Post by doyle1876 on Jan 13, 2008 14:49:20 GMT -6
Mostly known but some snippets of info from an article in The Irish News
VIEWPOINT
Irish whose luck ran out at Little Bighorn
Ray O'Hanlon
“BOYS hold your horses, there are plenty down there for us all.” The last recorded words of General George Armstrong Custer say a lot about the man: Dashing and daring, brave and prone to snap decisions. On a hot summer’s day 123 years ago, Custer made one of those quick decisions that had earlier turned him into civil war hero. But sooner or later your luck runs out. Sunday, June 25 1876 was the day that ‘Custer’s luck’ it was a recognized phenomenon in the US military at the time ran out completely. So did the luck of the Irish dozens of Seventh Cavalry troopers, Irish-born and Irish-American, riding with Custer over the rolling plains of Montana territory on that fateful day. The battle of the Little Bighorn was not a signal collision of two massed forces as depicted in the Old Errol Flynn classic They Died With Their Boots On. It was in fact a series of running fights, standoffs and encirclements stretching over five miles from what is today known as Reno Hill to Custer’s own Last Stand Hill, both of them high points at opposite ends of a string of bluffs overlooking the Little Bighorn River.
Just prior to his demise, Custer had split his command into three units as he prepared to ensnare what turned out to be the largest concentration of Native American fighting power ever to face the US Army. The first assault against the joint Sioux and Cheyenne encampment was made shortly after noon by three companies, 140 officers and men, led by Major Marcus Reno. Reno’s men charged along the valley floor towards one end of the camp. They were thrown back with the survivors having to scramble for their lives to the top of the hill which still bears Reno’s name. Captain Frederick Benteen, with three companies comprising about 125 men, initially stayed to the rear of the fight. Custer, with five companies, more than 200 men, advanced along the ridgeline that dominated the river valley on its eastern side. He further divided this force into two groups, one of them led by Co Carlow-born Captain Myles Keogh. The plan, what there was of one, went badly from the start. The number of warriors in the camp was far greater than expected. In a testimony to the drawing power of Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Gall and other prominent Sioux and Cheyenne chiefs, there were between 2000 and 3000 fighting men biding their time by the river called Greasy Grass by the Sioux. Custer was about to learn that bad tactics can be severely compounded when the enemy outnumbers you by four or five to one. The total strength of Custer’s regiment in the summer of 1876 was in the region of 840 officers and men.
By some estimates, more than 250 of them were Irish-born, Irish American or of Irish descent having been born in Britain. Many of the Irish-Americans were first generation Americans with Irish immigrant parents living in the big cities back east. In terms of the Irish-born under Custer on June 25th, the estimated figure is 128 officers, non-commissioned officers and cavalry troopers. Not all the regiment’s strength rode into the valley of the Little Bighorn that Sunday. Some were back in Fort Lincoln in what is today North Dakota. Others, the regimental band included, were camped out some distance away by the Powder River. In all, just over 600 rode behind Custer to the battle. Why so many Irishmen were out west in uniform can be traced to a variety of reasons.
Myles Keogh was a professional soldier who had fought in the Papal Army in Europe and with the victorious union side in the American civil war.
Sergeant Jeremiah Finley was rumoured to be on the run having murdered someone back in Ireland. He too had served in the civil war and later in Canada. He had come south again in 1868 and joined the Seventh Cavalry. He was a tailor by training and had made the buckskin jacket that Custer wore as he galloped to his final rendezvous with death. Finley also died in the battle. He was later found beside his dead mount Carlo. Man and horse had been shot full of arrows.
Privates Patrick Golden and Richard Farrell didn’t make it either. Golden was shot while firing from a shallow rifle pit on the bluff defended by Reno, and now also by the late-arriving Benteen who was in charge of pack mules and wagons. Farrell died in a ravine at the other end of the battlefield, close to where Custer went down.
Private Thomas Downing was 20-years-old but already the father of a child back in Iowa. He fancied soldiering over fatherhood. It was a bad choice. Attached to Myles Keogh’s Company 1, Downing was killed on Calhoun Hill, a position named after Lieutenant James Calhoun, Custer’s brother-in-law.
Sergeant Robert Hughes had the ultimately dubious honour of carrying Custer’s personal flag, or guidon. As such, he was a particularly prominent target whose fate was quickly sealed.
Some of the Irish could count on a little luck though.
Trooper Thomas O’Neill was cut off in the confusion following the failed Reno charge on the village. He hid in the groves of Cottonwood trees fringing the riverbank before managing to make his way up the bluff to Reno’s hilltop position after dark.
In all however, over 30 Irish-born members of the Seventh Cavalry perished, the most prominent being Keogh, who was later buried in upstate New York. There is irony in the encounter between Irishmen who had forsaken a land not theirs literally the case in the immediate post-famine years and the tribes of the American west who were being forced off the land they didn’t recognise ownership as a concept by the rapid encroachment of the white man. But few, if any, of the Irish at the Little Bighorn had time to consider mere irony as the agents of death, painted, screaming and angry, came riding at them, fast and head-on.
