Archaeological Perspectives on the Battle of the Little Bighorn (Revised)

Description

Ever since the Custer massacres on June 25| 1876| the question has been asked: What happened – what REALLY happened – at the Battle of the Little Bighorn? We know some of the answers| because half of George Armstrong Custer’s Seventh Cavalry – the men with Major Marcus Reno and Captain Frederick Benteen – survived the fight| but what of the half that did not| the troopers| civilians| scouts| and journalist who were with Custer?
Now| because a grass fire in August 1983 cleared the terrain of brush and grass and made possible thorough archaeological examinations of the battlefield in 1984 and 1985| we have many answers to important questions.
On the basis of the archaeological evidence presented in this book| we know more about what kinds of weapons were used against the cavalry.
We know exactly where many of the men fought| how they died| and what happened to their bodies at the time of or after death.
We know how the troopers were deployed| what kind of clothing they wore| what kind of equipment they had| how they fought.
Through the techniques of historical archaeology and forensic anthropology| the remains and grave of one of Custer’s scouts| Mitch Boyer| have been identified.
And through geomorphology and the process of elimination| we know with almost 100 percent certainty where the twenty-eight missing men who supposedly were buried en masse in Deep Ravine will be found.