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2007-06-25 -Short Attention Span Theater-

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Posted by Mike 2007-06-25 08:40|| || Front Page|| [11132 views ] Top

#1 At the end, the ratio was more like 2000:1.

Jes' sayin'

Posted by AlmostAnonymous5839">AlmostAnonymous5839 2007-06-25 09:15|| 2007-06-25 09:15|| Front Page Top

#2 Col. Sturgis, the commander of the 7th Cav, on detached duty at the St. Louis Remount Depot, stared into the bottom of his glass of whiskey and thought, "Shoo ... and Nathan Forrest only kicked my ass."

Posted by mrp 2007-06-25 09:32|| 2007-06-25 09:32|| Front Page Top

#3 Saddler Michael P. Madden gulped brandy before an Army surgeon amputated his right leg during the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

The sawbones gave the Irish-born Kentucky enlistee another snort afterwards. "Supposedly, Madden was so appreciative of the second drink that he told the surgeon, Doctor, cut off me other leg,"

Posted by Penguin 2007-06-25 09:59|| 2007-06-25 09:59|| Front Page Top

#4 Please! You mean "the Battle of the Greasy Grass!"

Hater...

Posted by Sitting Bull">Sitting Bull 2007-06-25 10:32|| 2007-06-25 10:32|| Front Page Top

#5 and were impossible to reload on horseback. Horsepooky! I gots one and it's very easy to reload on horseback. It's a brass cartridge breach-loader. It's a common misconception that Cavalry fought on horseback. They very seldom did. Three men would dismount while the 4th held their horses. Forensic evidence at the battlesite proved Custer's men were dismounted and strung out in a skirmish line. Major Miles Keogh was killed there but his horse, Comanche, survived. Miles was an Irish National who fought for the Union in the Civil War and led a Cavalry raid through Boone, North Carolina.

Posted by Deacon Blues">Deacon Blues 2007-06-25 10:39|| 2007-06-25 10:39|| Front Page Top

#6 a young Crow whose name translated as Curley

Notice how people never ask why the Crow where so often scouts for the US Army? Maybe because it leads to the point that the ~~peaceful, in harmony with nature, just innocent lambs~~ Lakota had been hammering the Crow for many generations before the white man showed up. But, let's not look into the warts of other people's record.

Posted by Procopius2k 2007-06-25 10:50|| 2007-06-25 10:50|| Front Page Top

#7
It's a common misconception that Cavalry fought on horseback. They very seldom did.

At the end of teh Middle Ages it was found that tight lines of pikemen could keep cavalry at bay. So cavalrymen began carryng pistols and instead of charging trotted to the tight phalanx and discharge their weapons just before reaching the pikes. But more and more infantry got firearms, bayonet was invented and this led to the demise of the pike. At the same time infantry formations loosened so cavalry fire became basically ineffective while cavalrymen became very vulnearble to infnatry fire while they slowly trotted towrds the enemy.

At this point a such Frederic II of Prussia noticed that infantry was again vulnerable to the good old charge of yore, so he equipped his cavalry with lances and sabres, made them not trot but gallop towards the enemy and shredded the much more numerous Austrian Army

After that, at least in Europe, cavalry either fought dismounted or on horseback but with lances or sabres and never engaged on firefights while on horseback either with infantry or with opposing cavalry.

Posted by JFM">JFM 2007-06-25 11:30|| 2007-06-25 11:30|| Front Page Top

#8 Correcct me if I am wrong but I thought that Union cavalry had been equipped with repatiung carbines during second half of Civil War and that they were a factor in the battle of Yelow Tavern where Jeb Stuart was killed at the hands of Sheridan's men.

Why was the 7th equipped with weapons who were older than those used in Civil War?

Posted by JFM">JFM 2007-06-25 11:46|| 2007-06-25 11:46|| Front Page Top

#9 The Horse Calvary Detachment of the 1st Calvary Division, US Army.

61st Calvary Regiment of the Indian Army

Posted by John Frum 2007-06-25 11:51|| 2007-06-25 11:51|| Front Page Top

#10 During the Iraq War, the 3rd Squadron of the 7th Cavalry engaged with the enemy earlier or more often in the war than any other unit....

CNN Transcript

AMANPOUR: Walter, what is going on where you are now, Walter? You moved into Iraq.

RODGERS: What you're seeing now are exclusive CNN pictures of the U.S. Army's 7th Cavalry. Bradley Fighting Vehicles and behind them M1A1 Abrams Tanks rolling across the Iraqi desert. They have been rolling across this desert unopposed for nearly two hours now.

