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Originally Posted by bobcat
i completely agree. these brave riders where screwed as soon as they stepped out. one can argue weapons and tactics all day long but at those odds, even if they could have carried twice as much ammo. they would have been slaughtered. the purest sign of how overwhelmed they were is the fact they resorted to killing their mounts to use as cover. something everyone under a stetson knows is only done when you know you not coming out alive.
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One of intresting things about LBH is that there is very little reference to the cavalry shooting their mounts and using them as breastworks with the exception of a dozen or so mounts on Custer Hill.
The Upton manual stresses that the horses were to be pulled back behind cover, this distance was to be anywhere from 50-200 yards behind the skirmish line.
There is a lot of reference to horses having been shot during the course of the battle, but Indian oral tradition has always held that the mounts were shot in the course of the battle or were stampeded by various warriors.