.

ke Pau 'ana