Of course, what most people seem to forget is his rank.
Custer had only been in the Army 2 years when he was made a General, during the Civil War.
When the war was over, he left the Army for a year or so to consider his other options. And finding them few, in 1866 he returned as a Lieutenant Colonel. A rank he remained at for a decade until he died.
The fact was, he was never very well thought of as an actual leader. His abilities were good on a battlefield with others in command, and the solution was for him to charge the enemy. That was damned near his answer to every problem, charge it head on and try to smash it. And ultimately, that killed him and his men. And the thing is, they could very easily have survived, but LtCol Custer was an idiot.
Because one thing every good leader does is contingency planning. As in, determine a "fall back" position in case things go sideways. And there were multiple such locations within 3 miles of the battlefield. Any one of which would have allowed them to deploy in a strong defensive position, and let the longer range of their weapons dominate over the lower range and power but faster firing weapons of their adversary.
Oh, and forget the heroic "last stand", that never happened. They had no leadership, broke and scattered, and were cut down like fleeing rabbits.
www.history.com
