Fellow history freaks--have you checked out The History Squad?

On the assumption that this thread will attract people likely to be interested in Jean Thurel, one of my heroes, here's a link. Quite likely the longest serving soldier of all time and it's all well-documented:

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Thurel

That's how the Custer book was: as far as why the massacre of the 7th Cavalry happened, there was a lot more to it than just "some over-confident, egotistical officer blundered into an ambush". There was much more involved: very bad personal politics between Custer a several other officers involved, a lack of accurate maps or even a basic understanding of the terrain into which they were riding, the difficult logistics of keeping the troops themselves supplied with not only food and ammunition but also fodder for their mounts in an area devoid of roads or railroads (their main supply line was, believe it or not, a river boat), the inferior performance of the standard-issue single shot carbines carried by the soldiers when compared to the Winchester and Henry repeaters used by many of the Native warriors, etc.. Also turns out that the US military budget had been drastically cut after the Civil War ended (the battle of the Little Big Horn happened about 10 years later) with predictable results. In addition, the decision to force the Sioux and Cheyenne out of the Black Hills (where gold had been discovered) was largely political. Despite the fact that this area, which the Natives considered to be sacred, had been guaranteed to them via treaty, so many prospectors had flooded into it that President U.S. Grant was basically faced with deciding whether to go to war with the Sioux or with the prospectors (to drive the latter out in order to preserve the peace with the Natives). Since the Sioux and Cheyenne weren't registered voters...

Thanks. I love history. Someday I hope to make some.