What happened to the dead soldiers' belongings?

[Diane Merkel]

Here's a question from a website visitor:

From what I have heard, even though Crazy Horse warned his fellow Indians not to take anything from the dead soldiers, the Indians stripped the bodies and took everything that wasn't attached and some things that were. I have heard of everything from gold to payroll. What I am asking about is the artifacts. Most of the soldiers were stripped bare. Is there any information on the gear, the weapons, the uniforms, or the private articles of the men? Has any of this stuff ever turned up?

Please reply if you have specifics. -- Diane

[Deborah Buckner]

Unfortunately, this isn't an answer to the question. However, recently, Swann Galleries had an auction (also ran as a live auction on eBay) that included a letter from the Indian Agent (whose name I don't recall) to Libbie Custer, assuring her he would act on her request to recover artifacts from her husband. It would suggest that some effort was made to recover items taken by the Indians. I don't know how successful such efforts were.

Deborah

[Walt Cross]

Actually, many articles were recovered five months to the day after the battle when the 5th Cavalry captured the village of Cheyenne Chief Morning Star (also known as Dull Knife). 7th Cavalry horses, company guidon, money (which the Indians used as saddle blankets for toy horses) a fringed buckskin jacket with a bullethole in the shoulder, a trooper's hat and personal belongings such as letters etc were found. There is an excellent book that details this campaign:

Greene, Jerome A. 2003. Morning Star Dawn The Powder River Expedition and the Northern Cheyennes, 1876. University of Oklahoma Press: Norman

Contact was made with the Sioux who went to Canada with Sitting Bull by civilian traders and some personal items recovered.

Much of the items captured by the Indians were destroyed or buried for fear of retaliation by soldiers if they were caught with it.

Walt Cross

[Steve Wilk]

Walt, for the record it was the Col Mackenzie's FOURTH Cavalry that attacked and captured Dull Knife's village on the Red Fork of Powder River. Not the 5th.

[Karl Kosman]

Several 7th Cavalry items were also recovered from Slim Buttes.

[Walt Cross]

Got a list?

Walt

[Karl Kosman]

According to Capt. Anson Mills report:

"Among the trophies was a guidon of the Seventh Cavalry,
a pair of gloves marked Colonel Keogh, 3 Seventh Cavalry horses, and many other articles recognized to have belonged to General Custer's men."


Also, Libbie Custer was given her husbands map case from Nelson Miles after its return from some Sioux Indians when they surrendered to Miles in 1881.

[Jim]

General Miles also collected many artifacts from the LBH at the Cedar Creek Battle in October '76 when he confronted Sitting Bull & Gall's Camp. I am sure that there are many LBH artifacts STILL on the various reservations throughout Montana & South Dakota.

[Walt Cross]

I'm sure you are right, and not just artifacts. I think the Indians buried a good deal of what they took to include human remains, more specifically, skulls and scalps.

Walt

[bhist]

Guest-Karl said:

According to Capt. Anson Mills report:

"Among the trophies was a guidon of the Seventh Cavalry,
a pair of gloves marked Colonel Keogh, 3 Seventh Cavalry horses, and many other articles recognized to have belonged to General Custer's men."
quote]

The Keogh Guidon still resides in the archives at the Little Bighorn. It probably will never be displayed because its condition prevents it from exposure to light. I've seen it many times over the last 20+ years and it seems the battlefield archival staff has prevented any further damage to the fabric.

[Don Blake]

Finerty, in Warpath and Bivouac, tells of seeing Indians in Sitting Bull's camp in Canada wearing items of 7th Cavalry uniform. I'd be careful about this for a few reasons:
1. The Lakota (and others) had a penchant for wearing blankets, leggings and breechclouts made from blue stroud blankets.
2. As I'm sure you all know, cavalry trousers were often patched to hell and so wouldn't make for a particularly good pair of leggings even with the seat removed. Southern Plains ledger art depicting the mid-late 1860s shows how popular cavalry clothing was among the Dog Soldiers and their associates (with the addition of various accoutrements and modifications), but I suspect the bulk of these uniforms were 'presents' - especially bearing in mind that many represent clothing worn by ranking officers. However, as a rejoinder, Wooden Leg does tell of wearing a pair of ill-fitting cavalry pants (taken from the field at the Rosebud) in the post LBH days when times were hard. I'm assuming they were converted into leggings.
3. I guess you'd have to consider the state that the uniforms would have been in after the battle. Not terribly wearable, I would've thought. More likely they would have been taken away as trophies.
4. As mentioned above, other items were recaptured. There is, for instance, a military saddle in Hansen's Metal Weapons etc of the Dakota Sioux, which was 'recaptured' within a few moths after LBH that had already been extensively reworked to refashion it as an Indian styled saddle.

