Post by Diane Merkel on Aug 25, 2008 7:24:19 GMT -6
Thanks to Lee Noyes for passing along this message from John Doerner:
I just spoke with Tanya Hargrove, owner of the historic August 11, 1873 Custer Battlefield along with her husband Scott (406-342-5411), and due to illness in their family they will be forced to sell their historic ranch located across from the mouth of the Bighorn River at 56 Pease Bottom Road, Hysham, MT and site of the historic August 11, 1873 Custer Battlefield!
As many of you know, this was one of three epic clashes that year between Lt. Col. George A. Custer and eight Troops of his 7th Cavalry and Lakota Sioux in the Yellowstone River Valley of present day Montana during the 1873 Yellowstone Expedition. The 7th provided escort for the Northern Pacific Railroad Engineer's including Custer's former West Point Classmate Tom Rosser; in fact Custer's Kentucky thoroughbred horse King Bernadotte, a fast bay gelding that he had recently acquired that year, was the 11th horse shot and killed from under Custer during his military career here. Barrow, a newspaper correspondent wrote 12 years later:
"In a second [August 11, 1873] sharp battle which we had with the Indians on the Big Horn, his horse was shot under him, the eleventh horse that, during his experience had been stricken under him this way. He seemed to bear a charmed life. Fear was not an element in his nature. He exposed himself freely and recklessly. In our campaign on the Yellowstone, with his bright red shirt, he was the most conspicuous mark on the campaign. I protested against soliciting Indian bullets in this way but found an appeal to his wife more effective; and the next year the red shirt was exchanged for a buckskin suit."
Custer's Orderly John H. Tuttle, Company E, using Autie's .50/70 Springfield Sporting Rifle was killed during a heated long-range exchange of rifle fire at daybreak by warriors positioned on the south side of the Yellowstone River who ultimately crossed over above and below the command in great force estimated at approximately 1,000 at the time. Lt. Charles Braden was also severely wounded during the battle, along with several other troopers. Four horses were killed and eight or ten were wounded while Indian losses were estimated at the time to be forty killed and wounded along with a large number of ponies. Ultimately, Custer rallied the troops and pursued the Lakota over four miles upstream, severely demoralizing them and carried the day.
The Hargrove's would like to see the battlefield preserved and ultimately purchased for it's national significance, otherwise they will be forced to sell it on the open market by early next spring. This may be the one and only opportunity to act and preserve one of the most historic and best preserved Indian War Battlefield's on the Northern Plains; one that nearly sealed the fate of Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer, three years before Little Bighorn and played an important role in the "Road to Little Bighorn" involving many important leaders and participants of the Lakota Sioux (including Gall and Rain In The Face) who's fate was destined to clash in several important battles along the Yellowstone Valley with Lt. Col. G.A. Custer and his 7th Cavalry who had recently arrived in Dakota Territory from duty stations in the South during Post Civil War Reconstruction.
Ultimately, this important Battlefield could perhaps one day be included within the NPS system, (along with Rosebud Battlefield) and be administered by Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. LIBI already has the significant archeological collection collected from the site donated by Vance Haynes.
John A. Doerner
Chief Historian