Is this a Keoughism or did Scott actually reject the Pitsch Timber site?
Judge for yourself...
Douglas D. Scott,
Uncovering History, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2013.
1. Robert Bray conducted the first professional archaeological studies of the battlefield in the late-1950s: 1958 at Reno-Benteen. [4, 7]
• LTC Elwood Nye
• Joseph Blummer
• Ralph G. Cartwright
• Edward S. Luce (first NPS park superintendent of the LBH)
• Don G. Rickey
2. Earliest collected item was a skull: Dr Robert W. Shufeldt, June – July 1877, in the Reno valley fighting location. [5 – 6 and 152 – 154] [This is the skull Walt Cross claims was LT Harrington’s. Cross ignored where Shufeldt found it, crying conspiracy and claiming the skull was actually found farther north. See p. 153.]
3. Philetus W. Norris arrived within a few days of Shufeldt to look for the remains of his friend, Charlie Reynolds. [6]
• About 100+ army cartridge cases from on and near LSH. [6, 30, 32]
• Henry .44-caliber cartridge. [6]
• A fired lead ball. [6, 30]
• A tack-decorated stock and breech of a Sharps carbine. [6, 30]
4. Explorers most associated with early explorations of the LBH area were François Laroque and John Colter (1807 – 1808). Also George Droulliard and Manuel Lisa. [17]
5. First permanent structure built in Montana was Fort Manuel Lisa (also known as Fort Raymond). [17]
6. CPT William Franklin Raynolds mapped the Yellowstone and Bighorn rivers (1856). [17]
7. On January 29, 1879, the Secretary of War authorized the creation of the Custer National Cemetery, initially administered by the War Department. In 1940, administration was passed to the Department of the Interior and its National Park Service. [19]
8. Fort Custer was built in 1877 at the confluence of the Big Horn and Little Big Horn rivers. [19]
9. In 1938, Ralph Cartwright found well over 100 cartridge cases, grouped in threes, along a ridge south of the Custer fields. [37] [Scott does a less than great job of identifying areas. This is Nye-Cartwright Ridge… one would assume; or could it be Luce Ridge?]
10. Luce and others found more along the same set of ridges in 1943. [37]
11. Luce found cartridge cases about nine feet apart probably indicating mounted skirmishing. He also found about 150 cases in small groups and in a linear pattern suggesting about forty men fighting dismounted. [39]
12. On November 24, 1943, Philip Hohlbrandt formally surveyed the field—this is probably the Luce/Nye-Cartwright area—and plotted finding 135 cartridge cases and one spur. [39]
13. In 1956, Don Rickey and Jesse W. Vaughn—using metal detectors—located eight separate firing areas used by Indians in the Reno-Benteen fight. They collected nearly 600 cases. [41]
14. Park historian B. William Henry, Jr., discovered two additional warrior positions, in 1969. [41]
15. From 1957 – 1959, Rickey and Vaughn confirmed the work done on Luce and Nye-Cartwright ridges, and in addition, found “a previously unknown fighting area near the mouth of Medicine Tail Coulee.” [43]
16. A cartridge case was found using the tube insert that converted the larger-grained infantry round into the smaller, 55-grain carbine ammunition. [43]
17. Bones from three soldier burials were located by Bray in the hospital area of the Reno-Benteen defense site. [44]
18. During the 1984 – 1985 field excavations, guided tours were held for tourists and the public. “In no case did a visitor voice an opinion that the excavation of marker sites was improper. In fact, descendants of the soldiers killed at the battle visited the excavations and expressed their approval of the investigations.” [59]
19. In 1996, a group called the Coleman Research Corporation conducted a “Geophysical remote sensing” study of Deep Ravine. “An anomaly was identified in Deep Ravine that is consistent with historical accounts and geomorphology, suggesting a site for the burial of the purported twenty-eight missing men.” [74]
20. The location of Custer’s June 23rd camp was confirmed when the landowner—Jack Bailey—allowed access to some fifty acres of his land north of Lame Deer. [77]
21. The Hunkpapa camp circle was located just north of the Garryowen store. [79 – 80]
22. A Sioux camp was located on the east side of the river. [80] [This was the Spotted Tail Camp.]
23. The Spotted Tail warriors were Brulé and the camp was mostly male. [80]
24. Scott claims the warriors ran up the ravines leading to Weir Point and fired on Reno’s troops in the valley. [82] [This would account for some of the Indians on the east side of the river when the fighting began.]
