[dragoon500ly]

One of the enduring myths of LBH is that the Indians were armed with Winchester rifles and that this allowed them to overwhelm Custer's Battalion under the sheer weight of their firepower. At LBH the Indians were armed with weapons ranging from warclubs, bows and arrows, lances, knives, tomahawks and a wide array of old and new firearms. The Indians obtained their firearms through a variety of means ranging from trade, gun running, capture from enemies, or issued by the US government for hunting purposes.

The archaeological excavations of the battlefield, starting in 1983 recovered cartridge casings from 45 different makes of firearms used by 371 different individuals. This evidence confirms that the Indians were in possession of Spencers, Sharps, Smith & Wessens, Evans, Forehand & Wadworths, Remingtons, Henrys, Starrs, Winchesters, Maynards and Enfields, as well as Springfields and Colts captured from the cavalry.

An intresting view on the weapons used by the Indians came from the last survivor of the battle, Private Charles Windolph, a Medal of Honor winner with Company H. Windolph stated that at least half of of the Indians were armed with bows and arrows, another quarter were armed with old muzzleloaders and single-hot rifles, and the remainder were armed with repeaters.

Major Marcus Reno stated in his Court of Inquiry that "the Indians had Winchester rifles and the column made a large target for them and they were pumping bullets into it." The Winchester was THE weapon of choice of the Indians whenever they could get get their hands on it.

The Winchester Model 1866 fired a .44-caliber, 200-grain bullet with 28 grains of black powder. It had a magazine capacity of seventeen rounds and had an effective range of 100 yards and a maximum range of about 400 yards. Its main advantage was its high rate of fire of 34rpm, compared to the 17rpm of the Springfield.

Indian tactics called for the warriors to remain hidden a safe distance away while they fired an endless barrage of arrows at the cavalrymen. Add to the arrow barrage the favored Indian tactic of infiltrating as close as possible to the cavalry and then using the awesome short range firepower of the Winchester...this allowed them to acheive complete fire-superiority over the cavalry.