Revisiting the Battle of the Little Big Horn
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Authors
Burns, Matthew J.
Subjects
Wargaming
Course of action analysis
Course of action analysis
Advisors
McCormick, Gordon H.
Mansager, Bard K.
Date of Issue
2000-12
Date
December 2000
Publisher
Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School
Language
en_US
Abstract
The Battle of the Little Big Horn has captured the interest of historians, scholars, and military enthusiasts since the day that over 200 United States soldiers under General George Armstrong Custer's command were decimated by Crazy Horse and 2000 Indian warriors. Competing theories regarding the details of the battle have arisen, mostly due to conflicting first hand accounts. The purpose of this thesis is twofold. The first purpose is to perform an historical analysis of the Battle of the Little Big Horn, using war-gaming. A series of controlled, comparative simulations of the battle will be carried out using the Synchronization Matrix, a war-gaming tool obtained from U.S. Army Field Manual (FM) 101-5. This analysis will evaluate three competing theories and interpretations of the battle, with the objective of categorizing the theories by degree of plausibility. The second purpose is to examine the impact of alternative notional leadership decisions on the outcome of the battle, e.g. what if Custer had not split his force? The result is a confirmation that war-gaming can indeed be utilized for the study of historical combat, as well as for future planning.
Type
Thesis
Description
Series/Report No
Department
Special Operations Academic Group
Organization
Naval Postgraduate School
Identifiers
NPS Report Number
Sponsors
Funder
Format
x, 151 p.
Citation
Distribution Statement
Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.
Rights
This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.