What Caused the Defeat of the

A detailed Summary of What Caused the Defeat of the

When looking at the Battle of the Little Big Horn there are many reasons why General Custer lost the battle. Many will say that he made bad choices and others will say that his luck just happened to run out that day. I think the reason why Custer lost the battle was a combination of both but it was his choices in the end that cost him his life and the battle. The events that went on around him that are considered his bad luck could have been looked at when they happened and fixed. There was a lot going on around Custer that could have made his mind not focused at the time of the battle such as running for president and also his ego along with overconfidence.

From what Steven Ambrose put forth in his opinion of the battle I agree with most of the mistakes that he says Custer made. The first one and I think second most important mistake that Custer made was not taking the 2nd Cavalry when it was offered to him. This would have given him around a 1,100 men and that would have definitely been enough to defeat the Sioux. This can be countered by that Custer had too much pride with the 7th Cavalry and that he didn't want to share it with anyone else. Custer also knew that he was going to face the largest amount of warriors ever so ha

Another thing was when Custer attacked because he believed that the 7th Cavalry had been spotted when they had dropped the food boxes. This happened around noon or so and Custer knew the best way to attack the Indians was to surprise them in the morning and not charge in during the day. Custer was too hasty with this decision and after making the decision to attack this led to other poor decisions that he made. He decided to attack the village when really nothing was known about it. He didn't know the size, exact locations, and even how many people were in it. Therefore by not even knowing the enemy that well he had to make spontaneous decisions in the middle of the battle that were not planned out nor that were part of his game plan. Of course in a war there will be surprises but a general shouldn't be surprised by the size of the enemy or even there locations. Those kinds of things have to been known since they are the basics to war.

The next mistake that Custer made which turned out to be the biggest mistake that Custer made and that was splitting up the 7th Cavalry into three different groups. If anything he should have only split up the Cavalry into two groups. His ideas with sending troops into the front of the village and

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Steven Ambrose, Sitting Bull's, Little Horn, Reno Custer, Horn Mountains, mistake custer, 7th cavalry, , custer lost battle, split cavalry, figured sioux, lost battle, front village, custer lost, reasons custer,

Approximate Word count = 836
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History

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What Caused the Defeat of the

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