|
Post by markland on Apr 2, 2006 17:45:28 GMT -6
I stumbled upon the report of General Sheridan as well as the informal letters of General Sherman to the Secretary of War of their 1877 tours through the Big Horn/Tongue/Yellowstone/ country today. What struck me about both reports is that both studiously, in my opinion, avoided mention of the LBH battlefield. Sackett, a Colonel in Sherman's entourage stated that they spent a night across from the battle site (even though he or a typesetter put the date as the 27th).
Does anyone have copies of letters from Sherman, Sheridan, Crook, Bourke, Terry etc. describing the battlefield.
Just curious,
Billy
P. S. There is some good information about the Nex Perce war contained in the letters from Sherman to the S. O. W.
|
|
|
Post by greenpheon on Apr 2, 2006 22:38:03 GMT -6
Billy; There was a reporter with Sherman and he wrote a dispatch containing a lengthy description of the battlefield. You can read it on pages 58-59 in Hardorff's book "The Custer Battle Casualties Burials, Exhumations, and Reinterments.
Greenpheon
|
|
|
Post by markland on Apr 3, 2006 11:32:03 GMT -6
Thanks Green, I will dig around the junk piles and see if I have it....I think I have both volumes if it is the one you are speaking of.
Best of wishes,
Billy
|
|
|
Post by jdmackintosh on Apr 4, 2006 18:59:19 GMT -6
For information on their visit to that area in 1877, you might also also look on Amazon under Wayne R. Kime, editor, for one of the journals of Richard Irving Dodge (can't remember the title of this one); I believe he accompanied Sherman into the Big Horn country in the summer of 1877. I have a copy of Dodge's 1875 Black Hills journal from the Jenney Expedition, well worth reading.
|
|
jc
Junior Member
Posts: 60
|
Post by jc on Aug 26, 2006 19:55:02 GMT -6
I stumbled upon the report of General Sheridan as well as the informal letters of General Sherman to the Secretary of War of their 1877 tours through the Big Horn/Tongue/Yellowstone/ country today. What struck me about both reports is that both studiously, in my opinion, avoided mention of the LBH battlefield. Just curious, Billy, It's no wonder they avoided mentioning their visit to the battlefield. Taking into consideration the following article written by a correspondent of the Cherokee Advocate on September 5, 1877, they were appalled, ashamed and/or embarressed by the incompentence and total indifference of the Army regarding the site or else they themselves didn't give a damn at the horrific scene they beheld. jc [/size]
|
|
|
Post by markland on Aug 27, 2006 7:18:31 GMT -6
JC, many thanks for that article! Revealing isn't it?
Now, did I read correctly (italics are mine):
"Crossing Little Big Horn, or Custer River, to the East side, a well defined trail leads up a gradual slope a quarter of a mile in length. The ground is covered with sage brush, prickly pears, and sparse, coarse grass and destitute of the rocks and timber that the uninformed fancy here and there upon the historic field. The sun shone with full power as we slowly made the ascent, and the morning air, impure by association, seemed stagnant and dead. We reached the summit and gazing around for some rocky cannon as our fancy had pictured it—some narrow pass accessible only at it extremities and commanded by frowning cliffs overhanging either side, we saw instead a ravine with gently slopping sides, of slight depression, not a half mile in length and free from timber, rocks, or anything furnishing an ambuscade. At our feet were the uncovered remains of eighteen men, in six piles, with a piece of teepee pole, denoting that once the farce of a burial had been performed. Upon one of these ‘tombstones’ hung a white sombrero, relic of a member of the Seventh, with two bullet holes through it, a clean cut as if made by an axe, and clotted blood. Near by were the carcasses of two horses; to the North, distant a few feet, were heaps of bones so mixed that it was impossible to count the number of persons represented. A little further on and another ‘grave,” containing the bones of three man, appears behind the skeleton of a horse evidently shot to be used as a breastwork."
Eighteen graves? In a ravine? The description does not sound like Deep Ravine does it?
Again JC, good work!
Billy
|
|
|
Post by Dark Cloud on Aug 27, 2006 9:39:11 GMT -6
For the moment, because I refuse to pass a decaying equine without kicking it, please note the description of Custer's demise area and let us reflect, this day, upon the horrendoplasty that revisionists wish to present as a coherent battle.
Also, the numerous errors in description of the 7th that day. Also, I have trouble following this "canyon" with a Summit, although we can assume it means MTC and Weir, although Weir is a mile away, and his description of Custer Hill and the way to Keogh/Calhoun seems weird.
