This is the first time I've watched a video from this site & I want to applaud the host for presentation of the story. No hype or showboating or yelling at the camera to draw attention to himself AND distract from the story. Well done indeed!

I have seen old photos of what some tribes done to people while they were still alive and I see suicide a very real possibility.

The first time I heard anyone say that Custer had killed himself was when I was serving in the Marine Corps in 1973 with a young Souix from Canonball, ND. He and I were close friends. His great grandfather had fought at the Little Big Horn. Chuck didn't want to tell me for a long time because he figured no causcasion would believe him because Custer was so romantizied and revered. He told me that his ancestor had witnessed the incident. That there was a small group of soilders still fighting, Custer was standing and looking as if he were in shock and disbelief. He put the pistol to his head and pulled the trigger. He was not the last man to fall, and he did not die fighting. I was stunned by the story when Chuck told me, but I could see it clearly in my mind. I tend to believe it.

I thought that I had heard just about everything regarding Custer at the Little Bighorn, but this was news to me. Although, I had always thought it odd that Custer died from a headshot in the temple. Thank you for the insightful investigation and thank you for sharing!

I'd often thought that Custer had killed himself. The first article you read pretty much summed up my own view. And Custer wasn't the only one to do so. Nice video. Very informative and respectful.

what a fascinating story. it is amazing how the little details can come together to reveal this story to the world. not only in terms of the article, but that you thought to create a video out of it and that different people chose to view it and take it seriously. If no one watched this video the story could very well have been forgotten.

"When, in the roaring charge of fierce melee, you stop a bullet clean, and the hostiles come to take your scalp, just empty your canteen...and put your pistol to your head, and go to Fiddler's Green."

Good video. I really enjoyed listening to your breakdown on it. You stick to relevant topics and sources. Thank you for sharing.

Your thought process and methods on this are so historically sound. Start with primary sources, assess the credibility of those sources, look for confirmed examples of comparable events, and determine the overall plausibility. Fascinating thesis. You earned a sub.

Thank you for such a well researched video. Also, what good luck to be mailed those magazines.

Great story & show. Also neat to see you have the Time-Life western series on your shelf. I have those as well and re-read them often. All the best.

I like your way of thinking to verify, layered and specific, very good unbiased discussion on potentials and possibles, when they all start hitting together the facts and possibles self verify it seems

GENUINELY good historical info, as well as good KZfaq content Subscribed!

I want to thank you for an extremely interesting and informative subject. Keep up the good work

Wonderful presentation! I live in Billings-been at the battlefield many. many times. My long-lost cousin 1st Sgt Michael Kenney, of F Troop, died right below Custer on the hill.

Thank you very much for making this. It is definitely food for thought.

This is one of the best presentations I have seen for a historical topic. I love it. You have a new fan.

Very interesting video; thank you for taking the time to do the research and present it! 👍

This story about Custer sounds very believable, to where it took a lot of courage on your part for you to give it out to all of us!! Thank You for sharing this story with us!!! It was much appreciated, I have seen one of those thunders before, to where I do have two of those lightnings, still.

Very nice gathering of historical information regarding these events. New sub...thx

This was very credible information. Thanks for sharing.

Nice Job Doc! Very Entertaining, Informative & Educational. Thanks Again. 👍

Thank you so much for this. I'm from the UK but have always been fascinated by Custer and Lifeguardsman Shaw at Waterloo. This was a perfectly researched and presented video.

Very well done! Out takes are GREAT! New sub

This was EXCELLENT ! ! ! I'm so happy I came across your channel today, I always loved the history of the 'old West' and reading about the 'Battle of the Little Bighorn'. I often thought Custer could of taken his life with that last group of his troops. Again this was EXCELLENT ! ! !

A fascinating account. Thanks for sharing. I love your collection of The Old West books by Time Life books. I only have The Indians one, fabulous book. Full set looks great on the shelves behind you.

Very interesting video! I have read a lot about Custer and the events leading up to the battle of the Little Bighorn but have never heard or considered a suicide angle. You have presented a very plausible scenario and with what must have been a very daunting situation, several thousand Indian braves against a couple of hundred soldiers, knowing you were facing certain death.

Excellent research and deduction. Add to this the historical facts of torture and your thesis makes perfect sense. If we could travel back in time and witness how these types of things really happened, we probably couldn't stand to watch another Hollywood production again.