25. Jason Pitsch found eleven .45-55 cartridge cases in fields west of the Garryowen post office. The cases were found in a linear pattern, roughly angled northwest to southeast. [82] [Scott surmises this was Reno’s “first skirmish line.” To me, the description fits the M Company line after it turned away from the foothills.]
26. Scott goes on: “Logic dictates that the attack lines [in the valley fight] would be angled to meet the enemy.” [82] [This would fit with my concept of the M Company movements.]
27. Supporting this thesis is the finding “of .44-caliber Henry, .50-caliber Spencer, and .50-70-caliber cartridge cases on a bench to the west of the line.” About twenty-five of them were found there and they indicate firing positions occupied by warriors. [82 – 83]
28. In addition, “Pitsch recovered seven cartridge cases on a terrace above the Hunkpapa village site. These cases were intermixed with seven .44 Henry cases, five .50-70 cases, a Spencer case, and a round ball…. The .45-55 cases may represent soldiers or Arikara army scouts gaining the ground and firing into the village, as is reported by Libby…. [T]he cases were not aligned, and all were clustered on the terrace.” [83] [This is additional support for some soldiers—M Company flankers, for example—having gotten into or very near some of the tepees at the upper end of the Hunkpapa circle.]
29. Scott writes, “… if Vaughn and others are correct that the so-called Garryowen bend was an active channel during the battle….” [83] [The interesting part of this comment—while I disagree the channel was active—is that it virtually eliminates the Loop as Reno’s timber area. Fred Dustin believed the channel was dry in 1876.]
30. Scott writes, “As Benteen joined Reno, some warriors situated in nearby ravines commenced firing into the command’s position. Company D threw out skirmishers under Capt. Thomas Weir and returned fire. With this, the warrior fire slackened. This skirmish line has not been identified archaeologically.” [94]
31. Scott writes, “There is archaeological evidence for the Weir Point episode that supports Lakota and Cheyenne oral traditions as well as the statements made by the officers and men. In addition, the archaeological data identify the movement north of Weir Point, fighting around the point, and the route of the retrograde movement…. The archaeological evidence is not extensive, but the limited data available are patterned.” [96] [This is significant because it supports Edgerly’s claim he went beyond Weir Peaks.]
32. Archaeology confirms the positioning and the historical accounts regarding K Company’s rear guard action on the small knoll near Sharpshooters’ Ridge and its pullback and positioning on Reno Hill from Weir Point. [See 99 – 100]
33. Both Douglas Scott and Jerome Greene [
Evidence and the Custer Enigma, p. 39 – 40] speak of a body found in Deep Coulee: “A soldier’s skeleton was found by Frank Bethune in the Deep Coulee area in 1928. Willey examined that skeleton… and found it to be that of a 35-year-old white male about 68 inches tall. He had a gunshot wound to the head, evidence of blunt force trauma, and at least ninety-eight cut marks on his bones, indicating that the victorious Lakota and Cheyenne mutilated him…. No identity has been established for this man.” [110] [This is in all likelihood the same area where Joseph Blummer in 1904, found the boot with bones in it and equipment bearing the initials, “J. D.” or “R. D.” At the time it was thought to be from John Duggan (L). Duggan was 5’ 9½” tall and 27 years old, making him a little too tall and a little too young. There are a number of other troopers fitting this description:
• PVT Henderson, Sykes (E)—b. Armstrong Country, PA, 1844 or 1845. 5’ 8” tall (68” and 31 or 32 years old).
