|
Post by Dark Cloud on Aug 28, 2009 15:58:51 GMT -6
It's Martin's testimony at the RCOI discussing the period before he left Custer with the note. And, despite stone location, all the testimony has Reed and Boston hundreds of yards from TWC and Custer atop the LSH.
|
|
|
Post by WY Man on Aug 29, 2009 12:09:14 GMT -6
At the RCOI, the exact words of Martin are the following:
(Questions by Major Reno, Reno Court of Inquiry, edited by Ronald Nichols, p. 398)
Q. Who was with General Custer at that time on the hill? A. His brother and his nephew.
***
Brother. Singular. I am guessing that the reference is to Tom Custer. However, Darkcloud, you are right that Martin does not refer to meeting Boston in the RCOI. I had to get the volume out and check the testimony to see for sure. I believe it is in the Walter Camp correspondence somewhere. Anyway, I think one needs to be careful in making an assumption that just because Martin didn't mention it at RCOI, that he made it up later. The strong impression I get about Martin in the RCOI testimony is that he didn't volunteer any information unless he was specifically asked, or asked in context of the questioning to elaborate further.
In one place during the testimony, Martin states that on his dispatch to Benteen, that he noticed Reno's batallion engaged in the bottom of the valley. He says, "I paid no further attention to it but went forward on my business." Then, Martin is asked by the recorder, (p. 390) when he met up with Benteen, whether he said anything to Benteen about Major Reno's batallion being engaged. Martin replied, "No, sir."
Q. Why not? A. He asked no question about it."
Questioning about whether Martin saw anybody else on his way to Benteen never came up during the inquiry, and Martin didn't say anything except direct answers to the questioning.
|
|
|
Post by Dark Cloud on Aug 29, 2009 14:33:46 GMT -6
On the University of Wisconsin site ( digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/History/History-idx?type=turn&entity=History.Reno.p0372&id=History.Reno&isize=M) it's plural. We hashed this over before, and based upon what could be a typo either way, in and of itself isn't proof of anything. Graham, however, newly in possession of both Martin and this tale along with the note, had reason to correct it to singular since the story, once told, became hardwired into every retelling, no queries as to why it hadn't appeared before. But, there is the rest. The very next question is: "Were those all round him at that time?" Not 'both,' but 'those all....' Again, not conclusive, but it makes more sense for more than two. Martin had been previously asked if he'd been told he'd meet someone on the way, and he said no, a precise answer to that question. Lee may have been angling for "Reno" or anyone, but if Martin had met Boston, and Lee knew it, there is no way in hell that would be allowed to pass unremarked, since it could be used to imply if Boston made it, so could everyone else then under the command of Reno. It would have been all over the Custer friendly papers as well, before and then, but it never appears for years till Camp. In the RCOI, it's Benteen that informs Martin, in Martin's testimony, his horse isn't just rather tired but shot. This conforms to Benteen's story at the RCOI regarding this incident, which doesn't do squat one way or the other for Benteen. Later, though, it's Boston in his Guest Cameo who so informs him. Later again, the story grants the honor back to Benteen. Somewhere in there, the Indians appeared right behind Martin as they sprung their trap, waving blankets. That ain't there at the RCOI either, and would have precluded Boston's appearence much further north. The reasons Martin wouldn't chat away to a superior officer on a battlefield - if true, but exhausted and reasonably terrified might explain it - bears no application to the RCOI, where Benteen was allowed to blather on as he saw fit, dragging red meat in front of Lee, who declined to engage. In any case, what Martin saw of Reno's activities may not have been clear one way or the other unless he'd stopped and studied it, an unlikely event. People likely forgot exactly what they had testified since the official transcripts were kept secret for a long while. Newspaper accounts could have been accurate or not, but they didn't count till validated or approved by whoever. And nobody imagined the future interest that eventually subsumed the LBH.
|
|