I've been following this moment in history most of my life and I had read before that some other troopers committed suicide that day. I enjoyed watching your insight and theory. I believe there is a lot of credibility to your thoughts on this

Very interesting video, very well organized around the main three questions ... thanks 👏👏👏

Great video I enjoyed it very much so glad I found your site 😁

Fascinating story, thanks for sharing. This sparked memories of my grandfather talking about the possibility, when I was a kid growing up in the 50's. He was born around the Moscow, Idaho area in 1889 and had tons of old stories. I don't remember him having the .41 Colt piece of the puzzle. I always thought it was a fabricated story because my grandfather had a huge dislike & distrust for the US Army and white folk in general. This magazine article certainly lends some credit to the story's credibility. Thanks again for covering the topic.

Very interesting and informative. I tend to believe the good Doctor had no reason to lie or that Custer would have wanted to be taken alive.

I LOVE these kind of stories, and if you have more, it would be awesome if you made more of this kind of videos. You make a pretty convincing argument that makes sense. However, having written quite a few history research papers in college courses, i know how easily it is to write a paper to make a convincing case for a position, I've often noticed that an argument could easily be made with the available information bringing out the other side. Great video.

This was brilliant. Many thanks. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Another great video and extremely interesting facts presented. As one familiar with combat, I find no disgrace in this action, especially in light of the probability of torture from such an enemy. No judgement of either side from me.

Committing Suicide was the only good decision he made that day! Great job Todd! As a 1st grader I was fascinated by the famous painting and battle! Still am!

Thank you!. I had never heard that about Custer and the Little Big Horn and it seems like there's some good evidence to support it. Appreciate your excellent sleuthing work!

Thanks for posting. I enjoyed it.

Everything I’ve ever read, says the wound was through the chest near the heart, not high on the shoulder… The only other wounds were the left temple shot with powder burns, punctured ears and a missing finger… At any rate “Libby” Custer would have never allowed a suicide story to gain any traction while she was alive anyway…

My Dad owned a Colt Thunderer in 41 Colt. We weren't allowed to shoot it because ammo was no longer made for it and it was a fragile firearm easly broken. My Dad had a lot if old firearms he got me interested in shooting and reloading he was a big fan of the old west. He was born 15 Oct 1903 and a young man in the 1920s when these old guns were still in use.

Nice bit of detective work Dr. Thank you.

Great video and I am now a subscriber to your channel. One respectful suggestion--at 8:49, it sounds like you said "Calvary" when you meant "Cavalry." I'm pretty sure this was just a slip of the tongue, but there is a huge difference between the meaning of these two very similar sounding words, as I'm certain you know. Thanks again and please keep up the great work!

Saving the last round for yourself was not uncommon in situations where the enemy were well known to torture captives to death. And that was not just in North America.

Credible historic inquiry. Thank God, and found it on KZfaq. Thanks for your thoughts.

Thanks for the fantastic video. Educational, very investigative and not trying to force stuff to fit a narrative. A+++

Had to subscribe after watching this video! Nicely done.

Back in the 1980's I read a long article about the Army sending a detachment out to the Little Big Horn battlefield to retrieve the soldiers bodies and it mentioned that soldiers in the detachment reported that Custer's body had a powder burn on his temple. The articled posed the question as to whether Custer took his own life or one of the other soldiers shot him - not necessarily out of malice, but, because Custer may have been wounded to the point where he couldn't do it himself.

There’s a book called “Keep the Last Bullet for Yourself” by Thomas Marquis about the “true” story of Custer’s Last Stand. I read it a long time ago and it was intriguing.

great presentation and great subject matter. Well done Sir.

Very good video with lots of info. Really enjoyed it

Thank You, for a very well investigated story and also a very well thought out report of your findings. I was never to keen on Custer, however I would cast no aspersions on him after reading reports on what happened to captives nor anyone in those circumstances. Thanks again for a very good video.

thanks Todd, great story and thanks for sharing. This makes a lot of sense. It is not a new hypothesis that Custer may have taken his own life. Given the enduring interest and fascination pertaining to the Battle of the Little Bighorn it should get wider recognition than it does. One way of gaining more insights into this matter might be by forensically examining Custer's skull. Had he placed the gun snug to his temple and pulled the trigger, the projectile should have caused an exit wound.

Wow, that makes sense. Never thought of it. Nothing against Custer, but he was known to be flamboyant, narcissistic to a fault and somewhat of a dandy in his attire and his looks. I could understand his not wanting to be captured and possibly tortured or even mutilated. He was probably of the opinion of what we would say today, "live fast, play hard and leave a good looking corpse!"