• BSM Manning, James R. (F) – b. Houston County, GA, 1843. 5’ 8½” tall (68½” and 33 years old).
• PVT Bruce, Patrick (F)—b. Cork, Ireland, 1844. 5’ 7” tall (67” and 32 years old).
• PVT Gardiner, John (F)—b. Brockville, Ontario, Canada, February 2, 1845. 5’ 7” tall (67” and 31 years old).
• PVT Knauth, Herman (F)—b. Dammendorf, Prussia, 1838. 5’ 8” tall (68” and 38 years old).
• CPL Harrison, William H. (L) – b. Gloucester, MA, 1845. Hazel eyes, auburn hair, dark complexion; 5’ 7¾” tall (67¾” and 31 years old).
• BSM Siemon, Charles (L)—b. Copenhagen, Denmark, 1843. Gray eyes, brown hair, dark complexion; 5’ 7½” tall (67½” and 33 years old).
• PVT O’Connell, David J. (L) – b. Cork, Ireland, 1843. Dark eyes, brown hair, ruddy complexion; 5’ 7½” tall (67½” and 33 years old).
• Jerome Greene wrote, “During the years after the battle, Frank Bethune found several skeletons in the area of Deep Coulee, and in 1928 found one with an arrowhead fixed in its spine.” Greene was alluding to the four run-aways Wooden Leg spoke of. This is another possibility, especially since the Greene artifact map shows the bones found well above where the E and F Company troopers would have cut across the flats of Deep Coulee.]
• There was also one trooper from C Company who could fit the profile and who may have tried to escape: PVT James Farrand—b. 1839, 5’ 8” tall (68” and 37 years old).
• The most likely candidate, however, is 1SG James Butler (L). Butler was 66 inches tall and was 34 years old. The skeleton location matches almost perfectly with the description of where Butler’s body was discovered after the battle. The only discrepancy was the claim that when his body was re-discovered in 1905, the remains were interred in an unmarked grave in the battlefield’s National Cemetery.
34. Medicine Tail Coulee ford: “[T]he archaeological and relic evidence consistently point to a movement of soldiers to the mouth of Medicine Tail Coulee, where a small and perhaps brief action occurred between the soldiers on the east bank of the Little Big Horn River and warriors on the west bank.” [111]
35. In discussing the Richard Fox contention of “no last stand,” Scott writes, “Fox interprets this absence of army cartridge cases here [Last Stand Hill] and in the Keogh position as evidence of the command’s reorganization and redeployment, but without tactical prescription, arguing that there was no formal last stand as such. He suggests that tactical disintegration occurred as the command structure broke down during the battle. Tactical disintegration of the then surviving elements of the command most likely occurred. Fox’s work is an excellent example of how analysis of archaeological data, historical records, and oral history can combine to provide new insights into past events. The caution is one of vetting data sources carefully.” [118]
36. South Skirmish Line: “It was probably a breakout attempt, as the oral accounts suggest. The issue is whether it was organized or helter-skelter. The archaeological evidence is not strong enough to refute or support either assumption. The human skeletal remains do not appear to be from E Company men, although they are not definitively identified at this point.” [119]
37. Scott goes on: “Over the ensuing years isolated exposures of human bone at other markers along the Deep Ravine Trail indicate that far more than six men’s remains were covered over in that area in 1876.” [119] [This can be accepted, especially in light of the fact a number of bodies of E Company men were taken out of Deep Ravine and buried an the SSL.]
38. Scott then answers the current question regarding burials of men in Deep Ravine: “The question of the soldiers’ remains in Deep Ravine itself remains unanswered. The geomorphological work by C. Vance Haynes (1989) and subsequent geophysical investigations (Josten and Carpenter 1995) all point to one area of the ravine where there is a geophysical anomaly. Whether this will prove to be the burial site of up to twenty-eight men or some other feature is entirely open to future resolution.” [120] [Again, it would be the twenty-eight men less any buried on the SSL.]
