Custer’s Last Campaign: The Shades of Gray

[Regular Army-O]

“John Gray has radically and enduringly transformed his historiography of the battle of the Little Bighorn. His work is not for beginners. His reasoning and documentation cannot be followed unless one has a grasp of the literature and the topography. For the legion of students infected with the incurable virus of the Little Bighorn, however, here is rich fare—a story within a story. It is the story of the Little Bighorn, of course; but even more, it is the story of a master historical sleuth in action.” – Robert M. Utley, Foreword, pg xi, Custer’s Last Campaign: Mitch Boyer and the Little Bighorn Reconstructed.

"Table 3 presents the calculated local sun time for these phenomena at the Custer battlefield from noon of June 24 to noon June 25. The sun set at 7:53 p.m. (local sun time), and Lt. Wallace recorded that Custer camped at Busby at 7:45 P.M. (official time); others noted it was "nearly sunset." This instance reveals no evidence of any discrepancy between official and local sun times. We shall soon encounter more examples that confirm that the two times differ by no more than a few minutes." -- John S. Gray, Custer's Last Campaign, pg. 224 (parentheticals are per Gray)

Q_LEE. Are you sure the time of your watch was the true time of day when you looked at it, or may it have been an hour or more slow or fast?
A_WALLACE. I am not sure about that. It may have been fast or it may have been slow. I never have claimed that it was the local time of the place. – Reno Court of Inquiry, 11 o’clock a.m., Friday, Jan. 17, 1879, Chicago, Illinois

[Regular Army-O]

"For any historical reconstruction, the time dimension is every bit as important as the spatial dimensions. Getting even the sequence of events out of order breeds disaster, especially when one event is the cause of another." -- John S. Gray, Custer's Last Campaign, pg. 222

From The Field Diary of Lt. Edward Settle Godfrey. I'm not certain what day this entry was written. The text is included under the entry for "June 24". The narration for the 24th includes the actions of the 25th. The next date entry in the diary after the 24th is "Monday, June 26, 1876":

After we arrived at the summit of the Divide between Rose Bud & L.B. Horn I received an order to report to Col. Benteen for duty with his Battln. He was ordered to scout toward the L.B.H. and above the creek valley [Col. Benteen received a note from Col. Cook that the village was in front & to bring up the packs] I did not hear any firing and when we passed an old village I concluded from the age of the trail that we had a march of 18 to 20 miles before we would reach any village and that they would have seen us. This was about four miles from where the village was located. soon after we passed the old camp we watered our horses. This was about 2 o'clock pm. After we watered we continued our march very leisurely.--not long after watering the trumpeter brought the note from Col. Cook above noted (in brackets) and we increased our gait. We heard occasional shots and I concluded the fight was over that had nothing to do but go up and congratulate the others & help destroy the plunder. The firing became more distinct, and we increased our gait--a sergeant of one of the companies passed up & remarked "We've got them boys"

Brackets, parentheses, and dashes in the text are Godfrey's.

[markland]

RA-O, please keep it up. You are putting source documentation on this site that "hypothesizers" <sp> will have to work around (granted, they have been doing it for over 100 years, but...).

Billy

[Regular Army-O]

“Synchronization of watches is a military "must” today and was undoubtedly so in 1876, if coordinated actions were contemplated. Thus the idea could hardly have been unfamiliar. In fact, Lt. Godfrey wrote (1892, p. 235) that at the officer’s call on the evening of June 22 Custer announced that there would be no trumpet calls, making even early reveilles “silent,” so “we compared watches to get the official time.” They must have synchronized their watches on official time, rather than simply making mental notes on discrepancies. This assumption is confirmed by several officers who recorded watch readings at the time, which match so well as to indicate synchronization.” – John S. Gray, Custer’s Last Campaign, pg 223.

From the letter of Lt. George D. Wallace to Dr. Charles F. Knoblach dated 4 July 1876:

“On the 22” of June, the 7” Cavalry left the Yellowstone and followed up the Rose Bud. On the 23” we struck an old trail, but by the evening of 24” it was quite fresh. At 4 P.M when we went into camp, the scouts reported that the trail left the Rose Bud and led across to the Little Big Horn River. In order to cross this divide without being seen, we moved at 12 P.M 24” but daylight came on before we got to the top. We halted, made coffee for the men & moved on. (25”)” Parenthetical is per Wallace.

From the report of Lt. George D. Wallace to Lt. Edward Maguire, Chief Engineer, Dakota Territory dated 27 Jan 1877:

“June 24, 1876.--…About 9 p.m. the scouts returned and reported that the Indians had crossed the divide to the Little Big Horn River. General Custer determined to cross the divide that night, to conceal the command, the next day find out the locality of the village, and attack the following morning at daylight. Orders were given to move at midnight, but we did not get off until 1 a.m., and, owing to delays on account of the packtrain, we had only marched 8 miles when daylight appeared. We halted, and the men were ordered to make coffee.”

“Lt. Wallace, as official itinerist, did record some watch readings at the time, and they are consistent with themselves and events; but he also tried to recall others that were incompatible. Several other officers recorded rare watch readings that are compatible with Wallace’s and recalled others that are hopeless. This inconsistency merely confirms what everyone knows anyhow: that the memory of time is extraordinarily treacherous.” – John S. Gray, Custer’s Last Campaign, pg 222.

