thank you, suh!
one of gen. custer's saving graces was his love for greyhounds.
The US cavalry used greyhounds as scouts to help spot Native Americans, since the greyhounds were fast enough to keep up with the horses. General George Custer reportedly always took his 22 coursing greyhounds with him when he travelled. Custer loved to nap on the parlor floor, surrounded by a sea of greyhounds. He normally coursed his hounds the day before a battle, including the day before the Battle of Little Big Horn.
my greyhounds, of course, are of a more southerly persuasion.
more in keeping with the thread, i've just been reading an account of the 'last stand', just before the battle the 7th apparently boxed up all their sabres, officers and enlisted as well, and sent them into storage, so they must not have considered them to be worth the effort of carrying. sadly for them, they also so considered them new-fangled gatling guns to be too much trouble to take with them to defeat a few measly injuns.