[elisabeth]

Keogh must surely hold the all-time record for recovered items. His company guidon and his gauntlets have already been mentioned; there was also a locket, a watch, a photograph of himself from his Papal War days, and -- intriguingly -- a photo of Captain McDougall's sister. A Spencer sporting rifle, probably but not certainly his, was also recovered; and a Sioux in Canada in 1877 claimed to have his revolver, and to be ready to return it on request. [From the Langellier/Cox/Pohanka biography.] His Agnus Dei remained on his corpse, and was allegedly retrieved by Benteen; I think it's Godfrey who says that, but I may be wrong. And of course there's his horse, Comanche.

A remarkable tally. Whether it's because of Indian respect (he's a strong candidate for the 'bravest man' described in Indian accounts), or because of the indefatigable efforts of his friend Henry Nowlan to track things down, we can only guess. Probably both.

There's a giant question-mark over one other item. Keogh had two medals for gallantry from the Pope, a Pro Petri Sede and an Ordine di San Gregorio. Nowlan was able to return these to Keogh's family in Ireland quite soon after the fighting ended. Yet ... when Sitting Bull was killed, many years later, he was found to be wearing a Pro Petri Sede medal around his neck. It would be nice to think that tNowlan had tactfully found replicas to send to the family, to spare their feelings, and that Sitting Bull had the real thing ...

[Walt Cross]

Elizabeth;
Do you have a source for Sitting Bull wearing Keogh's medal? I'd not heard that before. As for the Bravest Man, the warrior son of Inkpaduta, Gray Earth Track AKA Noisy Walking (not Noisy Walker) and Sounds the Ground As He Walks, captured the horse of the Bravest Man and rode him for years. This, of course, rules out Keogh, we all know his horse. The man riding that powerful and handsome horse was Lt. Henry Moore Harrington who commanded Co C the day of the battle.

Walt Cross

[elisabeth]

Walt,

I should have said 'allegedly'! Apologies. I was convinced I had a serious source for Sitting Bull wearing a Papal medal of some sort, and indeed for it being the Pro Petri Sede, but several hours of searching through reference books have failed to turn it up. Maybe I've picked it up from folklore. Sources as diverse as the Buford's Boys website and the Wild Geese Heritage Museum website make the claim, but without attribution ... Of course, if a) true, and b) a Pro Petri Sede, it still might not have been Keogh's; that was a campaign medal, and thus more widely distributed than his other medal, the San Gregorio (which was for gallantry). Makes a nice story, though ....

Harrington? Really? That's a surprise. I've not heard that before. What did Harrington look like? I've never seen a picture of him myself. Two Moon describes a big man with dark hair, curly moustaches, and a little stubby beard, wearing a wide-brimmed hat and buckskin coat, which sounds a lot like Keogh; Red Horse's description is less clear. Some reckon it's Mitch Bouyer; Graham, quoting a Dr. McChesney, says it's Captain French, but as French survived it seems unlikely! The Keogh theory appears to stumble on the 'sorrel horse with four white feet' -- which actually sounds as much like Custer's Vic as anything -- but it's not impossible he could have grabbed another horse when Comanche was first wounded. It's a shame no-one seems to have asked the Indian survivors to look at photographs afterwards; then we might know for sure.

[Walt Cross]

Elizabeth;
Take a look at Harrington here: bronzestar.tripod.com/7thuscavalrycusterslostofficer/

Be advised there is an animated superimposition there that is a little spooky. I've researched Harrington pretty good and although Godfrey says he wore the blue blouse, I found one of his buckskin jackets in the West Point museum. Likely, he was wearing the other one at the battle. If you want more on him take a look at the posts on Co C impressions on this forum.

Thanks for researching the medal issue, it does make a good story.

Walt