Custer’s Last Stand
Military intelligence is the mechanism of collecting data and examining the information for policymaking by the executive arm of government and military chains of command. It helps to realize three aims: gauge the evaluation effect (opponents’ abilities and objectives); boost the performance of the nation’s arms systems and lower the performance of the adversaries’ arms (operational effect); and when an army has secret information about prevention and usurpation on their enemy (relative effect), they can use that data to their advantage (Pecht & Tishler, 2015). The Battle of the Little Bighorn, also described as Custer’s Last Stand, ensued in the hills, sharp cliffs, and ravines of the Little Bighorn River, in late June 1876 (Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, 2019). This essay will compare or contrast the use of military intelligence and describe the effect intelligence operations had or didn’t have on the outcomes of the Battle of Little Bighorn.
Summary of Both Subjects
Jitters between the two factions had been gradually increasing since gold was found on Native American soil. When various tribes missed the opportunity, they had been given to move their territory, the U.S. Army, led by George Armstrong Custer and his 7th Calvary was sent fast to challenge them. Custer did not know how many Indians were fighting under the direction of Sitting Bull at Little Bighorn, and the former’s soldiers were the minority. They were humiliated and beaten in what is now remembered as Custer’s Last Stand. Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, rulers of the Sioux on the Great Plains, firmly opposed the mid-19TH century attempts of the U.S. officials to restrict their fellow tribesmen to Indian territories. When the gold was discovered the U.S. Army disregarded earlier treaty accords and raided the area. This dishonesty caused many Sioux and Cheyenne clans to team up with Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse in Montana. In total, the Native Americans were more than 10,000 against Custer’s 800 troops who entered the Little Bighorn Valley without waiting for more troops to arrive and provide them with backup (Karcher, 2004).