re: #115 Barbarian at the Gate

Reno was a hell of a soldier? Really. He had no friends in the Army (except Capt. Hodgson) and was considered to be a drunk and a coward. He was cashiered from the army for drunkenness and being a peeping Tom with Colonel Sturgis’s daughter. Benteen took de facto command of the 7th and it was his leadership that held the 350 some odd men together in the hilltop fight, not Reno’s. Reno’s being exonerated in 1879 was a case f the 7th cavlary closing ranks behind one of their own.

BTW for what its worth, Colonel Miles (later commanding general of the US Army) considered Custer to be an outstanding soldier and Indian fighter and a great friend of his. Custer also blew the whistle on the Grant administration corruption and on Grant’s Sec. of War Belknap.

bah, I know all about that stuff…Renos men loved him, and at the time the service was full of backstabbing opportunists…Custers rep stemmed from the Civil War, not fighting Indians, unless you consider massacring sleeping villages outstanding fighting…other than that he had no record…and he lied about the Black Hills and did not follow explicit orders…Custer was a huge bust that got innocent Indians as well as his own men killed