Let us note the references to the numerous visitors even at that early date, and that the Indians smash up the bodies of the dead, and that where the original stakes were placed and where the first marble markers went are notional to the extreme.
|
|
|
Post by markland on Aug 27, 2006 18:22:45 GMT -6
For the moment, because I refuse to pass a decaying equine without kicking it, please note the description of Custer's demise area and let us reflect, this day, upon the horrendoplasty that revisionists wish to present as a coherent battle. Also, the numerous errors in description of the 7th that day. Also, I have trouble following this "canyon" with a Summit, although we can assume it means MTC and Weir, although Weir is a mile away, and his description of Custer Hill and the way to Keogh/Calhoun seems weird. Let us note the references to the numerous visitors even at that early date, and that the Indians smash up the bodies of the dead, and that where the original stakes were placed and where the first marble markers went are notional to the extreme. DC, just as an FYI, there are other newspaper stories from the period (likely all attributable to one source~) which describe GAC's men being ambushed and killed in a canyon/canon. I have one somewhere around here from a Lawrence, KS newspaper if you are interested. Billy
|
|
|
Post by Dark Cloud on Aug 27, 2006 19:58:53 GMT -6
Well, I know. But I've been there. You've been there. Had these people been there? This guy with Sherman so claims, but............
|
|
|
Post by herosrest on Mar 21, 2021 11:28:34 GMT -6
Sheridan's Report on the Reburial of the Little Bighorn Dead: A True Copy Dated, July 20, 1877, signed by Lt. Col. James Forsy...Sheridan's Report on the Reburial of the Little Bighorn Dead: A True Copy Dated, July 20, 1877, signed by Lt. Col. James Forsyth. Lt. Gen. Philip Sheridan was commander of the Military Division of the Missouri, headquartered in Chicago. His responsibility encompassed all of the Great Plains. It was he who had intervened with the War Department to have G. A. Custer placed at the head of the 7th Cavalry the year before. Though campaigning was not over on the northern plains, in May Sitting Bull had crossed with his followers into Canada at almost the same moment that Crazy Horse surrendered to the army with his followers. It was time to account for the Little Bighorn dead. Sheridan dispatched his brother and aide-de-camp, Lt. Col. Michael V. Sheridan (1840-1918), to Montana. This remarkable 8-page document, an official copy of Michael Sheridan's report, is signed by Lt. Col. James W. Forsyth (1834-1906), at the time an aide to Lt. Gen. Sheridan as Military Secretary for the Division of the Missouri. Forsyth, a Brevet Brigadier General by the end of the Civil War, is most often remembered as the commander of the 7th Cavalry at Wounded Knee during the frigid winter of 1890-1891. By his opinions (for example, on the trustworthiness of Curly, the Crow scout) and detailed observations, Sheridan gives this report a life and interest absent from most dry military reports. Emotion still very obviously ran high. Accompanying Sheridan as an expert witness was 7th Cavalry Captain Henry Nowlan (1837-1898) who had been attached to Terry's command and was one of the first on the scene of Custer's disaster (see Swanson, G. A. Custer: His Life and Times, p. 97). He describes the recovery of the known officers' remains and the search for additional officer burials by following a path "plainly marked by the line of dead..." The procedures for identifying and removing the remains for reburial make one of the least known but most affecting stories of the Little Bighorn. In Swanson, G. A. Custer: His Life and Times, a photograph of M. V. Sheridan and a detailed look at the report is on pages 241-245. From the Glenwood Swanson Collection.
|
|
|
Post by herosrest on Aug 31, 2022 7:39:34 GMT -6
|
|
|
Post by tubman13 on Aug 31, 2022 14:13:05 GMT -6
Reburial report beautifully written, very legible, and interesting, but do you have any idea how much single malt I can buy for that price? HR, you buy it,fly to the states and I will get you to the LBHA conference next June and pay for your room. I will bring the single malt, and beer if you prefer.
Regards, Tom
|
|
|
Post by herosrest on Sept 1, 2022 15:55:46 GMT -6
praise indeed and someone made a sound investment. For that sort of money you could stock up on few bottles of Glen Grant. Now that, as they say - is whiskey.
It's remarkable what, and how much of it, passes through these history auction houses. I was interested in an image of M.V. Sheridan and searching online with the hits giving a link to the report.
I doubt I shall return to US but should that come about then Montana isn't too high on the list unfortunately. New Jersey first, then the Quays down south and I always wanted to invade Mexico. 😄
There is only one way to understand that battleground and that is to walk it. At my age now I wouldn't manage it again.
Sláinte
|
|
|
Post by tubman13 on Sept 1, 2022 16:07:58 GMT -6
We can get you a horse or a tour bus and maybe a local Indian or two, Cheyenne and Crow.
Lastly, Whiskey or Whisky?
Regards, Tom
|
|
|
Post by herosrest on Sept 1, 2022 18:11:38 GMT -6
It's been a long day. 🤠
I really would want to walk it. I guarantee that i'll find the secret buried in the ground. 😆 Or snakebite.
I found a map today. The Custer fight. There's a perimeter around Monument Hill. Company lines stretching back to Calhoun. A perpendicular line deployed crossing the 'T' and the horses to its rear on the east flank of Calhoun Hill. First assault goes across Deep Coulee over CH. Second smashes the centre of the line from north whilst a third rolls over the monument and joins the second.
I've been at this too long!
Regards.
|
|