Post by WY Man on Jun 11, 2009 22:14:46 GMT -6
OK, this is the second time this evening to put together this message. I lost all of it before I could post it originally, and I had to retype it all. I found out the hard way that after you have finished your message, especially one with any length, and you are looking at it in "Preview," NEVER click on the "Back" button. You will lose all your text, and when you try to go forward, you will get a "Webpage has expired" message. At least copy it, so you can come back to it again if you lose it. Live and learn.
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Anyway, as you all know, Gen. George Crook's 2nd/3rd Cavalry engaged the same Indians at the Rosebud on June 17th, 1876, that Custer's 7th Cavalry would engage 8 days later on June 25th. Crook got his ass kicked all the way back to the Big Horn Mountains, and Custer got his ass rubbed out.
Crook retreated to the base of the mountains, at the headwaters of Goose Creek, just southwest of present-day Big Horn, Wyoming. This camp was named, "Camp Cloud Peak," by Crook's men. Here, the wounded men and horses from the Rosebud battle recuperated. This was one place where there was still green grass, and cool springs flowed from the base of the mountains. On the fateful day of June 25th, while Custer's men were being "rubbed out" at the Little Bighorn, Crook was up in the mountains on a grand fishing trip.
In the 1950s, a unique stone was plowed up on a ranch near Big Horn, Wyoming, on what proved to be the site of Crook's Camp Cloud Peak. For many years, people in the area had been finding parts of wagons, bottles, canteens, spent ammunition, etc., and it was thought to be the location of Crook's Camp Cloud Peak, but the discovery of this monument stone verified it.
The stone is inscribed, "CAMP CLOUDS PEAK, GOOSE CREEK, CROOK'S COM., JUNE 23, 1876." At the bottom of the stone are the names, "F. Grouard," and "B. Pourier." "F. Grouard" was Frank Grouard, and "B. Pourier" was Baptiste Pourier, both famous frontier scouts. Baptiste was generally known by the name "Big Bat." Pourier and Grouard were guides for General George Crook during the Indian campaign of 1876, in which George Custer's 7th Cavalry was crushed by the Sioux and Cheyenne. The inscription at the very bottom of the stone reads, "by Bat" and would indicate that it was Baptiste that carved this inscription. The date of the stone's inscription is just 48 short hours before Custer's historic defeat at the Little Bighorn! Crook's command was at that time camped just where this stone was found in 1954. On the sides and the back of this stone appear the following names, "Jim Bridger" (the famous mountain man), "Jim Moore," "Ute John," "W. F. Davis," "Bill Burgess," and "Old Sabastion, Army Packer."
The stone is today located in the Big Horn City Pioneer Museum, Big Horn, Wyoming.
Here is a photo of the location of present-day Camp Cloud Peak. It was by the fence in the foreground that the monument stone was found. On the hills just to the right of the trees shown on the left side of the photo, several bodies of men were buried, who died from wounds received at the Rosebud. Smoke from the forest fires of 2007 can be seen on the right side of the photo.
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Anyway, as you all know, Gen. George Crook's 2nd/3rd Cavalry engaged the same Indians at the Rosebud on June 17th, 1876, that Custer's 7th Cavalry would engage 8 days later on June 25th. Crook got his ass kicked all the way back to the Big Horn Mountains, and Custer got his ass rubbed out.
Crook retreated to the base of the mountains, at the headwaters of Goose Creek, just southwest of present-day Big Horn, Wyoming. This camp was named, "Camp Cloud Peak," by Crook's men. Here, the wounded men and horses from the Rosebud battle recuperated. This was one place where there was still green grass, and cool springs flowed from the base of the mountains. On the fateful day of June 25th, while Custer's men were being "rubbed out" at the Little Bighorn, Crook was up in the mountains on a grand fishing trip.
In the 1950s, a unique stone was plowed up on a ranch near Big Horn, Wyoming, on what proved to be the site of Crook's Camp Cloud Peak. For many years, people in the area had been finding parts of wagons, bottles, canteens, spent ammunition, etc., and it was thought to be the location of Crook's Camp Cloud Peak, but the discovery of this monument stone verified it.
The stone is inscribed, "CAMP CLOUDS PEAK, GOOSE CREEK, CROOK'S COM., JUNE 23, 1876." At the bottom of the stone are the names, "F. Grouard," and "B. Pourier." "F. Grouard" was Frank Grouard, and "B. Pourier" was Baptiste Pourier, both famous frontier scouts. Baptiste was generally known by the name "Big Bat." Pourier and Grouard were guides for General George Crook during the Indian campaign of 1876, in which George Custer's 7th Cavalry was crushed by the Sioux and Cheyenne. The inscription at the very bottom of the stone reads, "by Bat" and would indicate that it was Baptiste that carved this inscription. The date of the stone's inscription is just 48 short hours before Custer's historic defeat at the Little Bighorn! Crook's command was at that time camped just where this stone was found in 1954. On the sides and the back of this stone appear the following names, "Jim Bridger" (the famous mountain man), "Jim Moore," "Ute John," "W. F. Davis," "Bill Burgess," and "Old Sabastion, Army Packer."
The stone is today located in the Big Horn City Pioneer Museum, Big Horn, Wyoming.
Here is a photo of the location of present-day Camp Cloud Peak. It was by the fence in the foreground that the monument stone was found. On the hills just to the right of the trees shown on the left side of the photo, several bodies of men were buried, who died from wounds received at the Rosebud. Smoke from the forest fires of 2007 can be seen on the right side of the photo.
