Tommygunn - "Troops were told to save the last bullet for themselves - "
PRM - "I've seen this quoted, and it seems often enough that a lot of folks take it as fact. Just curious, do you have any links or source material from the era that state this? Be interesting to know if this was actual advice given or the creation of the dime novel writers of the late 1800s."
Regarding above, and to include some info on the fight by Custer and his troops at the Little Big Horn River, or as the Sioux called it, the "Greasy Grass River," there is a book out there that if you can find it, is chock full of info on that battle, plus the battles of U.S. soldiers against other tribes of the Great Plains. It is...
Indian Fights And Fighters, by Cyrus Townsend Brady, L.L.D., (soft copy reprint), University of Nebraska Press, © 1971,
originally published by McClure, Philips & Co, ©
1904.
Brady lived out in the West for years, interviewed both soldiers who fought in those many battles and a number of Indians from several tribes who were in the battles. The Battle at the Little Big Horn River is covered extensively from a number of participants who participated with Benteen and Reno, and there are some conflicting interviews by officers and soldiers, including some of the Indian participants. Especially interesting is the information regarding Reno, and his alleged cowardly actions and disobeying of Custer's orders.
As for "Save the last bullet for yourself, " there are many references to that statement in the books written, especially by those written many years ago by authors who interviewed soldiers who fought in those Indian war battles. Here is
one example from the book I just noted, regarding the fight on Long Trail Ridge, several miles from Fort Phil Kearny. This was known as the Fetterman Massacre, December, 1867..
"[U.S. Capt. Ferde H.] Brown and [U.S. Capt. W.J.] Fetterman were found lying side by side, each with a bullet wound in the left temple. Their heads were burned and filled with powder around the wounds. Seeing that all was lost, they had evidently stood face too face and each had shot the other dead with his revolver. They had both sworn to die rather than be taken alive by the Indians, and in the last extremity they had carried out their vows."
If one reads of the horrendous torture committed by various Indian tribes against the white people they captured, it is very easy to see why it was a general idea to "Save the last bullet for yourself."
FWIW.
L.W.