"Benteen or Custer?" Topic

7 Posts

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John the OFM	01 Jul 2026 5:52 a.m. PST
YouTube link This showed up in my feed just now. Yes, it's AI narration. 🙄 But, whose side are you on? Me? I favor Benteen.
John the OFM	01 Jul 2026 6:13 a.m. PST
Darn. I should have cross posted to American Indian Wars. Totally slipped my mind.
Texaswalker	01 Jul 2026 6:58 a.m. PST
Recently read Nathaniel Philbrick's book The Last Stand, which is a very well written and well researched book. There is an incredible amount of collected data and analysis done on this battle, and Philbrick brings it together cogently. Hard to not see Benteen's leadership as a factor that saved a large part of the Seventh Cavalry. I was surprised, I had never realized what a long and brutal fight Benteen and Reno had to make in order to survive, after Reno was driven out of the village and back across The Little Bighorn.
miniMo	01 Jul 2026 7:26 a.m. PST
Ruh roh, slippery AI slope, I ain't going there!
Saber6	01 Jul 2026 8:10 a.m. PST
Having walked the ground, Benteen seems to have understood the situation and made the best of the situation (which was BAD)
cavcrazy	01 Jul 2026 9:15 a.m. PST
Benteen openly disobeyed orders. The message sent was, " Benteen, big village be quick. Bring packs. Ps, Bring packs." He failed to follow the order. He could have made it, Boston Custer and Autie Reed were with the pack train, and they made it to Custer. That being said, if Benteen did rush to Custer I think his command would have been wiped out as well.
Grattan54	01 Jul 2026 9:49 a.m. PST
Although I think Benteen was a good soldier and clearly needed to safe Reno's command. He was in a snit that day over Custer's orders for his command. He lagged behind after receiving Custer's orders to be quick and join him and I think his hatred of Custer did play a role in the defeat that day.