A very thought provoking theory and one I wasn't aware of, definitely not beyond the realms of possibility.Very interesting video.

Thanks for sharing your DETAIL video

I have long heard that many of Custer's men took their own lives, rather than be captured by the Sioux or Cheyenne Indians. Firstly, many of the soldiers were very young and likely never faced a foe like the one they saw that day. They were probably aware of the fate that previous prisoners faced, if captured. It's hard to blame any of these guys (including Custer) if they did commit suicide.

Fascinating. I’ve never heard this theory before, although it sounds very plausible.

Wow. I had never considered this for whatever reason, though to be fair my interest in the battle of Little-Big horn has only been mild. Though there was a time when I was a kid and my dad drove us from Washington state out to see the site of the battle, and it affected my young mind greatly seeing those stones. Noticing how they converged in a central location and multiplied. There were many that were in pairs (though I don't remember where I got this information at the time) who had apparently either shot their horses in order to create cover, or perhaps their horses had been dead already. Anyway, what a fantastic look into an intriguing topic that really puts a different perspective on things. I appreciate the time and effort you put in to this, and it has rekindled my interest in the battle. Take care.

I think that you have a good argument for that. Great discussion!

I have never heard this. Not only is it fascinating, but I feel it's probably true. The part about Dr. Porter forbidding anyone to tell anyone until after his wife was dead is heartbreaking. I know that he was still speculating according to how the wound was found, but that's how we solve crimes and even distinguish them as or from suicide. Fascinating, ya got a new subscriber❤️

I can certainly believe suicide would be a thought when facing certain death. When reading stories written by actual captives and eye witnesses of the torture and mutilation by the Sioux tribes it certainly would be understandable. Great job on the story! Love your channel!

I recall this having been written and talked about years ago, and it remains an interesting (and logical) possibility. Thanks for an interesting post.

Fascinating information! Thank you!

I always thought that after Custer had been mortally wounded with a bullet near his heart, his brother Tom shot George in the temple to keep him from being tortured. I also read where where their were many empty shell casings around where Toms body was found near George. Toms body was so badly mutilated, the only way he could be recognized was a tattoo on his arm. Toms head was beaten and flattened into a thin, gelatin, pancake. Squaws rammed long knitting awls into Custers two ears so he would hear better in the after life. They did this because he had not listened to the Indians who warned him eight years earlier in 1868, after he murdered woman and children at Washita in Oklahoma. In closing, George had an arrow jammed up into his penis. This detail was kept from his wife Libby. There is speculation that Custer had fathered a chid with a Sioux squaw named Meotzie (SP?). The childs name was Yellowbird. Custer went to Montana to attack and exterminate a race of people who were simply defending their homeland. I believe Custer reaped the consequences of picking a fight with a larger force. Custer had eleven horses shot out from under him during the Civil War. He believed in what he called "Custers Luck." He thought if you attacked a larger force, "fate would favor the bold." The day he died, his scouts warned him "We don't have enough bullets to kill them all." Custers response was "Then make every shot a killer." It is my personal opinion Custer got what he deserved.

I read an account by a native who was at the battle who mentioned the soldiers shooting themselves and he put it down to the 'medicine' of the Lakota making them do it. In a way he is right, because we could interpret the natives fearful torture methods, instilling terrible fear, as a psychological medicine that the soldiers carried in their minds during a battle. Very interesting video.

This is so interesting! Thank you!

Excellent research. Good job.

I had a very old Chippewa friend told me that his grandfather was a boy when the Sioux warriors rode in with new scalps. They were angry. They had heard they were being accused of killing Custer at the battle at Greasy Grass (Little Bighorn). They said he killed himself early in the battle. They viewed him as a coward and that is why he wasn't scalped.

Great video; however, there is one point you overlooked. The native American cultures were heavily invested in the torture of captured enemies. For them, if you bravely faced your torture, they would kill you more quickly. If you screamed, cried, or wiggled too much, they would prolong it as long as possible. So did Custer and his men commit suicide when faced with certain defeat? I say yes, as I'm sure any sane man would have.

Really enjoyed this analysis

Thanks for this intersting and well presented case.

If you want to hear a crazy story, I grew up with my buddy Glenn Custer a direct descendant of general Custer. I'm a direct descendant of a Cherokee Chief. We literally grew up playing cowboy and indians together when we were kids.