39. Scott refutes completely Greg Michno’s contention that the twenty-eight men from E Company were killed in Cemetery Ravine rather than Deep Ravine. [120]
40. As for the field’s foliage, Scott writes, “Repeat photography also undertaken in 1989 showed no significant changes in vegetation type since 1877, the earliest photographs of the battlefield. These early photographs indicate slightly less dense grass and sagebrush and a few more eroded patches than today, suggesting slightly drier conditions at the time.” [130]
41. Scott discredits the Walt Cross theory of Shufeldt’s finding of the skull as being that of Harrington. [152 – 154]
42. Five markers on Calhoun Hill and Greasy Grass Ridge [Scott uses GGR interchangeably with Finley-Finckle Ridge here] were investigated during the 1984 – 1985 dig. [184]
43. Crittenden’s body was re-interred in 1931.
44. Markers 131 and 153 showed no artifacts or bones. Scott allows for these markers having been moved because of the construction of the road. [185]
45. On Calhoun Hill, Markers 152 and 155—paired—yielded the links of a gold watch chain. Crittenden was known to have had one similar. [185]
46. It appears whoever was buried at Marker 128 was buried in his uniform as buttons from his blouse were found among the bones. [186 – 187]
47. The identities of only seven bodies have been established in the Keogh grouping. [188]
48. Trumpeter John Patton’s (I) body was found lying over Keogh’s. [188]
49. Others found in the cluster around Keogh were 1SG Edwin Bobo (C), SGT James Bustard (I), 1SG Frank Varden (I), and CPL John Wild (I). “[Private] Charles Graham of Company L was found on a line between the Calhoun and Keogh positions.” [188]
50. Scott says the archaeology shows more than six bodies had been buried along the South Skirmish Line. [191] [This is acceptable, especially considering the fact there were witnesses claiming some bodies had been taken out of Deep Ravine and buried along the SSL.]
51. “Richard Thomas [sic, Thompson, LT Richard E. (K/6I)] told Camp there were nine or ten bodies” along the SSL. [191]
52. According to Scott, the estimates for men killed “between Last Stand Hill and Deep Ravine and the estimates for Deep Ravine itself,” range from twenty-seven to forty-four. There are fifty-three markers on the trail down to Deep Ravine. [191] [My estimate is about thirty-seven: twenty-eight in Deep Ravine + nine along the SSL.]
53. Only twelve bodies were identified along this route. [191]
54. Markers 5 and 6—paired—are situated on bedrock and no remains or artifacts were found there. [195]
55. A total of “twenty-seven men have been documented as being on Last Stand Hill. These include fourteen privates, two civilians, a surgeon, a trumpeter, four noncommissioned officers, and five commissioned officers.” [196]
56. There are fifty-two markers on Last Stand Hill. [196]
57. Marker 105 is for 1LT Algernon Smith, but the remains found there indicated a taller person. Of the men identified on Last Stand Hill, PVT Werner Liemann (F) best fits the height description for Marker 105. [196 – 197]
58. All told, the marker excavations yielded partial remain of twenty-one individuals, a 10% sampling of those killed. [205 – 206]
59. Between exhumations in the National Cemetery (thirteen almost-complete bodies) and relics found on the battlefield (thirteen more partial bodies), a total of forty-seven men were sampled. That equates to 18% of the 263 men killed on the battlefield [the five troopers who died of their wounds are not included]. [206]
60. Incised wounds (arrows, hatchets, etc.) were found on 21% of those on the Custer field. Knives or arrows, 11%; hatchets, 10%. [206]
61. Blunt force trauma was the most common perimortem feature: all fourteen cases where skull fragments were examined on the Custer field show signs of blunt force trauma. This group accounts for 41% of those found on the Custer field and represents the largest percentage of deaths. [206]
Best wishes,
Fred.