Nobody really credits the figure of 20,000--I was just commenting on the wide range that has been put forth. I think maybe a total of 5,000 at most would be a good guess. They were there for the summer buffalo hunt, and wouldn't have stayed together much longer anyway.

Benteen had a big stake in having been totally outnumbered--after all, how else could they account for the defeat of the Seventh, the crack regiment of the Plains? That's one of the reasons the white survivors tended to estimate high.