One author claimed that Tom Custer had a smaller caliber pistol and when the end was inevitable, he shot his brother who had previously POSSIBLY been wounded at the Medicine tail crossing and was already dying being unable to order any kind of troop deployment ,which might explain why Benteen , when viewing the battlefield concluded that it was " an utter rout". No reference was made to a .41 caliber pistol. Custer was said to have carried 9-shot twin British Bulldog short barreled revolvers which of course, were never found.

Sitting Bulls great grandson's video brought me here. This is very interesting. Thank you.

Outstanding video, MUCH to ponder here. I appreciated how you laid out the facts and avoided the hyperbole and speculation that seems to accompany so many documentary treatments of Custer and the events in July, 1876. Dr Porter has a solid reputation, Mr Neal seems to as well--so the story has at the very least a strong veneer of credibility. However, one possible issue is that Mr Neal was born in June 27, 1891 in Bismarck, ND (d.1962) and recounted that he had been "about 14 years old" when he took Dr Porter to the river, so that would have been 1905, but Dr Porter (b.1848) died in India on March 3, 1903 during an around the world trip. He practiced medicine in the Bismarck area from 1878 until his death, so that fits as far as having delivered the Neal brothers and being a family friend. Could Mr Neal recalling an event ~56 years earlier have confused his having been "about 14" at the time with having been 11 or 12? Well, I'm 58 and I can easily see myself mixing up an event from 1976 with one from 1978, so the dates, people and places seems to otherwise line up very well. Even more interesting to me is the reference to Dr Porter going to the riverboat captained by his "old associate", Capt. Grant Marsh. That is a non-trivial connection, Todd, because Capt. Marsh (1834-1916) was not only a prominent Missouri River (and Yellowstone River) steamboat captain, but it was he who was contracted by the US Army in 1876 with the famous stern wheel steamer "Far West" to support the 7th Cavalry during its operations near the Little Bighorn and tributaries. He famously ran the ~50 survivors of Maj Reno's command 700 miles down the often shallow and snag-infested Yellowstone and Missouri rivers in just 54 hours to Ft Abraham Lincoln, thus bringing too the wives and families at the fort news of the losses at Greasy Grass/Little Bighorn. Those evacuated were men Dr Porter had spend days attending, several of those days under Sioux and Northern Cheyenne fire at the Reno/Benteen entrenched position ~2 miles south of Last Stand Hill, and through the breakneck transport on the "Far West"--so that Dr Porter had a strong connection to the captain who performed one of the most amazing feats in 19th century river steamboating history in order to rescue the men under Dr Porter's care seems to me highly likely. As he sat at the riverbank with young Mr Neal waiting for his old friend, might his thoughts have wandered to those awful days in July, 1876 in which he probably experienced more trauma trying to save young men all around him and of the abject horror at sight he encountered after as they moved north on Last Stand and Calhoun Hills, etc. where the broken and grotesquely mutilated bodies of the men and officers under Lt Col. George Custer and capts. Tom Custer, Keogh, Yates and their lieutenants and the accompanying civilians lay in the hot sun? I can imagine a middle aged man traveling back to that in his mind and entrusting the boy next to him with a fact he had not revealed in consideration of Libby Custer, to whom he'd have helped bring the horrible news at Ft. Lincoln, a woman who was a nationally beloved figure and who devoted the rest of her life after 1876 to defending her late husband's reputation. Remember, too, Libby lived until 1933, so if Mr Neal had sworn c.1902-03 to keep this secret until she was gone, that would have been another 30 years beyond Dr Porter's revelation. In the mid 20th century Custer was lionized, so waiting to go public with the story until Mr Neal was approaching 70 and then to share it in a respected historical publication versus exploitative popular media seems more than plausible to me. I believe you have brought to light an important, forgotten element to the Custer story, Todd. While not conclusive, it certainly has a great deal of substance and cannot be dismissed out of hand, given who Dr Porter and Mr Neal were and their well-documented connections to the events. Bravo! As a complete aside, Henry McCarty (aka William Bonney, aka Billy the Kid) was carrying a .41 Colt M1877 Thunderer when Sheriff Pat Garrett shot him in 1881. John Henry "Doc" Holliday was also partial to the .41 Colt M1877 Thunderer and in his book "Wyatt Earp, Frontier Marshall" Earp stated that Holliday carried a nickle plated version, which he drew and used through the 1881 OK Corral gunfight with the Clantons et al after discarding after only one shot the 10ga sawed off shotgun immortalized in the various films.

When I read accounts of the Big Horn battle as a kid, it was generally accepted and believed Custer's body was the only one not mutilated as he was so greatly respected by his enemies. I learned later this was total hogwash.

