Cavalry Guidons and the Reason for custer's Defeat

A guidon is a type of fork tailed flag carried by cavalry companies or troops. From 1833 to 1862, cavalry guidons were divided horizontally, red above and white below, with the letters "U.S." in white above and the letter of the company below. Western movies use that design more often than any other, because a guidon with the letter A can be used for company A of any cavalry regiment, and so on.

From 1862-1885, the period when most cavalry movies are set, cavalry guidons had a stars and stripes pattern similar to the national flag. But this pattern of guidon is rarely seen in western movies despite being the accurate pattern to use in most western movies.

From 1885 to the present cavalry guidons are divided horizontally, red over white, with the regimental number in white above and the company letter in red below. This guidon design is the second most popular in western movies because the audience can see which regiment and company the soldiers belong to and because it is the contemporary guidon design.

And in many other western movies the cavalry carries flags, standards, and guidons of totally fictional design never carried by real US cavalry. In The Great Sioux Massacre (1965) the guidons are divided horizontally, red over white, with a yellow (?) number "7" and yellow (?) crossed sabers below it on the red section, and the company letter in red on the white section.

In the Indian Wars period a cavalry company or troop usually had about 40 to 60 men available for duty, and there were twelve companies in a regiment. Custer had all twelve companies of the Seventh Cavalry in his command on the morning of June 25, 1876 - not that it did him any good.

As usual, a sergeant and six privates from each troop, 84 men in all, were detailed to wrangle the mules in the pack train, and Captain McDougall and Company B were detailed to guard the pack train. As the Seventh rode on, Custer detached Captain Benteen and three troops (H, D, and K) on a scout to the left. Custer later sent Major Reno to cross the Little Bighorn and attack the Sioux village with three companies (A, G, and M) and continued with five troops (C, E, F, I & L), that might have been subdivided into two battalions but nobody knows.

Reno was defeated in the valley and then the seven surviving troops of the Seventh Cavalry were besieged on Reno Hill on June 25 and 26.

The only movie I saw that made it clear that there were twelve troops of the Seventh cavalry at the Little Bighorn was Custer's Last Fight (1912). Other movies make the viewer suspect that the fictional Custer had fewer troops than the real one did.

The Great Sioux Massacre (1965), directed and co written by Sidney Salkow, reuses a lot of scenes from Sitting Bull (1954), directed and co written by Sidney Salkow. One reused scene shows Seventh Cavalry soldiers lined up in five lines, each line with about as many men as would be in one single troop of cavalry.

In The Great Sioux Massacre (1965) Custer sends Captain Benton off with at least one troop, and then we we see the reused scene with five lines of cavalry who might be five more troops. Custer then sends Major Reno with three troops to go on one side of the Little Bighorn while Custer goes with the rest on the other side of the Little Bighorn. If each line of soldiers equals one troop of cavalry, Custer would have only two troops or only about 100 men his detachment. There could be six or more troops present, and only five troops total in Reno and Custer's detachments.

In later battle scenes we see a guidon with the letter "C" in Reno's detachment, meaning that C company is with Reno instead of Custer, and we see a guidon with the letter "L" in Benton's detachment, meaning that company L is with Benton instead of Custer, and in Custer's Last Stand we see a guidon with the letter "I" meaning that company I is correctly with Custer.

Thus some people might wonder whether Custer gets massacred in The Great Sioux Massacre (1965) because he has fewer companies with him than he had in real life and thus is outnumbered even more than in real life!