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Post by elisabeth on Aug 11, 2007 9:19:02 GMT -6
Does anyone happen to know where Benteen was throughout 1870?
He relays various bits of gossip about Leavenworth, but I can't quite work out whether he was actually present to observe events during this most critical year of the Custers' marriage. He gives no sign whatsoever of having picked up on the Libbie/Keogh relationship -- and I can't imagine that his antennae wouldn't have been twitching like crazy if he'd been around at the time. As it is, the worst he ever accuses Libbie of is being (1) "cold-blooded" and (2) "parsimonious"; he doesn't even implicate her in Custer's dodgy money-making scams, much less cast any doubt on her morals. (Even with the alleged Weir business, he doesn't suggest any actual wrong-doing.)
Could anything have slipped past Benteen's eagle eye? It doesn't seem likely ... so I'm guessing he must have been elsewhere. It would be nice to know for sure, though. Any info?
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Post by rch on Aug 11, 2007 17:16:49 GMT -6
Elisabeth,
The regimental history doesn't mention Benteen in 1870 and he could have been away from his company for various reasons that might have taken him the Leavenworth.
Company H was at Ft Hays until 23 Apr. It marched from there to the Saline River were it went into camp on the 29th. On 12 May it marched from the Saline to the Solomon River and went into camp on Asher Creek on 15 May. On 25 May the company left Asher Creek and arrived back at Hays the same day. The same day they moved by rail to Kit Carson arriving there on the 26th. As part of Maj Reno's command they left Kit Carson on 3 Jun and arrived at Ft Wallace on the 22nd. In addition to H, Reno commanded B and L. His command arrived back at Kit Carson on 2 Jul and then moved to Willow Springs, arriving there on 5 Jul. Apparently on the same day, Company H went on to River Bend, Colo. Terr. where Co. E was stationed. L company joined H on the 6th and H an L left for Denver the same day and arrived back at the camp on River Bend on the 16th. Company H and the other companies remained there until starting back to Ft Hays on 10 Oct. They arrived at Hays on 22 Oct. and remained there for the rest of the year.
rch
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Post by Diane Merkel on Aug 11, 2007 19:25:28 GMT -6
Custer's Thorn has Benteen at Fort Hays during the autumn of 1869/winter of 1870. Then . . . [pages 120-122]: He was sent to St. Louis in the spring of 1870 for three months of temporary duty, to inspect horses. . . .
Benteen served in Colorado from July to October 1870 with few difficulties, thanks in large measure to his Delaware scouts. . . .
In October 1870, Custer departed for Fort Leavenworth, taking with him several companies and leaving behind at Fort Hays H and M companies, with Benteen in command.
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Post by elisabeth on Aug 11, 2007 22:12:42 GMT -6
Thanks, both. Terrific stuff.
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Post by elisabeth on Aug 12, 2007 10:59:09 GMT -6
One other question, and then I promise I'll stop(!): anyone know where Mike Sheridan was in the spring of 1868? Especially in March/April, which was when his big brother Phil took up his command at Fort Leavenworth.
To explain: I'm interested because the Langellier/Cox/Pohanka Keogh biography makes the assumption that when Keogh said he'd be staying with "Sheridan" at Fort Leavenworth on his return from leave in late March/early April, it must have been Mike. That's possible, as they were friends. But ...... it's noticeable that when Phil Sheridan takes control of the department in March 1868, he picks (1) Will Comstock as chief scout, and (2) Lt. Fred Beecher as officer i/c scouts. He could have heard of Comstock from Custer -- but Beecher's virtues would have been known only to Keogh. (As they were stationed together at Fort Wallace).
Another of these things that in a way doesn't matter, but in another way might: could Phil Sheridan have set about getting a useful debriefing from Keogh?
Sheridan was new to the territory; Keogh was an assiduous writer of reports (see Minnie Dubbs Millbrook); Keogh and Phil Sheridan were passing through Leavenworth at the same time. It's not a stretch. But if Mike was also present at the time, that would open up room for doubts ...
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Post by Melani on Aug 14, 2007 17:06:12 GMT -6
Well, if Keogh was staying with Mike, and Phil was there also, doesn't it stand to reason that some contact would have occurred? Didn't Mike spend most of his time on his brother's staff?
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Post by Diane Merkel on Aug 14, 2007 19:06:24 GMT -6
I apologize for stepping backward for a moment, but I noticed when posting the Fort Leavenworth grave photos that Kate Benteen died on December 16, 1869. According to the Benteen family, Kate was an infant who was born and died at Fort Harker. Perhaps that partially explains Benteen's silence during that time.
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Post by elisabeth on Aug 15, 2007 0:59:15 GMT -6
True enough. Other things on his mind, I guess.
So were all the Fort Harker graves moved to Leavenworth when Harker closed down? I presume that's more likely than little Kate being buried at Leavenworth initially ...
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Post by markland on Aug 15, 2007 11:29:13 GMT -6
True enough. Other things on his mind, I guess. So were all the Fort Harker graves moved to Leavenworth when Harker closed down? I presume that's more likely than little Kate being buried at Leavenworth initially ... Strangely enough, the Ft. Harker interment register does not show Kate's grave. Having said that, I need to point out that the majority of the Ft. Harker graves were unmarked. Volume one of the interment register shows 209 graves, most as I said unmarked, and I have names for only 99 soldiers who died at Harker. The cholera epidemics of 1866 & 1867 did kill quite a few civilian quartermaster employees as well as local civilians which may account for the bulk of the remainder. The net only has the first volume of post interment records and there may be more Ft. Harker graves in the second volume which I will check the next time over at L'worth. I believe that they also have the Ft. Harker Hospital Register for 1866-1867 but am not sure if it goes beyond those years. I will also look at the L'worth post returns to see if Benteen was casually at the post. If he and Catherine were there with Kate, that may explain the burial at L'worth. And it stands to reason that better facilities as well as medical care would be available at that post. Billy
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Post by Melani on Aug 16, 2007 16:19:16 GMT -6
What did Kate die of? I seem to recall somebody saying that there was some congenital condition that killed a couple of Benteen's children.
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Post by markland on Aug 16, 2007 21:17:46 GMT -6
What did Kate die of? I seem to recall somebody saying that there was some congenital condition that killed a couple of Benteen's children. I've heard the same thing. Today, I went up to the Ft. L'worth Archives to look at the hospital registers (if they had them) but unfortunately, they didn't. Time to contact NARA and pay for the reproductions. Billy P.S. Benteen's company was assigned to Ft. Hays, late August early September. I will transcribe some of the Ft. Hays Letters Sent records I copied for that period.
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Post by Realbird on Aug 18, 2007 9:08:45 GMT -6
Benteen's wife Catherine was often called, by him, Kate or Kittie. According to Evan S. Connell he also referred to her as Frabbie, Frabbel, and Frabbelina, affectionate names that may have derived from their court-ship days.
Apparently, she was not very strong nor suited for the "frontier" life. She lost four of their five children. All four died of spinal meningitis "following themusic of the cavalry trumpet," as Benteen expressed it.
Benteen suffered himself from the tubercular form which is highly contagious. Therefore, he could have transmitted the disease. If Benteen was aware of the possibility that he might have caused the deaths of his children, such a psychological load would go far to explain some of his character ideosynracies.
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Post by Melani on Aug 22, 2007 15:56:23 GMT -6
I think he addressed her as "Frabbie" in the letter he wrote to her after the battle. Re: contagion--was medical knowledge sufficiently advanced at that time for anyone to get the connection?
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