There is a book I read a long time ago about the Batlle of Little Bighorn called "Keep the Last Bullet for Yourself". I don't remember if it talked about Custer committing suicide, but it did detail how so many of the soldiers did, from fear of being captured and just plain fear of the circumstances they were in.

Excellent insight, thank you sir. ❤

Nice research. Good sources. Thanks

I recall a native American coming to my school to speak some 60 yrs ago it was quite interesting till he told us near the end of his talk that Custer had committed suicide I was so unsettled by this. Felt like he must be lying but now I'm pretty sure he was sincere. I also, as new evidence is revealed believe that his story most likely is based in fact. The heroic last stand was a terrible end for so many.

Great video. I had read about this quite sometime ago. Along with several other things Custer had done in his life post civil war and all was hidden to protect his legacy.

Fantastic video and one that sure makes you think. My question, after the video is, would the bullet still being in his head for the Doctor to be able to retrieve it when shot at such close range or would it have exited the head especially since they say it was pointed. I am not a medical person but it seems to me that if you held a pistol to your temple it would go right through the skull. Just discovered your channel and I am glad I did.👍

Viewing from Down Under mate, and that was bloody brilliant work you presented there. Personally I have always believed Custer was a buffoon who simply got his men slaughtered - suicide or valiant death. Custer in the last battle of his life showed utter military incompetence. But your video and the anecdotal evidence at least taught me that brave soldiers know it’s ok to keep a final bullet. Those men under him were the real heroes. New subbie, cheers and I look forward to more of your provocative and revealing history videos 👍💯

At least one report -by an Indian participant in the battle- stated that Custer had been shot and unhorsed at the very start of the cavalry charge. He was quickly saved, propped up and re-saddled, but the troops under his command were demoralized and rattled, and hastily retreated to a defensive position. This makes sense, as it was always Custer's way to attack, attack, attack. The loss of Custer's leadership, coupled with the catatonic behavior of a panicked Reno, turned the two heavily armed wings of his calvary from a mobile, rapid attack force, to two poorly situated,and separated defensive positions, at the near total mercy of the Indians. This not only saved the Indian village, but guaranteed the annihilation of Custer's direct command, and the humiliating neutralization of Reno's forces.

Sir, I was in the US Army in 1980 and assigned to 1st Brigade HQs. 101st Airborne Division (AA). My first combat unit assigned was 2nd Bn, 502nd Inf. 101st Abn Div. The Battalion Commander was a former history professor at West Point, his name was LTC Cope, a very well known officer at the time, as all of the junior officers who had attended West Point, who were serving with me, at that time, had Colonel Cope as their history professor. At a cavalry function during this time, the program of the function, had on its last page, a poem, called "Fiddlers Green". I was informed by several officers, that this was the first time since the 1880s, that the Army allowed the poem to be used in an official function by the cavalry. The Army had severely restricted the use of the poem, even though it was very popular among the Cavalry units during the 19th century. Because of the debacle at the Little Bighorn battle. At that time, it was common knowledge that a large number of troopers of the 7th Cavalry had committed suicide, among them LTC Custer. To quell the "rumors" the Army had disallowed the use of the poem. And finally in 1980, they again allowed its use in official functions. Any questions, I am Strikeforce101@msn.com Respectfully, Frank Chisman

This the Best, most honest report of the Most probable. 👌 Well done sir.

Awesome stuff sir!!!

One more point . The native tribes honored treaties. The Federal Government DID NOT. AND TO THIS DAY. NOTHING HAS CHANGED!

The idea that some of Custer's men committed suicide first gained prominence (first I heard of it anyway) in the book Keep the Last Bullet for Yourself, by Thomas Marquis. He was a physician working with the US Indian Agency after WW1 who learned sign language and sought out native veterans of Little Bighorn. Marquis said his interlocutors told him only after they had known him for a while, that they saw a number of Custer's men kill themselves at the end of the battle. They learned to keep their mouths shut though, as this report met a lot of resistance from whites whom they told; so they typically said, yes, the cavalry all fought gallantly to the last man. Marquis made a case that a percentage of the 7th were fairly new men who had not fought Indians before but who had certainly heard the adage "keep the last bullet for yourself" because of the horrid tortures the Indians would inflict on a prisoner, real and fanciful. And so when confronted with the certainty of no escape in the midst of literally thousands of warriors, they took an easier way out. Something similar to the mass suicide of Japanese civilians in Okinawa during WW2, which Marquis did not live to see. Marquis's book has been just about universally panned by historians, though many liked the book he wrote about Wooden Leg. And about Custer, who knows. He was reported to have a bullet wound to the temple, but maybe he didn't really. It was also reported that amongst all the dead he was the one not mutilated. That just strains credulity; why would he be spared that indignity? Some say a suicide wouldn't be touched, but how many would have witnessed that from the many hundreds on the scene when it supposedly occurred, or the hundreds of noncombatants who came upon the scene later to pick up something useful and express their displeasure with the soldiers? So the temple wound and the lack of mutilation of the body could be a simple palliative to the public; the great hero left this world quickly and was not dishonored. It could also be that Custer was given a coup de grace by his own brother Tom, found not far away, to keep him from further suffering.

