The role of Benteen at Custer's Last stand

[airbolt]

I've just watched a Documentary about Custer's last Stand. Told through a re-enactment , it emphasises the animosity between Custer and Benteen. Reno is rebuffed and his command meets up with a returning Benteen.

At this point the film strongly suggests that Benteen is reluctant to support Custer through personal feelings of animosity. However another account ( Wikipedia ) suggests that Benteen had military reasons for not marching towards Custer at that point ( short of ammo )

Is the matter of Benteen's competence and motivation still a matter of argument among historians? or is there a majority view on this matter?

[Clanad]

Living, as I did for a time, within a stone's throw of the so-called Custer Battlefield, I found, through research, that the Benteen/Custer saga had a long and bitter history. Benteen, after first meeting Custer in 1867 said he found Custer "...�vain, arrogant and egotistical.� A sentiment, I might add, of many of the associates of Custer outside of the "inner circle" of Custer's brothers and wife.
An incident, related from a book called Campaign in Kansas set the attitude of Benteen towards Custer even more in concrete:
Benteen fought with the Seventh (Cavalry commanded by Custer) during the ensuing Indian wars in Kansas during 1868. An incident during these wars may have added fuel to the burning hatred Benteen later expressed for Custer. A group of soldiers led by Maj. Joel Elliott, having split off from the Seventh earier in the day to pursue a band of Indians, had not returned when Custer issued orders that the Seventh should return to its supply camp. He did not send out scouts to search for the missing patrol. Benteen and several other officers were violently cricital of Custer�s actions. Several months later, returning to the ******* battlefield, the Seventh found the dead and mutilated bodies of Elliot and his troopers. Benteen wrote a letter about the incident to a friend, and it was printed (without Benteen�s permission) in a St. Louis newspaper.

Contd.

[Clanad]

Contd.

Custer, after reading the article, pronounced that he "would horsewhip the author"... but after Benteen readily admitted he had written the letter, Custer deigned following up with his threat.

Needless to say, the controversy rages among Custerophiles even today. A synopsis of the Courts Martial of Major Reno following the debacle indicates the following re: Benteen:
"Some commentators have speculated that Benteen was sent on this scout specifically to remove him from the battle that Custer was expecting to find at the Little Bighorn. Benteen followed Custer's orders as far as practicable, when excessively hilly country prevented any further progress in the direction he was ordered to scout. Benteen led his troops back to the trail that Custer and the Seventh followed earlier, and arrived within sighting distance of the Little Bighorn battlefield in time to see the retreat of Major Reno's battalion (another three companies of the Seventh) to the hill now known as the Reno-Benteen entrenchment. Benteen took his battalion, and immediately rode to where Reno and his men were putting together a hasty defense. It is agreed by most commentators that, while Reno was nominally the senior officer present, it was in fact Benteen who took effective command and organized the defense of the survivors on the hilltop...."
Although Frederick Benteen ended his military carreer ignominously several years later, he was, by all accounts exonerated in the defeat of his nemisis...

[airbolt]

Excellent Answer , Thank You Clanad.