One problem that confronted Custer at Little Bighorn was the abysmal level of marksmanship in the army at the time. The trapdoor Springfield wasn’t the best rifle of the time but it was serviceable enough in skilled hands.

Unfortunately, those skilled hands were in short supply. For several years, Democrats in Congress had succeeded in cutting army funds to the bare minimum in an attempt to starve the muscle out of Reconstruction (which was ended shortly afterward by the Compromise of 1877).

This left no money for decent ammunition (another problem) or, more importantly, ammuntion for range practice. It was a myth that “every American boy is a born rifleman.” Many of Custer’s men were city boys or recent immigrants who had no experience with firearms at all. Even the ones from rural backgrounds often knew only shotguns and had never developed any skill with the rifle. Officers could buy their own ammunition and they were usually fairly proficient, but it was a different story in the ranks. All but the most senior enlisted men had seldom fired their weapons, many recent recruits had never fired them at all.

At the Rosebud Creek battle, shortly before Little Bighorn, Crook’s men fired an astounding 45,000 rounds to cause just 32 casualties among the attacking Indians. He was forced to retire partly because his otherwise powerful and intact force did not have enough ammo left.

This aspect of the situation is little known today, but cartoonist Thomas Nast made a big issue of it at the time. One of his more vivid characters was the “Skeleton Army,” a literal skeleton attempting to defend settlers and freed slaves from marauding Indians and KuKluxKlansmen.

After Little Bighorn, the pursestring were loosened and Miles and Mackenzie had at least some of the benefit from in their successful winter campaign.