VIEWPOINT
Irish whose luck ran out at Little Bighorn
Ray O'Hanlon
“BOYS hold your horses, there are plenty down there for us all.” The last recorded words of General George Armstrong Custer say a lot about the man: Dashing and daring, brave and prone to snap decisions. On a hot summer’s day 123 years ago, Custer made one of those quick decisions that had earlier turned him into civil war hero. But sooner or later your luck runs out. Sunday, June 25 1876 was the day that ‘Custer’s luck’ it was a recognized phenomenon in the US military at the time ran out completely. So did the luck of the Irish dozens of Seventh Cavalry troopers, Irish-born and Irish-American, riding with Custer over the rolling plains of Montana territory on that fateful day. The battle of the Little Bighorn was not a signal collision of two massed forces as depicted in the Old Errol Flynn classic They Died With Their Boots On. It was in fact a series of running fights, standoffs and encirclements stretching over five miles from what is today known as Reno Hill to Custer’s own Last Stand Hill, both of them high points at opposite ends of a string of bluffs overlooking the Little Bighorn River.
Just prior to his demise, Custer had split his command into three units as he prepared to ensnare what turned out to be the largest concentration of Native American fighting power ever to face the US Army. The first assault against the joint Sioux and Cheyenne encampment was made shortly after noon by three companies, 140 officers and men, led by Major Marcus Reno. Reno’s men charged along the valley floor towards one end of the camp. They were thrown back with the survivors having to scramble for their lives to the top of the hill which still bears Reno’s name. Captain Frederick Benteen, with three companies comprising about 125 men, initially stayed to the rear of the fight. Custer, with five companies, more than 200 men, advanced along the ridgeline that dominated the river valley on its eastern side. He further divided this force into two groups, one of them led by Co Carlow-born Captain Myles Keogh. The plan, what there was of one, went badly from the start. The number of warriors in the camp was far greater than expected. In a testimony to the drawing power of Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Gall and other prominent Sioux and Cheyenne chiefs, there were between 2000 and 3000 fighting men biding their time by the river called Greasy Grass by the Sioux. Custer was about to learn that bad tactics can be severely compounded when the enemy outnumbers you by four or five to one. The total strength of Custer’s regiment in the summer of 1876 was in the region of 840 officers and men.
By some estimates, more than 250 of them were Irish-born, Irish American or of Irish descent having been born in Britain. Many of the Irish-Americans were first generation Americans with Irish immigrant parents living in the big cities back east. In terms of the Irish-born under Custer on June 25th, the estimated figure is 128 officers, non-commissioned officers and cavalry troopers. Not all the regiment’s strength rode into the valley of the Little Bighorn that Sunday. Some were back in Fort Lincoln in what is today North Dakota. Others, the regimental band included, were camped out some distance away by the Powder River. In all, just over 600 rode behind Custer to the battle. Why so many Irishmen were out west in uniform can be traced to a variety of reasons.
Myles Keogh was a professional soldier who had fought in the Papal Army in Europe and with the victorious union side in the American civil war.
Sergeant Jeremiah Finley was rumoured to be on the run having murdered someone back in Ireland. He too had served in the civil war and later in Canada. He had come south again in 1868 and joined the Seventh Cavalry. He was a tailor by training and had made the buckskin jacket that Custer wore as he galloped to his final rendezvous with death. Finley also died in the battle. He was later found beside his dead mount Carlo. Man and horse had been shot full of arrows.
Privates Patrick Golden and Richard Farrell didn’t make it either. Golden was shot while firing from a shallow rifle pit on the bluff defended by Reno, and now also by the late-arriving Benteen who was in charge of pack mules and wagons. Farrell died in a ravine at the other end of the battlefield, close to where Custer went down.
Private Thomas Downing was 20-years-old but already the father of a child back in Iowa. He fancied soldiering over fatherhood. It was a bad choice. Attached to Myles Keogh’s Company 1, Downing was killed on Calhoun Hill, a position named after Lieutenant James Calhoun, Custer’s brother-in-law.
Sergeant Robert Hughes had the ultimately dubious honour of carrying Custer’s personal flag, or guidon. As such, he was a particularly prominent target whose fate was quickly sealed.
Some of the Irish could count on a little luck though.
Trooper Thomas O’Neill was cut off in the confusion following the failed Reno charge on the village. He hid in the groves of Cottonwood trees fringing the riverbank before managing to make his way up the bluff to Reno’s hilltop position after dark.
In all however, over 30 Irish-born members of the Seventh Cavalry perished, the most prominent being Keogh, who was later buried in upstate New York. There is irony in the encounter between Irishmen who had forsaken a land not theirs literally the case in the immediate post-famine years and the tribes of the American west who were being forced off the land they didn’t recognise ownership as a concept by the rapid encroachment of the white man. But few, if any, of the Irish at the Little Bighorn had time to consider mere irony as the agents of death, painted, screaming and angry, came riding at them, fast and head-on.
