TopKick1833
Junior Member
Sherlock the Beagle Dog
Posts: 80
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Post by TopKick1833 on Jul 25, 2007 10:18:44 GMT -6
Found this on a "Visit Montana" website. I'm not endorsing the content, just showing the perception that is ou there.
"The remains of this unknown trooper were found in 1926 prior to the 50th Anniversary of the Custer Battle. Presumed to have been one of Major Reno's men, one of the first Seventh Cavalry men killed in the opening phase of the battle in the river valley near Garryowen, Montana. Apparently high water in the spring following the famed battle, caused the soldier's body to be buried, and it was not found until the road crew building the US 87 Highway uncovered it 50 years later."
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TopKick1833
Junior Member
Sherlock the Beagle Dog
Posts: 80
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Post by TopKick1833 on Jul 25, 2007 11:04:50 GMT -6
The below website indicates that the body found in 1926 was "entombed in a special monument in the battlefield cemetery" www.billingsguide.com/Visguide17.htmlBy 1926, the “town” of Garryowen was in private hands, but still consisted of little more than a small market. It was at this time, just a month before the 50th Anniversary of the Battle, that work was being done on an irrigation ditch just east of Garryowen — along Reno’s line of retreat. Much to their surprise, work crews uncovered a nearly complete set of skeletal remains (no skull was ever found), accompanied by several bullets and buttons, clearly indicating that this had been a Seventh Cavalry soldier. Because 14 of Reno and Benteen ’s men were never accounted for following the battle, accurate identification of the remains was impossible. However, with planning for the celebration ’s events in full swing, The Custer Memorial Association decided a memorial service, with full military honors, was due this long-lost Unknown Soldier. The body was to be entombed in a special monument in the battlefield cemetery following a “Burying of the Hatchet” ceremony at Garryowen, in which US government and Indian representatives would smoke a peace pipe and place a tomahawk in the base of the monument. This is from www.smithsonianmagazine.com/issues/2005/april/des_bighorn.php?page=2It was not until 1881 that the bones of the remaining cavalrymen and their horses were finally gathered by hand into a mass grave, over which a 36,000-pound granite memorial was erected. Even then, the job was hardly thorough: in 1925, a decapitated skeleton of a trooper in Reno's command was found near the modern-day hamlet of Garryowen; another, wearing an Army tunic, was exposed in a shallow grave on Reno Hill in 1958.
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Post by Diane Merkel on Jul 25, 2007 17:50:50 GMT -6
Thanks for taking the time to research the topic. It sounds as if there is no skeleton at the Garry Owen site, just the hatchet. I hadn't noticed the "Unknown" burials at the Custer Battlefield National Cemetery before. Here are the ones identified as being from the LBH. None were buried in 1926, so where is the man in question? - Unknown(Custer Battlefield), d. Jun 25, 1876, Army, 2 Unknowns, 7th U.S. Cavalry, Found in gulch 300 yards from South Line of Reservation, Aug 1, 1928, bur. Sec. A #1466
- Unknown(Reno's Retreat), d. Jun 25-26,1876, Army, 7th Cavalry, Found on Reno's retreat Oct 25, 1928, bur. Sec. A #1466
- Unknowns(Reno-Benteen), d. Jun 25-26,1876, Army, 3 Unknowns, 7th U.S. Cavalry, With Reno-Benteen Forces, Photo on file under A 82, bur. Aug 1, 1958, Sec. B #402
- Unknowns(Reno-Benteen), d. Jun 25-26,1876, Army, 6 Unknowns, 7th Cavalry, Grave 453, 454, 456, 458, 517A(2 bodies), bur. Sec. A
Source: www.interment.net/data/us/mt/bighorn/custernatl/cust_misc.htmWasn't the reburial in 1991 also an unknown? I know there were a couple of candidates for identification, but I'm not sure that the final determination was made. Perhaps this list is not conclusive.
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Post by Diane Merkel on Jul 25, 2007 21:34:07 GMT -6
I have no personal knowledge, but I was told that the request was made by the owner of the museum/gas station/sub shop at Garry Owen.
I should emphasize again that I have not heard anything more about it nor have I read it anywhere other than an e-mail I received from a well-respected source. Let me check with my source to see if anything has come of the request. This may be much ado about nothing, but the source knew I was going to post it (I ask permission when people send me such news) and he is not the sort of person to start false rumors.
