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Post by Deleted on Jul 19, 2016 10:52:37 GMT -5
My Great Courses History's Greatest Military Blunders lesson this morning was about General Custer and the Battle of the Little Big Horn.
I have a somewhat personal connection to the place. It's a National Monument that I have visited several times. They have a visitor's center and you can walk to the top of the hill where Custer made his stand. There is a monument there under which all the enlisted troopers who died on that hill are buried. The officer's bodies as well as those of Custer's male relatives who were there were sent to their homes for interment. While there is a visitor's path around the hill but nobody is allowed to leave it to explore the grounds.
About the slope of the hill are stakes that read "A 7th Cavalry soldier fell here." A distinctive one marks the place where Custer himself fell.
When I was a weather forecaster and first sergeant of the 120th Weather Flight in the Colorado National Guard my unit was actually assigned to the 163rd Armored Cavalry Regiment in the Montana Army Guard. My commander and I made quarterly staff assistance trips to Bozeman, the 153rds headquarters. And we did our two week encampment with them every summer in Idaho.
One weekend while we were there it was announced that the next weekend a historian from West Point was going to lead a terrain walk at the battle field. My commander and I were invited to attend. My commander couldn't make it but I drove up and attended.
It was a fascinating experience. The professor pointed out where the Indians were and where Custer's troops were and how they retreated up to the top of the hill, were surrounded, and massacred. His narrative was quite interesting and gave me a better insight into what happened there. There are quite a few arrowheads and spent cartridges still littering the ground.
When I was a young Marine in the early 50s stationed in Japan we went on an amphibious exercise to Iwo Jima. Several of us were able to walk up to the top of Mount Suribachi where the flag raising occurred.
Both Mount Suribachi and the Custer battlefield have a quiet aweness about them. People speak in rather hushed tones, almost like being in church.
I've also been to Gettysburg a couple of times and walked up the slope of Pickett's charge and the top of Little Round Top where the other great battle took place. But they don't seem to give you the same feeling of awe that Custer's hill and Munt Suribachi do.
Noel
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Post by penzoil3 on Jul 19, 2016 18:29:41 GMT -5
Haven't been to Mt. Suribachi, or Little Bighorn. I have to disagree with you about Gettysburg though. Gettysburg made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. It is awesome, in the original meaning of the word.
Sue
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Post by Deleted on Jul 19, 2016 21:20:31 GMT -5
Yes, Sue, there is an awesomeness at Gettysburg, but not like I felt at Mt. Suribachi or the Little Big Horn.
Noel
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Post by spud on Jul 19, 2016 22:06:39 GMT -5
I paid another vist to the Custer Battlefield a few years ago when I took my lady home to Idaho with me and if your like me and have walking problems you can actually drive along the top of the ridge where they have story boards pointing out features of the battle. First time I visited I was a young healthy Naval Aviator and walked all day but the ability to drive, park and read excerpts at various location around the battleground is much appreciated.
Too bad ol' George A. was such a dumb ass and wasted good men for what he thought would bring glory to him.
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Post by Bushpounder on Jul 19, 2016 22:11:38 GMT -5
I believe everyone has their own feelings at places like these. Moods, age, etc. has a direct bearing on this. As a historian, all of this is awesome to me.
BP;)
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Post by Deleted on Jul 20, 2016 8:13:25 GMT -5
Custer's preoccupation with kleos (see The Illiad) blinded him to the enemy troop strength his scouts reported.
Noel
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Post by olderndirt on Jul 20, 2016 11:16:55 GMT -5
On a trip to Scotland, I finally made a visit to "Culloden" - last stand of Scots trying to restore the Stuart family to the throne. Drumossie Moor, scene of the battle, is as it was in April of 1746 - the Scottish line marked with carved rocks showing different clan positions. It's a definite step back in time.
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Post by olderndirt on Jul 20, 2016 11:24:25 GMT -5
Fans of Custer, if you haven't already, read these. "A road we do not know" Federick Chiaventone and "Son of the morning star" Evan S Connell.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 20, 2016 11:44:21 GMT -5
A couple days ago my course covered the Battle of Colloden. Bonnie Prince Charlie was lucky to have escaped with his head. That battle was the end of Catholicism in England and the Jacobites. The Scotts were even forbidden to speak Gaelic after that.
Noel
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Post by pivo11 on Jul 20, 2016 13:09:31 GMT -5
I've seen Verdun. That was enough.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 20, 2016 14:03:03 GMT -5
I've seen Verdun. That was enough. So have I Fritz, along with Vimy. Well said... When I had the opportunity years ago, I visited many of the memorials of those terrible tragedies. The one time I wept openly when visiting those and other memorials, was when I looked into the face of the statue at the Vimy Ridge memorial called 'Mother Canada'. Such grief and sorrow.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 20, 2016 14:46:28 GMT -5
The history of the world is written in the blood of young men sent out to die for old men's mistakes.
Noel
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Post by olderndirt on Jul 20, 2016 15:28:32 GMT -5
I've seen Verdun. That was enough. So have I Fritz, along with Vimy. Well said... When I had the opportunity years ago, I visited many of the memorials of those terrible tragedies. The one time I wept openly when visiting those and other memorials, was when I looked into the face of the statue at the Vimy Ridge memorial called 'Mother Canada'. Such grief and sorrow.
'Passchendaele' one of General Douglas Haig's (a Scotsman, sadly enough) greatest follies. Three months, 325000 casualties, five miles to make a slightly bigger bump in the Ypres salient. Canadians handed him the excuse to claim "victory" by capturing it. Good movie. |
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Post by olderndirt on Jul 20, 2016 15:40:57 GMT -5
A couple days ago my course covered the Battle of Colloden. Bonnie Prince Charlie was lucky to have escaped with his head. That battle was the end of Catholicism in England and the Jacobites. The Scotts were even forbidden to speak Gaelic after that. Noel How might things have turned out had 'Charlie' won. While he was part of the Stuart line which ran dry, forcing the hire of the 'wee German lairdie', that religion thing would have been a problem. The highlanders were forbidden many things after Culloden - another chapter in the underlying animosity between them and the 'Sassenachs'. One, along with the Welsh, of England's historical neighbor problems. |
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Post by Bushpounder on Jul 20, 2016 17:29:16 GMT -5
I've been to Pearl Harbor. It was a little eerie. Also many of the main battlefields of the Civil War. All have a special feeling about them. So does Arlington Cemetery.
BP;)
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