Great video. The .41 Long Colt centerfire actually came out in 1877 for the Colt Model 1877 DA Thunderer. As you stated, it did not have a pointed tip, however, the .41 short rimfire did. The .41 short rimfire was way too under powered for either the SAA or the DA. I believe that they introduced .41 Long Colt for the SAA in 1885. Why it took them so long to introduce it for the SAA when they had introduced it in the Thunderer in 1877 we'll never know. I suspect that Colt would have added the .41 Long Colt for the SAA a lot sooner than 1885 if they used experimental .41 Long Colt in 1876. Since the 1877 Colt Thunderer DA came out in 1877, maybe they were given an experimental Colt DA in .41 Long Colt in 1876 for testing. I wonder if Dr. Porter and GAC actually had a SAA or a DA. I got some of the information for the .41 Long Colt from: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.41_Long_Colt

Awesome Content!! Thank You!!!

I don't believe Custer committed suicide, I think he thought that he and his troops could win the battle right to the very end. I think it's possible that his brother (Thomas) could have shot him. There's a reference to Dr. Porter examining the bullet in Custers head, there was no autopsy and Custers remains were only retrieved a year later and very few (and disputable) remains at that.

First, regardless of any facts we cannot know, this is a great story well told and referenced. That said, I would tend to believe a simpler story. It is more likely Custer or a relative had a 41 rimfire derringer. I have seen reference to a Custer .41 National Arms derringer that was removed from the battlefield -- no details I saw on whether it was fired or not. Most likely Custer was shot below the heart crossing the Medicine Tail Coulee which broke the 7th's attack. They retrieved Custer from the river and took him away. Dr Porter in this account does not say, I think that Custer was shot in the LEFT side of the head above the temple near the eye. If the bullet came to rest in the back of the skull (a 41 long colt would probably have penetrated the skull easily at such a close range). But the derringer would likely not have penetrated and seems a better possibility. If you imagine a RIGHT-Handed shooter, facing down at Custer prone on the ground, holding a derringer to his head (the left side), it would likely be angled back towards the center of the back of the skull, rather than pointed inward as someone might shoot themself holding the gun against their temple. I would say Custer was mortally wounded in the Coulee, the attack broke and confused, Custer was taken with the troopers and placed in the defensive position probably unable to lead, and someone either as a protective measure, shot and issued Custer a coup de gras, or a wounded trooper or Custer relative administered the blow as the second half of the battle began to close around them. This would jive, I think, with Dr Porter's report and answer the question of why Custer would shoot himself with his left hand. As to Custer falling at the Coulee, that makes the most sense to me of how everything fell apart and Custer mounted no relief or organized withdrawal (or hammered home the attack). The issue of the pre-issued Thunderer is interesting but probably irrelevant, especially since at lest one Custer (Autie himself) had a .41 rimfire on the battlefield. Thanks, great treasure for more thought, debate, and argument. LOL Thanks!

There is no honor in suicide, not in European culture. There also is no honor is shading the triumph of the Lakota. Nahahci Le Okunpi We are still here.

Great investigation! Thanks

Custer was also mutilated but this was kept a secret until the 1920s in order to protect his widow. This info comes the book A Tragic Glory.

It’s my understanding that the temple wound was on the left. Custer was apparently right handed and his right arm/hand was not incapacitated. Other explanations are that he may have been shot by his brother to prevent him being captured or that he was finished off by warriors or women at the end of the battle. This is a good presentation as there is always more to learn. And he’s right…we’ll no doubt never know the full truth.

Awesome presentation!

Great presentation and information. That century shows it was common to take one's own life or the life of one with you if circumstances were so. Some of that happened at the Little Bighorn and perhaps Colonel Custer did as well. It would never matter except to family. This one will always be studied and should be.