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Post by Diane Merkel on Jul 26, 2007 1:31:44 GMT -6
I didn't even notice your typo. I still have trouble remembering if it's an Institute or an Institution!
I've written to my source, asking for more information. He's good about responding, and I'll let you know what he says.
I just re-read that paragraph from the first link Topkick provided, and it's pretty ambiguous. It first mentions a "special monument" at the cemetery where he was supposedly buried and then mentions a monument into which the hatchet was placed in Garry Owen. Now I'm wondering how credible the article is.
Others have asked before: Isn't anything about this battle simple?
Thank you for your service!
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Post by Melani on Jul 26, 2007 12:39:23 GMT -6
It's an institution--like the one we should probably all be in! (Actually, a field trip there would be great--one of my favorite places.) Does anybody know exactly what the monument at Garryowen says? I didn't pay too much attention when I saw it, but it may not actually say that anybody is buried there.
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Post by Tricia on Jul 26, 2007 13:17:08 GMT -6
Melani--
I've got a photo of the monument somewhere--as I have just received the box from hell from North Platte--I may not find it (if ever) until tomorrow. Must go fondle the additions to The Collection. And it includes some really bad Custer Art--if this keeps up, I'll have to lose the house and buy a freaking doublewide ... hehehe.
--t.
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Post by Tricia on Jul 27, 2007 9:31:59 GMT -6
You know I am completely jealous, AG ... I had just enough money with me last weekend to get a ticket from Denver to Billings. Getting home and finding lodging would have required some funds to be moved about--which meant I would have had to come home to Little Rock anyway ... sigh. But I was really close to just breaking away ... for a couple more days.
So take those pictures for us in Garryowen ... and kiss the ground at LBH for me. I'll have to make do fondling my Bad Custer Art. Send them via emaul to Diane and she'll post them here. She said she can do it even away from home.
--t.
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Post by Diane Merkel on Jul 28, 2007 10:09:53 GMT -6
Greetings from Wadsworth, Ohio!
I just tested the server, and I can get into it, which means I'll be able to post photos.
Abby Grace and others I haven't thanked yet, thanks for the offer of donations, but all is well. I'm just glad you all are hanging in through the transition!
Diane
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Post by Tricia on Jul 28, 2007 13:38:36 GMT -6
We loooove you Diane, that's why!
Trish (who's in hotter than hell Arkansas)
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Post by Diane Merkel on Jul 28, 2007 21:03:31 GMT -6
Some think you are hot no matter where you are, Trish! ;D
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Post by harpskiddie on Jul 28, 2007 21:34:28 GMT -6
It's probably the pink hair..................
Gordie, his peace of mind he knows he'll find - but where, oh Lord, Lord where? Ride away, ride away.....
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Post by Tricia on Jul 28, 2007 21:46:12 GMT -6
Ahhh ... the rumours have begun. I shouldn't have started dancing on the tables to OK Go's "Here It Goes Again!" Actually, that never happened, no matter what Wayne, Bob, and Jahnis say! The only way to do that tune justice is on a treadmill or four.
The only thing that is hot about me is my freaking main character ... who someone is falling for. Again. Sigh.
Next week, it'll be 7th Cavalry blue hair, Gordie.
--t.
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Post by Tricia on Jul 30, 2007 11:58:12 GMT -6
All-- Until we hear from Abby Grace, this will have to do. Enjoy the half time show ... Still haven't found my photo of the memorial. --t.
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TopKick1833
Junior Member
Sherlock the Beagle Dog
Posts: 80
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Post by TopKick1833 on Jul 30, 2007 12:23:44 GMT -6
O.K., more wonderful information from the world wide web on this subject:
"In 1926, just before the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Little Bighorn, a road crew building Highway 87 uncovered the remains of a US cavalry trooper. And a good thing too, because that unidentified participant in the Battle of Little Bighorn became the star of the anniversary's "Burial of the Hatchet" ceremony. Today he still rests in the Tomb Of The Unknown Soldier -- "The only solitary grave site dedicated to an unknown US soldier anywhere in the United States which is not located in a national cemetery."
According to the website the US Cavalry soldier still rests there today. So the big question, is there a US serviceman buried in the tomb or not? Can anyone get verification on this?
R/S
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