Teaching Cavalry History

B Troop was in Tombstone yesterday supporting an event there. We were asked to set up a static display from 1000 to 1600. A long day for sure. The promoters of the event arranged a lot of publicity but I'm not sure there were any more people there than you'd usually find there on a Saturday. We set up our mountain howitzer, a display campaign saddle, and a table of cavalry items that might be carried in a saddle bag. We had a fair amount of visitors who were curious about our weapons and accoutrements. There were lots of questions about the weapons, of course. A few visitors, the ones who knew something about history, were repeating the oft-stated claim that the 1873 Springfield trapdoor carbine had a tendency to jam. This story comes from the battle of the Little Bighorn where it was reported that troopers were having this particular trouble with the carbine. However, forensic evidence at the battle site doesn't really support the claim and there were no other battles I'm aware of where this problem was described. Thus, I never fully accepted this claim about the Springfield but enjoyed discussing the issue with knowledgeable people. One gentlemen came up and asked me if I knew anything about a film clip of General Edward Godfrey (who had been a survivor of the battle) riding across the Bighorn during an anniversary visit to the battlefield. The gentlemen claimed to have seen the clip on PBS at some point but had never been able to locate the clip again. I explained that I had only seen still photographs of the general at the battlefield. It is amazing though, the questions that people come up with. You really have to be on your toes at these events. Most people have no idea who Godfrey was and it was a very obscure question.