How did this dumbass lose?

Actually, the Indians were often using rifles that were superior to the rifles that Custer's soldiers were armed with. At the time, the US Army was still issuing single-shot breech-loading rifles, mostly because they were cheap. However, the Indians generally were using repeating level-action rifles, which they bought from outlaws who smuggled the weapons in. The common image of Americans in the west fighting with guns against Indians who are armed with bow-and-arrow is largely false. The Indians of the Great Plains realized very quickly that repeating rifles would give them a big advantage, and they schemed to acquire them at every possible opportunity. The US government passed laws against selling guns to the western tribes, but plenty of enterprising outlaws were willing smuggle in guns for nice profit.

Didn't the tribes also get a lot of weapons from ex-soldiers after the Civil War? The US military was quick to phase the musket out of service after the 1870s and often discarded them in a haphazard fashion and I imagine a lot of Confederates were more than happy to part with their old weapons for a quick buck and the knowledge they would be used to kill Union soldiers.

Native Americans biggest problem though was ammunition. They had to buy it at highly inflated prices and never had enough. Acquiring firearms the way they did meant it was difficult to standardize ammunition.

At the time of the Little Big Horn the U.S. Army allotted 12 rounds per year per soldier for practice due to the high cost of ammunition.

some possibly did, though most of the confederate guns were muzzle-loaders.

really what astounds me is that there weren't more smooth-bore breach-loading rifles that used either paper or reusable-steel cartridges.

during the crimean war smoothbores with conical bullets proved to be accurate enough at 100 meters. at least as far as block-infantry-formation firing was concerned.

Initial intel suggested there would only be 200-300 natives for his 600 men to attack. When his guides told him they saw a fuckhuge encampment in the distance he thought that meant all 300 were there. What they actually meant was that based on their decades of experience, they had never seen a war camp so big (they estimated the size based on smoke from cooking fires).

So he ended up splitting his forces and trying to pincer a massive camp that contained 10x as many fighters than he thought.

pic related, it's Custer's last thoughts

>Didn't the tribes also get a lot of weapons from ex-soldiers after the Civil War?

no. they mostly got them through barter with traders (often Canadian traders)

because the numbers of Plains Indians at Little Big Horn and their aggressive tactics were pretty unprecedented.

Yeah, its pretty funny how the Indians out-teched the soldiers.

Yeah, third 0 must not have registered when I pressed it

Because the Indians had gotten hold of modern rifles and vastly outnumbered his forces.

This really should surprise no one. Indians absolutely fell in love with guns from day 1 and oftentimes would take guns over currency in trade.

Bad intelligence

Custer also left his Gatling guns behind

As has been previously pointed out, the enemy had your weapons, drastically superior numbers, and favored mounted combat which allowed them to be flexible and mobile. Custer was overconfident, and like many commanders before him that failed to respect their enemy (Varus), his hubris was his downfall.

However the significant factor is that while his particular unit managed to get itself annihilated, the army he fought for, in the end, won. And won for good. So his defeat is not strategically significant, though it may be tactically interesting.

Realistically he could've won he he had like 4x as many troops as he did.

>yankee

>his hubris was his downfall.
It wasn't hubris, it was just ignorance. Custer was an experienced General and wouldn't have gone charging in if he'd known exactly how many fighting-men his enemy commanded.

>yankee
>born and raised in Michigan
Yankee doesn't mean "anybody from North of the Mason Dixon line" you dumb hicks.

His scouts literally told him there were thousands of Sioux in there camp, but he thought they had enough bullets. Sadly, his scouts decided to die with him.

Might have pulled it off if he had just scouted in a little more detail.

Twice before, he had forced huge formations of Indians to go back to the reservation by capturing a bunch of women and children to hold as hostages. Thought he could do the same this time.

Had Reno make a diversionary attack at one end of the camp to draw the warriors off, and tried to slip around to the rear to get the women & children. What he didn't figure on was that the river was kinda tricky to cross, and that not ALL the warriors were drawn out to attack Reno.

While he took too much time looking for a river crossing, they jumped him.

>200
Did you mean 2000?