[Regular Army-O]

From the newspaper article by George Herendeen published 7 July 1876, Bismarck, D.T. and republished in the Army and Navy Journal 15 July 1876:

“The scouts all again pushed out to look for the village, and at eleven o’clock at night Custer had everything packed up and followed the scouts up the right hand fork of the Rosebud. About daylight we went into camp, made coffee, and soon after it was light the scouts brought Custer word that they had seen the village from the top of the divide that separates the Rosebud from Little Horn River.”

From The Field Diary of Lt. Edward Settle Godfrey:

“June 24…The Crow scouts were very active and were busy—went on carefully until sundown when we went into a camp and at 11:30 P.M. took up our line of march again and continued until 2 o’clock when we halted to await the arrival of news from Lt. Varnum & Crow scouts who had been sent ahead. After daylight we unsaddled and made coffee.”

[Regular Army-O]

“Yet time is often neglected because it is so difficult to keep track of, even for participants, for dates and clock-times are the first to flee from the best of human memories.” -- John S. Gray, Custer’s Last Campaign, pg 222.

From the letter of Lt. Francis M. Gibson to his wife dated 4 July 1876:

“At 10/A/M, on the twenty-fifth we halted and officer’s call was sounded, and after we assembled, General Custer said the command had been discovered by the Indians, and our scout had reported the village about fifteen miles off. He then said that the companies would resume march in the order that the company commanders reported them ready. Well, as it happened, Benteen was the first to report, so when the forward call was sounded our H company was leading the column.”

From Major Reno’s reply to Gen. Rosser as published in the New York Herald and republished in the Army and Navy Journal 12 August 1876:

“July 30, 1876…Custer’s organization of the regiment into distinct commands was not made until half-past ten A.M. of the day he was killed…”

From the report of Lt. George D. Wallace to Lt. Edward Maguire, Chief Engineer, Dakota Territory dated 27 Jan 1877:

“At 12 m., on the 25th, we crossed the divide between the Rosebud and Little Big Horn. From the divide could be seen the valley of the Little Big Horn, and about 15 or 20 miles to the northwest could be seen a light blue cloud, and to practiced eyes showed that our game was near. A small stream starting from the point near where we crossed the divide flowed in the direction of the smoke. After the assignment of battalions was made, General Custer followed down the right bank of this stream, and Major Reno the left.”

[erkki]

regulararmyo said:

“Synchronization of watches is a military "must” today and was undoubtedly so in 1876, if coordinated actions were contemplated. Thus the idea could hardly have been unfamiliar. In fact, Lt. Godfrey wrote (1892, p. 235) that at the officer’s call on the evening of June 22 Custer announced that there would be no trumpet calls, making even early reveilles “silent,” so “we compared watches to get the official time.” They must have synchronized their watches on official time, rather than simply making mental notes on discrepancies. This assumption is confirmed by several officers who recorded watch readings at the time, which match so well as to indicate synchronization.” – John S. Gray, Custer’s Last Campaign, pg 223.

From the letter of Lt. George D. Wallace to Dr. Charles F. Knoblach dated 4 July 1876:

“On the 22” of June, the 7” Cavalry left the Yellowstone and followed up the Rose Bud. On the 23” we struck an old trail, but by the evening of 24” it was quite fresh. At 4 P.M when we went into camp, the scouts reported that the trail left the Rose Bud and led across to the Little Big Horn River. In order to cross this divide without being seen, we moved at 12 P.M 24” but daylight came on before we got to the top. We halted, made coffee for the men & moved on. (25”)” Parenthetical is per Wallace.

From the report of Lt. George D. Wallace to Lt. Edward Maguire, Chief Engineer, Dakota Territory dated 27 Jan 1877:

“June 24, 1876.--…About 9 p.m. the scouts returned and reported that the Indians had crossed the divide to the Little Big Horn River. General Custer determined to cross the divide that night, to conceal the command, the next day find out the locality of the village, and attack the following morning at daylight. Orders were given to move at midnight, but we did not get off until 1 a.m., and, owing to delays on account of the packtrain, we had only marched 8 miles when daylight appeared. We halted, and the men were ordered to make coffee.”

“Lt. Wallace, as official itinerist, did record some watch readings at the time, and they are consistent with themselves and events; but he also tried to recall others that were incompatible. Several other officers recorded rare watch readings that are compatible with Wallace’s and recalled others that are hopeless. This inconsistency merely confirms what everyone knows anyhow: that the memory of time is extraordinarily treacherous.” – John S. Gray, Custer’s Last Campaign, pg 222.

Can you give the source for the Edgerly letter to Dr. Knoblach, please?

[blaque]

Erkki,

I presume RA-O took the quote from “Letters from the Field: Wallace at the LBH”, by Douglas Paul Westfall, Paragon Agency Pubs. 1997, page 41. His correspondence with Knoblach is interesting albeit unfortunately uncomplete, in this particular letter Wallace deviates from the times given in his official itinerary, and among other things confirms that Reno was ordered to attack a dustcloud “which the Scouts said was a retreating village”.