June 25: Midnight to sunrise: Nearing the Rubicon

[fred]

This thread will examine the time-frame of midnight to 4:13 a.m., sunrise.

At 11 p.m., June 24, 1876, the Seventh Cavalry was readied to move from its short encampment near the Busby bend of the Rosebud. A night march was planned to bring the regiment near the Rosebud-Little Big Horn divide, a series of intermittant hills forming a north-south ridgeline.



Davis Creek. The bluffs are to the valley's north side. The creek flows from left to right and the Seventh Cavalry would have been moving right to left. You can see how easy the terrain is, so the only real difficulty that night appears to have been the darkness itself. That fact is interesting because reports from other columns to the south and east say there was ample moonlight. Clouds...?

Best wishes,
Fred.

[AZ Ranger]

Shavetails and Bell Sharps
The History of the U.S Army Mule
By Emmett M. Essin

"Around 2:00 AM 25 June, the seventh established camp but all of the scattered mules did not arrive for another two hours or more. Including the night march they had carried supplies for more than forty miles that day; yet they were not unpacked until sometime after daylight, something that should never have happened whether or not the Seventh needed fresh mules."

[crzhrs]

June 25:

Custer ordered another halt for coffee when a 2nd courier arrived with a
note that Varnum had seen smoke from the village. The colonel mounted a
horse and rode toward the Crow's Nest.

The first to notice Custer's soldiers appear to have been the Lakota &
Cheyenne scouts who arrived as the village was moving to the LBH the
previous day. They had been watching Crook and believed he was marching
away. The Indians were returning to their people when they saw Custer's
men on the Rosebud. Soon after they brought the news, several lodges of
Oglalas arrived. They were heading toward Red Cloud Agency when they had
seen the soldiers and decided to back to the village. Initially, the
people were alarmed but their leaders counseled a wait-and-see position.

The heads of both the Lakota & Cheyenne military societies summoned
their warriors and sent them out to patrol the hills. Groups of warriors
rode out to some 10 or 15 stations among the hills on both sides of the
river, cordoning off the camps.

Meanwhile many of the Indians were celebrating and visiting, but in some
of the Lakota camps a serious tone was taking hold. Several boys had
announced they wold take a suicide vow in the next battle and a ceremony
was taking place.

Most of the party and rituals ended at dawn with a parade to honor the
suicide boys. Many finally went to sleep.

Back at the Crow's Nest Varnum was having difficulties seeing anything,
let alone a village and thousands of horses. The Crows told him not to
look for horses, but worms, since that's how the herd appeared. Varnum
still could not see anything, but could see a tipi standing and another
partly wrecked, not to far form his position. He sent a courier to bring
Custer.

Meanwhile two Indians were sighted riding toward the command. Varnum
stated: "We watched them discover our column." As Varnum rode out to
meet Custer another group of Indians appeared and he could tell they
were watching the approaching 7th Cavalry.
_________

[crzhrs]

Going by Robinson again . . . could be on shaky ground though.

I'll double check to see if he referenced his account.

[crzhrs]

Robinson uses references at times, but some of the relevant accounts have no footnotes. Note sure if he is theorizing or can back up his account.

[erkki]

Sun transit is at 1213 MDT. Local time for sunrise is 4:22 MDT minus 13 minutes: 4:09 a.m.

[fred]

erkki--

Why 4:09 a.m. and not the generally accepted 4:13 a.m.? Is the latter incorrect or are we just being a little too picayune?

Best wishes, Fred.

[fred]

erkki--

While we are at it, how about nautical twilight at 2:44 a.m. and civil twilight at 3:34 a.m. Those are from Gray (I believe), but are often repeated. Are they accurate and if not, how far off.

Thanks and best wishes,
Fred.

[fred]

Gordie--

Pass.

Best wishes,
Fred.

[erkki]

Someone mentioned on this board that archaeologists found the site of the night/coffee halt which Gray calls 'halt 1'. Can anyone supply the source for that comment?

[erkki]

Harpskiddle answered Fred's question about my choice of 4:09 for sunrise. Regarding the onset of nautical and civil twilight, I'm not a mathematician and Gray certainly was; but he calculated those times so they're not based on MST. I have been on the divide on the last four moonless nights; unfortunately, this year June 25, 2007 at the Camp marker, the sky was overcast and you could see very little, if anything, at 4:00 local time. In 2003 & 2005, I could read a pocket watch like Wallace's at 2:40 and 2:45. In 2006, it was somewhat overcast, and I could not read it until 2:47. By 3:00 it was daylight--good enough to take a picture which I may be able to find one of these days--and visibility clear to the horizon. Certainly, by the onset of civil twilight which I calculate as 3:30 [3:43 MST- 13], you could hunt prairie dogs with good expectations of success. However, 4:09 is simply my starting time. From there, I use only known intervals of time, which means the itinerary adjusted by 1 hour, 15 minutes-- the actual time difference between HQ St. Paul time carried by the regiment, and local time.
That is based on sun transit at St. Paul at 11:58 and locally at 12:13=1 hour 15 minutes. I wouldn't use 3.997614 mph on a bet, because Army Regulations--even the ones that look just plain silly nitpicking--exist for a reason; and the regs specify the mph for gaits.

[fred]

erkki--

Just to keep the record straight, John Gray was not a mathematician. He was a medical doctor, having received his BS from Knox College, then a MS in physiology in 1934 and his PhD in 1936. He became an instructor at Northwestern that same year, and got his MD ten years later. He became the Chairman of the Northwestern University Physiology Department in '46, retiring in 1974. He wanted to go into biomedical research, but because of his various obligations, he went into American history instead, concentrating on the Indian Wars. Those were his only 2 books on the subject, though he wrote numerous articles. He moved to Fort Collins, CO, and died on Christmas Day, 1991.

Best wishes,
Fred.

[Gerry]

Pvt. Peter Thompson says,"When midnight came you may be sure we moved promptly. Each company had to lead its own pack mules; it was too dark to see to drive them, no moon, simply the faint starlight to guide us. We kept at a lively gait for three hours. As soon as the first faint streaks of daylight appeared, we moved into a grove where we were ordered to unsaddle and rest for several hours....No canvas was stretched for shelter as we knew our stay would be comparatively short.....This morning the soldiers were lying in every conceivable manner, when canvas was not stretched."