Towing a couple of Gatlings behind horses across an untracked wilderness would be a logistical mess that would largely defeat the whole Blitzkrieg concept of cavlary.
If you blunder about slowly with heavy weapons, the enemy will probably find and outmaneuver you. The only way those guns likely would have helped Custer is if he could have had the Enterprise beam them to his position at his call. Maxim guns might have been almost portable enough to help, but still about a decade off for anything practical.
When our governing officials dismiss due process as mere semantics, when they exercise powers they don’t have and ignore duties they actually bear, and when we let them get away with it, we have ceased to be our own rulers.
The best action for a battle rifle in that day was the Spencer! Fast enough to allow for fairly rapid firing, but slow enough to keep the soldier focused due to the separate actions necessary to fire the darn thing. Also, it had chamberings that gave it more range than the pitiful .44 Rimfire of the Winchesters 66 and Henry. The .44 WCF wasn't too bad but the Spencer had better capability.
As for black powder fowling, in a tight action, fowling doesn't play much of a role in gumming up the works. I've fired my Henry over 200 times in one sitting and little to almost no fowling makes its way back into the action because everything was going forward and there was no backward leakage. Most of the residue is from still "slightly" smoking cases as they are retracted and ejected, with some black powder charcoal making its way to the bottom of the action recess where it doesn't interfere with anything.
We already know - and this should have been understood at the time, that a smaller force armed with Spencers as in the Cavalry unit commanded by General Buford at Seminary Ridge was able to hold of a vastly superior force for several hours. These men didn't waste ammo, but yes, they came close to running out of it before being relieved.
The Spencer would have saved the day - and would have made up for poor leadership. Unfortunately, they had both poor leadership and poor weaponry.
It's a source of great pride for me, that when my name is googled, one finds book titles and not mug shots. Daniel C. Chamberlain
Replies
If you blunder about slowly with heavy weapons, the enemy will probably find and outmaneuver you. The only way those guns likely would have helped Custer is if he could have had the Enterprise beam them to his position at his call. Maxim guns might have been almost portable enough to help, but still about a decade off for anything practical.
"Nothing is safe from stupid." - Zee
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geHLdg_VNww
:jester:
Looks like Spinal Tap.
Besides...Custer NEVER looked that cool
(Photobucket isn't working for me)
Adam J. McCleod
Beat me to it.........Classic.............Ken
As for black powder fowling, in a tight action, fowling doesn't play much of a role in gumming up the works. I've fired my Henry over 200 times in one sitting and little to almost no fowling makes its way back into the action because everything was going forward and there was no backward leakage. Most of the residue is from still "slightly" smoking cases as they are retracted and ejected, with some black powder charcoal making its way to the bottom of the action recess where it doesn't interfere with anything.
We already know - and this should have been understood at the time, that a smaller force armed with Spencers as in the Cavalry unit commanded by General Buford at Seminary Ridge was able to hold of a vastly superior force for several hours. These men didn't waste ammo, but yes, they came close to running out of it before being relieved.
The Spencer would have saved the day - and would have made up for poor leadership. Unfortunately, they had both poor leadership and poor weaponry.