Posted by John Frum 2007-06-25 11:58|| 2007-06-25 11:58|| Front Page Top

#11 These folks went to the Little Bighorn last summer, and have some nice pictures of the battlefield. I like the first one, especially.

Posted by Angie Schultz 2007-06-25 12:14|| 2007-06-25 12:14|| Front Page Top

#12 JFM the Union Cavalry during the Civil War was mostly equipped with muzzle loaders. Some units were equipped with Spencer Repeating Rifles, some with Henry Repeating Rifles, and some with Burnside Repeating Rifles most of which were bought by the individual soldiers. The War Department considered them a waste of ammunition. The Springfield Trapdoor Carbine with which the 7th Cavalry was equipped was developed after the war ( 1870) and fired a brass cartridge that was loaded into the breech. It was called a trapdoor because it opened from the top and was hinged on the back so it opened like a trap door. The cartridge was inserted into the breach, the hammer cocked, and then fired. If a cartridge was not ejected, which happened a lot with black powder, the ramrod had to be pulled and the cartridge rammed out. It was a very slow-firing rifle. Here again the War Department was more concerned with saving ammunition than saving soldiers' lives. This rifle fired a .45 caliber round with 70 grains of powder. A very heavy round. The Henry's and Spencer's fired .44 or .54 caliber rounds but without as much powder. The Springfield was good as long as you were fighting from long range and had cover. It was really designed to counteer the massed infantry attacks that had proved so costly during the Civil War.

Posted by Deacon Blues">Deacon Blues 2007-06-25 13:05|| 2007-06-25 13:05|| Front Page Top

#13 ...By all means get hold of Evan McConnell's Son Of The Morning Star, probably the last word on the battle - and a riveting, almost novel-like read you won't be able to put down. If I can only have ten books on a desert island, it'd be one of them.
Also, keep an eye on History Channel for their special where they did a new examination of the battlefield. They made a strong argument that there was no 'last stand' as we've traditionally known it, but rather Custer was trying to get his troops into a defensive formation and they were overrun while still moving.

Mike

Posted by Mike Kozlowski 2007-06-25 13:06|| 2007-06-25 13:06|| Front Page Top

#14 Why was the 7th equipped with weapons who were older than those used in Civil War?

After the Civil war, our last war ever, the US Army was downsized and the weaponry sold off. The newer weapons got a better price, so that was what the very corrupt men handling the transactions sold. And the country was so grateful to be at peace that nobody protested, nor did anyone outside the War Department care about the needs of the rump army in the west fighting the Indians...nor give it much thought beyond an exciting background for the penny novels.

Posted by trailing wife 2007-06-25 13:20|| 2007-06-25 13:20|| Front Page Top

#15 "Pleassssse Mr. Custer, I don't wanna go!"

"Forward hooooooooooooooo...!"

Posted by borgboy2001 2007-06-25 15:26|| 2007-06-25 15:26|| Front Page Top

#16 In addition, some of the Indians were armed with repeating Spencer and Winchester rifles, while the 7th Cavalry carried single-shot Springfield carbines, which had a slow rate of fire, tended to jam when overheated, and were impossible to reload on horseback.
So the CIA has been arming both sides for some time now.....wonder who really won the bet, when all the money would have been on Custer?

Posted by Danielle 2007-06-25 18:15|| 2007-06-25 18:15|| Front Page Top

#17 trailing wife:

Yah, weaponry was sold off after the Civil War; many weapons went (illegally) to the Indians, in exchange for animal pelts. Arrows and tomahawks weren't the only weapons used by the natives at Little Big Horn.

Posted by McZoid 2007-06-25 18:16|| 2007-06-25 18:16|| Front Page Top

#18 Hey, KimoSavee! Hey!
Thrwwwwwwwwwoooop
Naw, that ain't it.

Posted by Shipman 2007-06-25 20:57|| 2007-06-25 20:57|| Front Page Top

#19 whatda mean "WE" KimoSavee.

Posted by Tonto">Tonto 2007-06-25 21:14|| 2007-06-25 21:14|| Front Page Top

#20 Custer had 4 (2?) Gatlings, but left them behind so as to move more quickly. If he had brought them along, it might have been a different matter.

Posted by Gary and the Samoyeds">Gary and the Samoyeds 2007-06-25 23:37|| http://home.earthlink.net/~sleepyjackal/index.html]">[http://home.earthlink.net/~sleepyjackal/index.html] 2007-06-25 23:37|| Front Page Top

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