I have found the Time Life series to be useful for specific subjects. The photographs and woodcuts also add interest.
Returning to the LBH and the action at the ford, I would assume that the troopers would have had drawn pistols during this manoevre, the carbines being too cumbersome to be fired while galloping, if Custer was hit at this time it is doubtful if anyone would have bothered fishing around for his pistol. The original course of the stream has changed over the years, does anyone know if there has ever been an intensive metal detector search of this area? I think I am correct in saying that none of Custer's weapons have ever turned up, if one of his distinctive "Bulldog" pistols was found at the ford it would be fairly convincing proof.
Most Indian accounts state that the Gray Horse E Troop-with F Troop in support (Brule/Cheyenne/San Arcs accounts recall the "pretty white horses" and the noise of bugles) did not reach the river but pulled up sharp-dismounted and fired a number of rounds into the village.
Based on interviews with some Sioux and Cheyenne warriors conducted by Lieutenant Oscar Long of the Fifth Infantry long after the battle do we first hear that the Indians "killed an officer" where Custer made his first stand (or a brave bluff to draw off the Indian from Reno-hence the bugles) near the river. This soldier carried binoculars and a spinning needle in a wooden box-obviously these items were retrieved by the Indian after the battle. But in a seperate account, a Lakota named White Cow Bull, stated "The soldiers came down to [toward] the ford led by one with hairy lip and buckskin jacket on sorrel" The young warrior shot the officer while his companion hit a trooper carrying a guidon.
Now was this Custer? because the other strong contenders could be either Lieutenant Algernon Smith or 2nd Lieutenant James Sturgis (the son of the 7th Cavalry Commander)-strong clues here-Smith's body would be found on Last Stand Hill and not with the rest of E Troop and young Sturgis's body would never be found.
The column (remember this was the left wing) remounted and moved northward across the high ground separating Medicine Tail and Deep Coulees-Meanwhile the right wing- which could have included Custer if he was not shot at the ford-are fighting a rear guard action as the Indian strength increases. They paused and possibly dismounted at a place that today is called Luce Ridge-roughly opposite Weir Point. This ridge was named after Edward Luce, who as Superintendent of the Custer Battlefield in the 1930/40's here discovered dozens of empty cartridges from the cavalry's trapdoor carbines, the cases were found in piles, indicating some kind of skirmish line. Luce's discovery of exactly 48 shells at regular intervals suggests that the column engaged was Keogh's Company L who were exactly 48 strong and was by experience the most formidable troop in the Keogh battalion.
I only mention the above to illustrate that there are as many doubters that Custer was shot at the ford as there are who believe he was. The sterling rear-guard action sounds like a Custer order but also Keogh was a darn fine cavalry officer-someone made an overall decision to throw out a skirmish line to protect the left wing and Luce's discovery shows that L Troop had not yet received a single casualty. Soon after this action total disintegration of the command occurred.
I have never read that Custer's guns were found, however Keogh's pistol and watch fob were traded at a Canadian sutler post in 1879. And here's another of those puzzling but interesting side-bars-when Keogh's body was stripped by either the Indian or their squaws-his Roman Catholic Papal medallion (presented to him by Pope Pius IX when he served in his Papal Guard) was left around his neck. That is extremely odd because the Indian took everything from an enemy's body but this medallion was encased in a leather fob-so apparently for some reason it was bad medicine to the Indian.
Reb
